“Saint-Just and His Anti-Political Republic”

Abstract

This paper examines Saint-Just’s unfinished manuscript “De la nature,” analyzing its arguments and his concept of a natural society. Saint-Just considered the restoration of a community rooted in human nature as an unresolved task of the French Revolution. He wrote “De la nature” to define an archetype of human relationships in the state of nature. In this manuscript, he distinctly contrasted political society with the state of nature and described the latter as an ideal community formed through innate sociability and emotional bonds sustained by individual independence. He constructed this vision based on his distinctive interpretation of the terminology of political thought and political economy. By idealizing a primitive community rooted in human nature, Saint-Just sought to challenge the prevailing discourses of political thought and political economy, positing the state of nature as the archetype for an ideal society. This vision rejects all relations based on force within the community and aims for self-governance in accordance with nature. Through this vision, he argued for what could be described as an anti-political conception of a republican community.