Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel, comte de Tocqueville
1805-1859 · Liberalism · Renowned
A French aristocrat who sat as a deputy, Tocqueville took the levelling of ranks as a providential fact, decreed by God and past any human power to stop, then asked only whether it would end in freedom or servitude. He named two new dangers: a majority that tyrannises opinion instead of bodies, and a mild caretaker power that keeps grown men in permanent childhood. His remedies were local self-government, association and an independent judiciary. He also argued for conquering Algeria.
Signature
The position Tocqueville is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Polity
- mildly leans Liberalism
- Highest Good
- Freedom
Positions on the 6 axes the sources answer
- Meaning
- strongly leans Inherent (90 on a 0–100 scale from Constructed to Inherent)
- Order
- mildly between Vertical and Horizontal (42 on a 0–100 scale from Vertical to Horizontal)
- Nature of Reality
- leans Multiplicity (75 on a 0–100 scale from Unity to Multiplicity)
- Ground of Being
- leans Transcendence (81 on a 0–100 scale from Immanence to Transcendence)
- Polity
- mildly leans Liberalism (67 on a 0–100 scale from Illiberalism to Liberalism)
- Ignorance
- leans Bliss (75 on a 0–100 scale from Bondage to Bliss)
14 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Tocqueville refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Other
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Highest Good
- Freedom
What is the highest good? - Agency
- Compatibilism / Divine Providence
What is the nature of human agency and freedom? - Time
- Linear Progressive
What is the fundamental shape of time? - Authority
- Consent of the Governed
What is the legitimate source of authority?