In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

3 From Faith to Hope beyond satisfaction: optimism as possibility Correctly understood, Jefferson’s most interesting optimism was a mode of hope, not certainty. The precritical optimism discussed in the previous chapter was accompanied, in Jefferson’s writing, by a critical optimism, an optimism that was at once thoughtful and problematic. The present chapter is devoted to a lengthy study of hope as opposed to assured faith. Jefferson’s famous optimism is considered in a way that permits the Enlightenment’s dualism, tensions, and disharmonies to emerge. To state the issue in a slightly “poetic” way, in Jefferson’s critical optimism rational energy begins to face its enemy. Jefferson’s unabated version of optimism stemmed from the certainty that the unconditioned (call it nature, moral sense, reason, or natural law) had arrived on the stage of history as the true protagonist, and “uncreative” history, injustice, bigotry, and privileges had been, or were going to be, defeated. According to his critical optimism, however, this result required effort. We have reasons to be optimistic, Jefferson repeatedly averred. Nonetheless, the good outcome was more often seen as a reward to be earned than as just a blessing gratuitously lavished on the new republic. Despite his satisfaction and selfsatisfaction , Jefferson put emphasis on the fact that the original night might regain its primacy. Jefferson’s optimism hinged repeatedly on the doctrine that a vigilant people would act like a warning to the rulers. “The good sense of the people,” he used to say, “will always be found to be the best army” against repression, violence, and tyrannical governments. Invoking this good sense did not mean, for Jefferson, that a natural wisdom was abundantly distributed among the uncultivated—despite his frequent recourse to the rhetoric of natural law. The unstated implication of such an optimistic discourse was that wisdom and right judgment among the common people were artificial tempers to be nurtured by education and information rather than a natural asset shared by the whole populace. Time and again, Jefferson made clear that the unconditioned needed nothing less than “the best army” for its defense, and that “the best army,” in turn, needed to be cultivated and defended.1 • • • • 2 From Faith to Hope 57 Jefferson’s critical optimism thus spoke of very precarious possibilities. This last point is exceedingly important, though generally overlooked by scholars. Despite the vast amount of literature on the subject, when we listen to someone addressing the question of Jefferson as an optimistic philosopher, or more generally addressing the nature of the Enlightenment, we are too often driven toward a facile equation of Enlightenment with some rationalistic belief that the world, or at least the American world, would be the best among all the possible ones. We are often told that the Enlightenment meant a culture of confidence and optimism, which is undeniably true, that satisfaction was absolute, which is undeniably false, and that no further analysis is required. We are frequently lured by the temptation to consider the Enlightenment as promoting the belief that reason, truth, and similar concrete ideals abounded. Quite the reverse. Enlightenment has never been a culture of abundance. It is true that Jefferson was a steadfast devotee of the Enlightenment, but Enlightenment, to a large extent, was a form of desire, an attempt, a venture, and an effort. As such, it looked away from once-and-for-all principles, rationalism , abstract reasoning, and the satisfied sense of imminent victory, which are the spring of any precritical optimism. The language of the Enlightenment was not so much a language of optimism malgré the world, but rather a humanistic language of patience, fortitude, and possibility and a challenge to improve the world step by step. Jefferson’s version of enlightened optimism was actually a meliorism, nurtured by those encouraging signals that had been gathered since the closing of the Revolution. His version of the Enlightenment was a conditional language of possibility speaking of a reward reserved for the intelligent, the patriotic, the virtuous, and the deserving. Anxiety and precariousness were not defeated. Jefferson had optimism, but his optimism stemmed, sometimes, from a sense of satisfaction and, at other times, from the conviction that the unconditioned was possible, precious , and fragile. Jefferson made a precise use of both anxiety and precariousness in his optimistic discourses: there is a distinctive Jeffersonian way of harnessing anxiety and precariousness for practical purposes. Anxieties, fears, threats, and the sense of precariousness became modes of assertiveness and were functional to Jefferson’s hope...

Share