CE1D French

1. My first maxim was to obey the laws and customs of my country, constantly adhering to the religion in which God had given me the grace to be instructed from my childhood, and governing myself in all other matters according to the most moderate opinions and the furthest from excess, which were commonly accepted in practice by the most sensible of those with whom I would have to live; For, from then on, I began to count my own opinions as nothing, because I wanted to examine them all, and I was sure that I could do no better than to follow those of the most sensible people. My second maxim was to be as firm and resolute in my actions as I could be, imitating travellers who, finding themselves lost in some forest, must not wander, turning sometimes to one side, sometimes to another, still less stop in one place, but always walk as straight as they can to the same side, and not change it for weak reasons, even if chance alone has determined them to choose it; because, by this means, if they do not go exactly where they want, they will at least arrive somewhere in the end, where they will probably be better off than in the middle of a forest.' Rules of conduct, by René Descartes. In this extract, Descartes considers that it is preferable :

2. When you get lost in the forest," explains the French philosopher, "you have to :

3. According to this extract, Descartes implies:

4. First, to speak of my mood, I am melancholy, and to such an extent that, for the last three or four years, I have scarcely been seen to laugh three or four times. It seems to me, however, that my melancholy would be quite bearable and mild enough if it came only from my temperament; but so much comes to me from elsewhere, and it fills my imagination in such a way that most of the time I either dream without saying a word, or I have almost no attachment to what I say. I am very close with those I do not know, and I am not even extremely open with most of those I do know. It is a fault, I know, and I will do everything to correct it. La Rochefoucauld, His portrait by himself, 1658 In this extract, La Rochefoucauld considers that :

5. According to La Rochefoucauld, melancholy :

6. If opportunities to reward your services are rarer than I would wish, I will at least, while waiting for them to present themselves, give you some tokens of the esteem and particular affection I have for you: keep this portrait which I am sending you as an assurance of my feelings. The simplicity of the present should prove to you that I did not want it to have anything beyond what it contains, and thus nothing above the price you will put on it. Louis XIV, to the Prince de Vaudemont (1702) In this letter, Louis XIV :

7. According to this extract, the value of the portrait sent depends on :

8. Anyone who defends clear principles of social organisation today is almost certain to be labelled unrealistic and doctrinaire. To refuse, in social theory, any adherence to pre-established principles, to judge problems supposedly "on the basis of the facts", is where we have come to see the mark of wisdom: to allow oneself to be guided by expediency and to be prepared to compromise between contradictory positions. And yet principles, even when they are not explicitly perceived when a particular decision commits them, or are there only as vague ideas about what is done or not done, have their own way of calling to our attention. Thus, by following the slogan "Neither individualism nor socialism", we quickly drift from one society of free men to another, which is perfectly collectivist in essence. Friedrich Hayek, True and False Individualism, University College, Dublin, 17 December 1945 According to Hayek, the organisation of a society must be based :

9. According to this excerpt, anyone who claims to approach social organisation by setting aside the principles :

10 "Wherever it has taken power, the bourgeoisie has trampled underfoot feudal, patriarchal and idyllic relations. All the complex and varied ties that bound feudal man to his natural superiors have been broken without mercy, leaving no other bond between man and man than cold interest and the harsh demands of cash payment. It has drowned the sacred thrill of religious ecstasy, of chivalric enthusiasm, of traditional sentimentality, in the icy waters of selfish calculation. It has turned personal dignity into a mere exchange value... The bourgeoisie has stripped of their halo all the activities that were previously considered venerable and regarded with holy respect. The doctor, the lawyer, the priest, the poet and the scientist have all been turned into hired hands. The bourgeoisie has torn away the veil of sentimentality that covered family relationships and has reduced them to mere relations of money... The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionising the instruments of production, which means the conditions of production, i.e. the social relations... This continual upheaval of production, this constant shaking of the whole social system, this agitation and perpetual insecurity distinguish the bourgeois era from all previous ones... All that had solidity and permanence goes up in smoke, all that was sacred is profaned, and men are forced at last to look upon their conditions of existence and their mutual relations with disillusioned eyes... The bourgeoisie has subjugated the countryside to the city, it has subordinated the peasant peoples to the bourgeois peoples...". Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels The Manifesto of the Communist Party (Manifest der kommunistischen Partei), 1848 10. In this extract, Marx and Engels argue that: