Why does the revolutionary slogan "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" and

Liberty, equality and fraternity are regarded as the flags and slogans of the emerging bourgeoisie. The French Revolution once reduced politics to these three sacred words: liberty, equality and fraternity. This motto is not only written on monumental buildings, coins and flags, but also engraved in people's hearts. It was even regarded by people at that time as God or the will of God.

Pierre Leroux, a famous French philosopher in the 19th century, was deeply influenced by Rousseau's ideas of freedom and equality. Believe that equality is the foundation of society. He affirmed the slogans of liberty, equality, and fraternity put forward by the French Revolution, saying that every word of it contained profound social content. Freedom is people's right to survive, fraternity is the emotion full of human nature, and equality is brotherly love and mutual help. These three words are interrelated and inseparable. Only when they are combined together, they are "the most wonderful expression of truth and life." Therefore, they "are a complete doctrine" and a doctrine that not only faces the Present, and "a doctrine that foretells the future." He particularly emphasized the predominance of equality in it. Only with equality can we have individual freedom and rights. Similarly, only with equality can we have fraternity between people.

He believes that in all actions of a person's life, the three aspects of perception, emotion and knowledge coexist at the same time. Therefore, in politics, each of these three aspects of human nature must be understood. There is a corresponding word. The word perception corresponds to freedom; the word emotion corresponds to fraternity; the word knowledge corresponds to equality.

Human consciousness exists at every moment of life. Man is a living being in a state of expression. As long as a person exists, this life body will express itself. The reason why man behaves is only because his external world is also manifesting to him at the same time; therefore man has perception. A person's entire life is a series of actions. Even if a person is only thinking, he is also acting. What words, then, are used to express man's right to expression, and therefore his right to exist?

A word expressing the right to act does not directly imply any other meaning. This abstract word is freedom. Freedom means the right to act. Therefore, the purpose of politics is first and foremost to achieve freedom among human beings. To make people free is to make them survive. In other words, it is to enable people to express themselves. Without freedom, there can only be nothingness and death; without freedom, there is no possibility of survival.

A social person, a political person, is not only a person of performance, but also a person who establishes practical relationships with others. It is said that this is a person because he has feelings. Not only does he act, he also has feelings. Even when he acts, his activities are also emotional. In all free activities, man has emotions connected with these activities. What words are adequate to express the feelings that may produce or regulate action? What other word but fraternity could be used here? The meaning of fraternity is that human nature is full of emotions in all his activities; it is impossible for a person to be in contact with his own kind without feeling emotions towards him. The ideal is love for all other people and actions corresponding to this charity and this love. Because if people cannot survive without freedom, their right to survive is not recognized. Without fraternity, human nature would not exist. Human nature is neither determined nor recognized.

A truly humane society should be a fraternity society where everyone is free? Because as a human being, every citizen is not only a person with vitality and emotions, but also a person with wisdom. He should not forget this truth about things. As a man of action, freedom is spoken to him, and he recognizes in himself the truth of the word; as a man of feeling, fraternity is spoken of to him, and he rejoices in his heart. Yet he still has one faculty that remains unsatisfied: wisdom, the need to know things. So there is a third word to meet this scientific need. This word is used to explain why everyone should have the right to freedom, why we have the obligation to love each other like brothers and help each other. This third word Three words are equality.

A science that is still obscure and surrounded by darkness; the origin and purpose of society are hidden in this word, as in the riddle of the Sphinx. If you ask me why I want to be free, I will answer you: because I have this right; and the reason why I have this right is because everyone is equal. Similarly, if I admit that kindness and philanthropy are the bounden duties of human beings in society, it is because I consider that human nature is inherently equal.

Inequality is everywhere on earth. Indeed, inequality rules every corner of the planet. We can also go back to a certain period in history and find inequality, but the day when this phenomenon will be eradicated may be very far away. The human mind has transcended the poverty and sinful degradation that inequality brings and envisions a society based on equality. Someone said: Although I am weak, I envision a world of equality, even though the only world of equality that has ever been formed is the world in the budding state of nature in the past, when humans were still in a primitive barbaric state close to beasts, and we still have more There is good reason to say that equality is the germ of all things in nature, it appears before inequality, but it will overturn inequality and replace it. In this way, from the perspective of both the origin and the end of society, the human spirit rules the real society and regards equality as the norm and ideal of society.

If we believe in freedom, it is because we believe in equality; if we imagine a political society where everyone is free and get along with each other like brothers, it is because we imagine a society governed by the creed of human equality. . Indeed, how can one declare everyone free if they cannot live together as equals? If people are neither equal nor free, how can they love each other with brotherly love?

Therefore, equality represents science in the slogan. The theory of equality is up to date, and the last word of this slogan is adapted to the need of human self-knowledge, just as the other two terms are adapted to the other two aspects of our life, the need for action and the need for love. The creed that every citizen has is equality, the motivation for self-expression and action is freedom; the moral code for correct action is human fraternity. In this way all three aspects of human nature are reflected.

The three words freedom, equality, and fraternity have deeper meanings, and they correspond to the three faculties of human nature, or in other words, these are three different aspects of human nature. In fact, there is no point in repeating the words of human freedom and freedom for everyone, for whom the word freedom is only a self-right of action. From this we can see their inner potential and their own energy for activity; but their love for others does not arise directly from this. In any era and in any country, slaves have always smashed their shackles and overthrew their tyrants in the name of freedom; freedom, a word suitable for war, has never brought tolerance and peace. It cannot produce morality either. Although it represents the right to survival, self-expression and action, it can neither express nor awaken the other two aspects of human beings, namely emotion and knowledge.

Similarly, preaching fraternity to people can only impress them with their emotions, but cannot give them direction. Those who have thought most deeply about the origins and purposes of society, who have the noblest ideas about equality, still need the word liberty to express the dignity of their own nature, and the word fraternity to express the connection between themselves and others.

The sacred motto is by no means a random patchwork of letters written in the sand that will disappear when the wind blows. It is based on the most profound meaning of life. It governs our emancipation, secures our laws, shines the light of battle in the sun, and even truth draws strength from it, it is its reflection.

Who discovered this noble slogan? Who was the first to spread it? People don't know. No one will create this slogan, but it can also be said that everyone created this slogan together. When the people use it as a banner, the passion in the revolution deeply exposes and reveals life, just like the huge storm that sometimes overturns the sea and the river.

Perhaps there was a person among the lowest class of people who, out of patriotic enthusiasm, was the first to combine these three words that had never been used together before.

Yes, people can erase it, people can laugh at it, but it will never be truly erased or damaged by being trampled on; because it is correct and it is sacred , it represents the ideal pursued by people, it symbolizes the future of divine revelation, it has taken advantage of theoretical principles, and it will eventually win in objective fact one day. It is indelible and eternal. The concept of equality proposed in the 19th century still shines with the brilliance of human wisdom and has extremely high ideal value.