Hi, I'm Peter Adamson and you're listening to the History of Philosophy podcast, brought to with the support of the philosophy department at King's Hall, London, and LMU in Munich, online at historyof philosophy.net. Today's episode, Modern Times, France and the

Netherlands in the 17th century. A famous story about Charles de Gaulle has him remarking

in exasperation, how can you govern a country in which there are 246 types of

cheese? The diversity of France has been challenging politicians for quite some time. Once when

King Louis XIV was in Piccadie, only about 50 miles north of Paris, he was harangued by a crowd

and could not even understand what they were protesting about.

Despite the short distance separating these people from Versailles, their dialect was incomprehensible to him.

Regional variation is something we're apt to underestimate when it comes to thinking about even the relatively recent past.

In the 17th century, print culture was only just taking hold, and literacy was only beginning to rise toward what we might consider modern levels. Such unifying forces as radio,

television, and the internet were not even on the distant horizon. Politically, too,

the situation across Europe was more fragmented than we're used to now. What we called Germany was just a patchwork

of small states falling within the much larger federation of the Holy Roman Empire. In contrast, Louis

the 14th and other French monarchs of the 17th century enjoyed the opportunity to rule over the

single political territory that was France. Still, there was devolved government in the form of regional

parliaments, and the cultural differences between Paris and the provinces went beyond the bewildering

variety of cheeses and dialects. Nicola Perrette, that indefatigable citizen of the Republican

letters, was surely exaggerating when he said that residing in the province was like being in exile

and being surrounded by the sands of Libya, but the remark still speaks volumes about the contrast

between the center and the periphery of the French nation.

The political story of 17th century France is largely defined by this very issue, the attempt of central

monarchial authority to exert control over the whole nation. The French kings wanted the buck

to stop with them. The monarchy was also much concerned to maintain its autonomy on the wider

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