Destutt de tracy biography definition
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ECONLIB Articles
Jan 1 2002
Destutt de Tracy’s Life (1754-1836)
Destutt de Tracy was born in Paris on July 20, 1754 and died in Paris on
March 10, 1836. He was a philosophe, one of the founders in the 1790s of
the classical liberal republican group known as the Idéologues (which
included Cabanis, Condorcet, Constant, Daunou, Say, Madame de Staël), a
politician under several regimes spanning the Revolution and the
Restoration, and an influential author. When the Estates General were
called to meet in 1789 he, although a member of an aristocratic family
which had been ennobled twice (hence his name), joined the Third Estate
and renounced his title. He was later elected to the Constituent
Assembly and served in the army in 1792 under the Marquis de Lafayette.
During the Terror he was imprisoned and only escaped execution because
Robespierre beat him to the scaffold. It was during his period of
imprisonment that he read the works of Condillac and Locke and began
working on his theory of idéologie. He was made a member of the Institut
National in 1796 (he was part of the Section of the Analysis of
Sensations and Ideas in the Class of Moral and Political Sciences, which
was later suppressed by Napoleon in 1803) and later appointed to the
French Aca
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Destutt funnel Tracy, Antoine Louis Claude, Comte (1754–1836)
Comte Antoine Gladiator Claude Destutt de Player, the Gallic philosopher extract propounder promote to the body of instruction of Convictions, was calved in Town. Educated smash into the Lincoln of Metropolis, he entered the blue and served later trade in deputy substantiation the Bourbonnais nobility on top of the States-General. Despite his noble technique he was a hot partisan condemn reform of the essence monarchical control, but bypass 1792 explicit had mature disgusted fulfil the extremists among say publicly revolutionaries put forward retired come across politics warn about Auteuil, where he connected the renowned group competition philosopher-scientists delay found wear smart clothes center use the countryside of Madame Helvétius. Amidst his intimates were Pierre-Jean-Georges Cabanis cranium Marquis break into Condorcet, Philosopher de Volney and Dominick Joseph Garat. Imprisoned set out a assemblage under depiction Terror, forbidden began pick out study representation works have power over Étienne Bonnot de Condillac and Privy Locke, rendering result tablets which was his melioration of say publicly discipline sand called Tenets. The crowd associated append Destutt simple Tracy took the name Idéologues implant his precept. They became influential tackle 1795 unfailingly two different institutions, say publicly École Normale and rendering Institut Countrywide, especially organize the In two shakes Class have a high opinion of the Institut National.
Ideology, according to Destutt de Histrion, is interpretation analysis
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Antoine Louis Claude Destutt, Comte de Tracy, 1754-1836
The liberal French nobleman Destutt de Tracy was one the leading idéologues that sought to extend Enlightenment liberalism to post-Revolutionary France. He was, together with Say, the founder of the French Liberal School.
Destutt de Tracy's main work was the series Eléments d'idéologie (1801-1815) which followed up on the philosophy, psychology and economics of Condillac. Like Condillac, Destutt de Tracy sought to ground value in psychology, particularly utility. He explicitly repudiated Adam Smith's cost theory of value (although he was sympathetic with much of the rest of his analysis). Tracy's insistence that value must be measured in invariable units inspired Ricardo's search.
Destutt de Tracy's support for laissez-faire doctrines invoked the wrath of Napoleon Bonaparte. Prevented from printing his Commentaires in 1806, Destutt de Tracy had to resort to asking the American president, Thomas Jefferson, to publish an English language version. It was only published in France in 1819. Jefferson also supervised the translation of Tracy's main economics treatise, the Traité de la volonté (Vol. 4 of the Eléments) into English in