The French Revolution and its Aftermath: Left and Right

The French Revolution was not just a historical occurrence but an event with a reputation for inaugurating modernity and splitting history into two. As such, it had both practical and philosophical consequences, generating an intellectual legacy that remains deeply relevant even today, including key political concepts like “nation,” “representative democracy,” and the categories of “Left” and “Right.” For the Right, the French Revolution is perhaps the primary evil of political history, having inverted the naturally ordained social order. For the Left, from Jacobins to Marxists to contemporary liberals, the Revolution is similarly central, a decisive breakthrough for the principle of popular sovereignty. How can we understand the French Revolution as a site of continued political and philosophical contestation? What is its role in shaping contemporary constitutional democracy and philosophies of subjectivity? What is the place of the French Revolution in our political imagination? Is there a need to reinvent the French Revolution—or, indeed, the concept of revolution itself?

In this course, we will explore the intellectual legacy of the French Revolution. We will begin by examining the Revolution as an event—its context, narrative sequence, and the animating ideas of its actors. How can we understand concepts and episodes such as constituent power, democratic terror, and the birth of modern conservatism? Next, we’ll inquire into the Revolution’s reception in Western and global thought, from German Idealism to anti- and decolonial theory. We’ll also examine the Revolution in its relationship to Marxism, not least the thorny question of “bourgeois revolution” and the history of capitalism. And finally, we’ll look at postwar treatments of the Revolution, including the reinvention of revolution as a recurring instance of constituent power. Readings will be drawn from works by Maximilien Robespierre, Joseph de Maistre, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Hölderlin, G.F.W. Hegel, Karl Marx, Rosa Luxemburg, Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt, Regis Debray, Jacques Ranciere, Alain Badiou, Susan Buck-Morss, and Artemy Magun.