ABSTRACT
Summary Bastiat was writing at a time of tremendous social upheaval and chaos. In that setting, where continuities seemed so uncertain, many philosophers tried to give meaning to history, demarcating it into grand stages and deci sive events. This chapter examines the arguments that Bastiat used to refute those interpretations of the human destiny. Starting from the premise that the individual is not a “passive molecule”, he looked for the reasons behind the outbreak of revolutions in general and that of 1848, which had done so much to crystallize opposition to liberalism in France, in particu lar. We shall also see why he rejected the notion put forward by the reformers of his time to the effect that the modern world could find an ideal model in antiquity.
