François-Noël Babeuf
François-Noël Babeuf | |
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François-Noël "Gracchus" Babeuf | |
| Born | 23 November 1760 |
| Died | 27 May 1797 (aged 36) Vendôme, France |
| Cause of death | Execution by guillotine |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | 18th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western Philosophy |
| School | Utopian socialism |
| Main interests | Political philosophy |
| Signature | |
| Part of a series on |
| Socialism |
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François-Noël Babeuf (French pronunciation: [fʁɑ̃swa nɔɛl babœf]; 23 November 1760 – 27 May 1797), also known as Gracchus Babeuf,[3] was a French proto-communist, revolutionary, and journalist of the French Revolutionary period.[4] His newspaper Le tribun du peuple (The Tribune of the People) was best known for its advocacy for the poor and calling for a popular revolt against the Directory, the government of France. He was a leading advocate for democracy and the abolition of private property. He made his own variant of Jacobinism (Robespierrism) which is called Neo-Jacobinism.[5][6] Besides the influence of Robespierrism on his thought, due to his proto-communism, his political views were more aligned with the ideology of the Enragés. He angered the authorities who were clamping down hard on their radical enemies. In spite of the efforts of his Jacobin friends to save him, Babeuf was executed for his role in the Conspiracy of the Equals.
The nickname "Gracchus" likened him to the Gracchi brothers, who served as tribunes of the people in ancient Rome. Although the terms anarchist, communist and socialist were not largely used in Babeuf's lifetime, they have all been used by later scholars to describe his ideas. Communism was first used in English by John Goodwyn Barmby in a conversation with those he described as the "disciples of Babeuf".[7] He has been called "The First Revolutionary Communist."[8]
About his political philosophy, Babeuf wrote: "Society must be made to operate in such a way that it eradicates once and for all the desire of a man to become richer, or wiser, or more powerful than others."[9] In the Manifesto of the Equals, a piece of writing commissioned by Babeuf, Sylvain Maréchal wrote that "[the] French Revolution [was] nothing but a precursor of another revolution, one that will be greater, more solemn, and which will be the last."[10]
- ^ "Babeuf's Defense (From the Trial at Vendôme, February-May 1797)".
[Y]ou accuse them of not having prevented the corrupting books of a Mably, a Helvétius, a Diderot, or of a Jean Jacques Rousseau, from falling into my bands. All those who govern should be considered responsible for the evils that they do not prevent. Philanthropists of today! It is above all to you that I address myself. It is because of these philosophical poisons that I am lost. Without them, I would perhaps have had your morality, your virtues. Like you, I would have detested brigandage and the overthrow of the existing social institutions above all things; I would have had the tenderest solicitude for the small number of powerful men of this world; I would have been pitiless toward the suffering multitude. But no, I will not repent of having been educated at the school of the celebrated men whom I have just named. I will not blaspheme against them, or become an apostate against their dogmas. If the axe must fall upon my neck, the lictor will find me ready. It is good to perish for the sake of virtue.
- ^ R. B. Rose, Gracchus Babeuf, The First Revolutionary Communist (California: Stanford, 1978), pp. 32 and 332.
- ^ EB (1878).
- ^ Weatherly, Ulysses G. (1907). "Babeuf's Place in the History of Socialism". Publications of the American Economic Association. 8 (1): 113–124. ISSN 1049-7498. JSTOR 2999898.
- ^ Furet, François; Ozouf, Mona (1989). A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-17728-4.
- ^ "1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Jacobins, the - Wikisource, the free online library".
- ^ Harper, Douglas. "communist". Online Etymology Dictionary.
- ^ R. B. Rose, Gracchus Babeuf: The First Revolutionary Communist (1978)
- ^ The defense of Gracchus Babeuf before the High Court of Vendôme, University of Massachusetts Press, 1967, p. 57.
- ^ Manifesto of the Equals Full text of trans. by Mitchell Abidor.