Joseph de Maistre had without doubt that the basis reasons of the French Revolution have been highbrow and ideological. The degeneration of its first substantial hopes into the Reign of Terror was once no longer the results of a ruthless festival for strength or of clients of struggle. He echoed Voltaire's boast that "books did it all." The philosophers of the Enlightenment have been the architects of the hot regimes; and the shadow among progressive inspiration and social truth might be traced on to a deadly flaw of their thought.De Maistre asserts that society is the product, no longer of men's wide awake choice, yet in their instinctive make-up. either background and primitive societies illustrate men's gravitation towards a few type of communal existence. given that govt is during this feel usual, it could now not legitimately be denied, revoked, or perhaps disobeyed by means of the folks. Sovereignty isn't the made from the deliberation or the desire of the folk; it's a divinely bestowed authority equipped to not man's needs yet to his needs.The French Revolution to de Maistre's brain was once little greater than the growth, conversion, satisfaction, and consequent ethical corruption of the philosophers. It differs in essence from all past political revolutions, discovering a parallel in simple terms within the biblical riot opposed to heaven. those sentiments are the passionate and awe-inspired language of 1 who sees the political struggles of his time on a massive and cosmic scale, judges occasions sub specie aeternitatis (under the element of eternity), and appears on revolution and counter-revolution as a conflict for the soul of humanity. The strength of this vintage quantity nonetheless resonates in present-day ideological struggles.