INTRODUCTION

Tocqueville stands firmly in the tradition of the French moralists. He cites Montaigne, Pascal, and La Bruyère. Although he does not cite La Rochefoucauld, many of his observations are in the spirit of the Maximes. He must have read, although he does not cite it, a famous maxim by La Bruyère: “Nothing is easier for passion than to overcome reason; its greatest triumph is to conquer interest.” In Chapter 4 we shall see several examples of the triumph of passion over interest. First, however, we must determine how he conceived of interest.

Tocqueville's terminology on this point is somewhat unstable. My interpretation will therefore, more than elsewhere in this book, take the form of a “rational reconstruction.” I shall propose a conceptual framework that seems consistent with the texts while being occasionally more explicit and elaborate than his own statements.

Tocqueville uses several recurring terms. First, there is “egoism,” “a vice as old as the world” (DA, p. 585), which is “to societies what rust is to metal” (DA, p. 316). Next, there is “interest” without any qualification, usually in the sense of material interest. Third, there is the key idea of “enlightened interest” (literally: “interest properly understood”). It may be synonymous with “true interest” (DA, pp. 7, 10, 104 n. 51).