Opening the American Heart: Considering Tocqueville’s intérêt bien entendu in Christian Terms

Abstract

The doctrine of interest well understood (intérêt bien entendu), is one of Alexis de Tocqueville’s most notable concepts. However, there is considerable disagreement about what this means and what Tocqueville argues it accomplishes for democratic peoples. This article reconstructs Tocqueville’s account of human nature as interested, political, and religious and suggests Tocqueville develops intérêt bien entendu and largely understands it in Christian terms. Appreciating the Christian dimensions of intérêt bien entendu deepens our understanding of Tocqueville’s role as a democratic moralist, the relationship of interest to virtue in his thought, and the character of Tocquevillian civil society.