February 15th 1781,
Jacques
Necker, the finance minister to the king, published the Compte rendu au roi, an
official document presenting the state of France’s finances. The legitimacy of its proclamation regarding
the debt situation is questionable. It is
impossible to conceive that France, a country involved in many wars and heavy
fiscal expenditures, is not spending its profits more than its decreasingly
productive slaves can create. The
mathematics behind it is astounding, and I should know regardless of the news
of my early retirement. Necker still
remains popular, and I guess that is the entire purpose of its production,
confidence in the ever weakening government.
This action continues to keep me increasingly skeptical regarding the
outcome of rational political maneuvering and the government’s policies. The justifications for rational political
calculations seem to be absent political accountability when irrationally
assuming the reliability of a single political body. However, this problem is not unsolvable; it
can be best combated by abolishing the system of unchecked monarchy and
embracing a period of separation of powers under a system requiring the
delegation of regional and jurisdictional control. Until such a political system is created,
however, we will see the abolishing of respect for church practices, varying
interest in the welfare of the people, and death to the very mechanical and law
practices I hold dear. Principles whose
expansion and discovery will allow me to be elected a Foreign Honorary Member
of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences this year. Mathematics have propelled me through many
other prestigious academies, none of which match the prestige and honor
associated with the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. My introduction in the Preliminary Discourse to the Encyclopedia
of Diderot should undoubtedly
increase my chances, along with Traité de
dynamique, my finest
decipher of the laws of motion and the complexity of fluid dynamics. Involvement with Diderot, however, created a
confrontation with me and members of the Geneva clergy, who seem to move
instinctively towards a more radical position of socinianism. The Pastors of Geneva answered my claims with
a committee; this will lead to much pressure and a review of my findings of
which I excused any negative connotation.
However, my Preliminary Discourse did prove inspirational and
helpful to Revolutionary Theorists that have read my work and realized
its expanding criticism of unchecked, rationalist, policies. In France Oppression does exist, murder does
exist, it is human nature to desire what another has exclusive possession over,
and to violate another’s inalienable right to such a possession. I have expressed the spirit of an
intellectual and emotional revolution in France. I gave power back to the disenfranchised people,
who have had their rights, life, and soul stripped from them and devoured. Its entrance into the encyclopedia aided its popularity
as well as its promotion of the impact of the arts and sciences on the healing
process. My writing is the basis, the
unique basis for a declaration of principles representing the views of men of
letters who knew that their efforts would contribute to the progress of
humanity. Men of principle, men such as
Francis Bacon, who once dreamed of the co-existence of scholars driven by
common educational value, but could not hope for this revolution to
materialize. Even men I have learned to
despise, men such as Descartes, who seeks truth through isolated intelligence
in a time of cognitivist thinking embodied in his book Discourse on Method.
Hopefully I am able to influence the divergence in the common erudite
and professional activities of closeted savants of today’s scholarly
societies. This is my purpose, this is
my goal, this is my reality, the very purpose I joined these freelancing
societies and loosely banded organizations.
Encyclopedia will spawn an awareness, an awareness that will realize the
power of human intelligence and its impact on the decisions of unaccountable
monarchs. Men of letters, men of
principle, men of the revolution are the prime movers of the indefinite
progress achievable by this world. Our
social function will bring people from isolation, such as Descartes, and bring
them into the affairs of the world, affairs that need solving using the complex
intellectual ability of science and analytical mathematics. Our ever increasing power now demands reform,
it demands our recognition in the face of the King with justice, liberty,
equality, and fraternity as witness, it demands our freedom. We will push this world into the greatest
technological advancement it has ever seen, we are the intellectual backing of
society, and we control the outcome, the power.
What do you control?
Works cited
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Adcock, M. (2004). Analysing the French Revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press
Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter A. American Academy of Arts and Science |
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d'Alembert, Jean Le Rond. Preliminary Discourse to the Encyclodpedia of Diderot. Trans.
Richard N. Schwab. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1995.
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Hankins, T.L. (1990). Jean d'Alembert: Science and the Enlightenment. p. 26
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