Joseph de Maistre

Joseph de Maistre
de Maistre by von Vogelstein
Born(1753-04-01)1 April 1753
Chambéry, Kingdom of Sardinia
Died26 February 1821(1821-02-26) (aged 67)
Turin, Kingdom of Sardinia
Philosophical work
Era18th-century philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
School
Main interests
  • Political philosophy
  • Political theology
  • Political Catholicism
Notable works
  • Considerations on France
    On the Pope
    St Petersburg Dialogues
Notable ideas
  • Providentialism
  • Necessity of sacrifice
  • Legitimacy of authority
  • Legitimacy of tradition

Joseph Marie, comte de Maistre[a] (1 April 1753 – 26 February 1821)[1] was a Savoyard lawyer, diplomat, and political philosopher. He is chiefly remembered as one of the intellectual forefathers of modern conservatism, noted for his advocacy of social hierarchy and monarchy in the period immediately following the French Revolution.[2] French by language and culture,[3] Maistre was nonetheless a subject of the King of Piedmont–Sardinia, whom he served in various government positions, including stints in the Savoy Senate (1787–1792), as ambassador to the Russian Empire (1803–1817),[4] and as minister of state to the court in Turin (1817–1821).[b]

A key figure of the Counter-Enlightenment and a precursor of Romanticism,[5] Maistre regarded monarchy both as a divinely sanctioned institution and as the only stable form of government.[6] Maistre argued that the rationalist rejection of Christianity was directly responsible for the Reign of Terror and the chaos that followed the Revolution of 1789 in France.[7][8] He therefore called for the restoration of the House of Bourbon to the throne of France and for the ultimate authority of the Pope in both spiritual and temporal matters.


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  1. ^ "Joseph de Maistre". Encyclopædia Britannica.
  2. ^ Beum, Robert (1997). "Ultra-Royalism Revisited". Modern Age. 39 (3): 305.
  3. ^ Glaudes, Pierre (2007). "Avant-propos". Œuvres de Joseph de Maistre (in French). Paris: Robert Laffont. pp. 1–6. ISBN 978-2-221-09543-0.
  4. ^ "Joseph de Maistre". The Dublin Review. Vol. XXXIII. 1852.
  5. ^ Masseau, Didier (2000). Les Ennemis des Philosophes. Editions Albin Michel.
  6. ^ Alibert, Jacques (1992). Joseph de Maistre, Etat et Religion. Paris.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. ^ Lebrun, Richard (1989). "The Satanic Revolution: Joseph de Maistre's Religious Judgment of the French Revolution". Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Western Society for French History. 16: 234–240.
  8. ^ Garrard, Graeme (1996). "Joseph de Maistre's Civilization and its Discontents". Journal of the History of Ideas. 57 (3): 429–446.