True revolution never occurred: the anarchic tendency in Sylvain Marechal's philosophy

The article analyzes the socially-oriented worldview of Sylvain Marechal, one of the Enlightenment thinkers, who took an active role in the events of the French Revolution. A disciple of Rousseau, a member of the National Guard, a journalist, and an active participant of the Conspiracy of the Equals, Marechal gained popularity thanks to his attacks on royal power and the church. He placed the law code above the personality of a monarch. Exposing luxury, clericalism, and political arbitrariness, he evolved from republicanism to a specific form of anarchism. His philosophy of history is built around the idea of a Golden Age. Following nature, limited to peaceful activities, people were happy at that time. The creation of a state, according to Marechal, undermined this freedom. Vices bloom, virtue expels. He associated the well-being of humanity with a return to the past, to its natural state. From his point of view, although the French Revolution overthrew the monarchy, it did not bring real equality or abolish the division into servants and gentlemen. Therefore, a genuine revolution that returns freedom to people is still ahead. Marechal’s philosophy of history draws on the atheistic concept of being. Like other representatives of the Enlightenment, Marechal opposed despotism, fanaticism, and prejudice. But, unlike most of them, he discarded the theory of social contract. The principle of following nature in his doctrine receives a new meaning, contrasting with that of Rousseau. Transformed by the experience of the completed revolution, the Enlightenment heritage receives a new interpretation in Marechal’s philosophy: intending to offer a deeper understanding of equality, he radicalizes the ideas of the recent past.