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During the French Revolution the French National Institute, including the Class of Moral and Political Sciences (CMPS), was established to replace the abolished Ancien Régime academies. In Minerva's Message Martin Staum explores how what began as the institutionalization of Enlightenment social science culture became a tool to end revolutionary turmoil and establish social order.
In theory the CMPS was set up to enshrine the human and social studies that were at the heart of Enlightenment culture. Staum illustrates, however, that the Institute helped transform key ideas of the Enlightenment in order to maintain civil rights while upholding social stability, and that the social and political assumptions on which it was based affected notions of social science. He traces the careers of individual members and the factions within the Institute, arguing that the discord within the CMPS reflects the unravelling of Enlightenment culture.
Minerva's Message presents a valuable overview of the intellectual life of the period and brings together new evidence about the social sciences in their nascent period.
