Bonald, Louis Gabriel Ambroise

Bonald, Louis Gabriel Ambroise 

Born Oct. 2, 1754; died Nov. 23, 1840. French political figure and publicist. Philosophical idealist.

Bonald was in the army of the prince de Condé, which fought against the French Revolution. After the Restoration of the Bourbons (1814), he was one of the leaders of the Ultra-Royalists in the Chamber of Deputies. The Revolution of 1830 put an end to his political activity.

In his principal work, The Theory of Political and Religious Power in Civil Society (1796), Bonald polemized fiercely from an extremely clerical point of view against the philosophy of the French Enlightenment. In opposition to the theory of the social contract, he defended the idea of the divine origin of monarchy as the best form of government, proceeding from the very nature of man. Bonald believed that stable traditions, especially Christianity, were the foundation of spiritual life and the social order. Bonald’s opinions were called traditionalism.

WORKS

Oeuvres complètes . . . , vols. 1–3. Paris, 1859.

REFERENCES

Istoriia filosofii, vol. 3 [Moscow] 1943. Pages 383–88.
Bonald, V. M. E. de. De la vie et des écrits de M. le vicomte de Bonald. Avignon, 1853.
Moulinié, H. De Bonald: La vie, la corriere politique, la doctrine. Paris, 1916.

L. I. GERMAN