7 Reception and Influence of the Philosophie Sociale [chapter]

2022 Moses Dobruska and the Invention of Social Philosophy  
It is now time to analyze how the Philosophie sociale has been received by contemporaries, and up to the present day, and what influence it has had, in particular, on social philosophers and sociologists. Despite having aroused a certain amount of interest between the end of the eighteenth century and the first decades of the nineteenth century in the revolutionary circles and among the liberal Enlightenment thinkers, Dobruska's Philosophie was largely forgotten in the twentieth century. It
more » ... be said that the diffusion of the text had been hindered by several factors, first among them the fate of the author, imprisoned a few months after publication, with the infamous accusation of having conspired against the revolution. After Dobruska's death at the guillotine in April 1794, even his book, published anonymously, found cautious readers only, not inclined to remember a thinker who had fallen into political disgrace. However, the book was read with interest, as demonstrated by the fact that it was reprinted, in an edition that until now had escaped the attention of scholars, with the sole exception of the Italian historian Luciano Guerci. 356 In 1797, the Philosophie sociale was printed by Moutardier in Paris, with a new frontispiece. It was no longer dedicated au peuple françois (French people), but with a new and more universalistic inspiration, à tous les peuples, par un citoyen de tout pays. 357 One wonders who promoted this publication, indeed if it could have been someone related to the family circle to which Dobruska had turned in his "will" on the eve of the execution. 358 Or was the initiative to circulate the book due to some
doi:10.1515/9783110758825-007 fatcat:uufvt5zfrjar5bsdrbsbwgztfy