Public Commitment and Political Philosophy

The Case of the Encyclopédie and Political Economy in the 18th Century

Abstract

This article explores the tensions and possibilities of public philosophy through the lens of the Encyclopédie and its treatment of political economy in eighteenth-century France. Situating the Encyclopédie within the broader context of Enlightenment thought, it examines how philosophy navigated the risks of ideological distortion, epistemological abstraction, and social inaccessibility in order to become a truly public and politically engaged discourse. The article contrasts two competing epistemological models present within the Encyclopédie: a practical, egalitarian approach rooted in empirical observation and vernacular knowledge, and a technocratic model exemplified by the physiocratic vision of the “political economy” by François Quesnay. Ultimately, it shows that the category of rural economy—very often marginalized in studies of the eighteenth century—represented a competing model to the later developments of classical (political) economy. Grounded in an egalitarian conception of knowledge, this category produces an alternative discourse on the relationship between human beings and nature. Today, this discourse offers a possible direction for rethinking the philosopher’s engagement with contemporary crises.