Alexis de Tocqueville Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Pierre Manent

Critical Essay by Pierre Manent

SOURCE: "Democratic Man," in Tocqueville and the Nature of Democracy, translated by John Waggoner Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1996, pp. 53-65.

Manent is one of many French writers showing a renewed interest in Tocqueville after a long period of neglect. In the following chapter, he analyzes the various traits of the democratic man as described by Tocqueville.

Thus, the man of democratic societies, encountering and only wanting to encounter around him equal and similar individuals, does not submit to the influence of others. He searches in himself for his opinions, but he finds them there or recognizes them only if he also sees them in his fellow men, only if they are authorized by common opinion and maintained by all the force of social power. His thoughts readily lead him to abstractions, while his heart willingly opens itself to pity. He is rational, compassionate, and soft. But reasoning and...
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