Joseph de Maistre: A Catholic Humanist Interpreter of the French Revolution and Modernity

This study attempts to synthesize Joseph de Maistre's historical (and political) reflections on a phenomenon as momentous as the French Revolution. Although not a professional historian or philosopher, Maistre's merit lies in integrating his interpretation of the French Revolution within the broader framework of cultural transformations (particularly those of a moral and epistemological nature) that underpinned it: the Protestant Reformation and the Enlightenment. José Miguel Nanni Soares seeks to demonstrate that the Savoyard Count's reaction to the Enlightenment-revolutionary project not only aligns with contemporary interpretations of the genesis of the modern world but also, despite his vehement defense of the system of authority (monarchy as a political regime and Catholicism as a spiritual authority), his traditionalism did not lead to a mere desire for a straightforward restoration of the Ancien Régime. Paradoxically, his thought was informed by humanist and rationalist premises.