Two Aspects of the Enlightenment

In his book The Beginning of Infinity, David Deutsch notes a distinction in the Enlightenment as it developed on the European continent (continental) and in the British Isles.

"The Continental Enlightenment understood that problems are soluble but not that they are inevitable, while the British Enlightenment understood both equally." *

He goes on to say that this is not a geographic or national distinction.  A French thinker might hew toward the British version, or vice-versa.

This distinction helps explain some fundamental differences between the political institutions of Europe and America.  The U.S. was founded on the principle that imperfect people are the government. The Bill of Rights, the first Amendments to the Constitution, are largely proscriptive and concrete, specifying what the institutions of government can NOT do. 

The French Declaration of Rights ^ is largely prescriptive and conceptual, enumerating  the responsibilities of the law to the citizens and the citizens to the law.  The nation is a perfectible union of the people. There are few safeguards against government abuse enumerated in the French Constitution of 1793 #

Democratic governments are prone to several sins which undermine or suppress the rights of the citizens:  the tyranny of the group over the individual, the tyranny of the majority over the minority, and that this tension is inevitable and persistent so that structural safeguards must be in place to protect both the individual and minorities.


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* Deutsch, David. The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World. New York: Viking, 2011. 66. Print.

^ http://www1.curriculum.edu.au/ddunits/downloads/pdf/dec_of_rights.pdf, retreived Jan. 18, 2015

# http://oll.libertyfund.org/pages/1793-french-republic-constitution-of-1793, retrieved Jan. 19, 2015