''St Petersburg Dialogues: or Conversations on the Temporal Government of Providence'' (french: Les Soirées de Saint-Pétersbourg, ou Entretiens sur le Gouvernement Temporel de la Providence) is an 1821 book by the Savoyard diplomat and philosopher Joseph de Maistre.

Summary

In a series of

dialogue Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literary and theatrical form that depicts such an exchange. As a philosophical or didactic device, it is c ...

s, three characters, called the Count, the Senator and the Chevalier, meet in Saint Petersburg and explore a range of subjects related to theodicy,

punishment Punishment, commonly, is the imposition of an undesirable or unpleasant outcome upon a group or individual, meted out by an authority—in contexts ranging from child discipline to criminal law—as a response and deterrent to a particular acti ...

and epistemology. The book argues that the continuous blood sacrifice of men is a constant and fundamental law in all of human life and society.

Reception

''St Petersburg Dialogues'' is Maistre's most famous and influential work. The scholar Mark Wegierski writes that it is "extraordinary" in its wide range, which includes "pointed criticisms of

Locke Locke may refer to: People *John Locke, English philosopher *Locke (given name) *Locke (surname), information about the surname and list of people Places in the United States *Locke, California, a town in Sacramento County *Locke, Indiana *Locke, ...

and Voltaire, the beginnings of a logothetic linguistic theory, as well as such controversial passages as those in praise of the executioner, and on the divinity of war". According to the Maistre scholar Carolina Armenteros, the essayistic style of the dialogues expresses an " organicism … opposed to the mechanistic rationalism of the Enlightenment," offering "a pre-

romantic Romantic may refer to: Genres and eras * The Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement of the 18th and 19th centuries ** Romantic music, of that era ** Romantic poetry, of that era ** Romanticism in science, of that e ...

and imaginative ideal of the search for truth that springs from respect for variation and particularity … an ideal rooted in awe."

References

External links

* {{Joseph de Maistre 1821 books Books by Joseph de Maistre Books in political philosophy Dialogues Metaphysics books Books published posthumously Works set in Saint Petersburg Theodicy Epistemology books Works about punishment