From Four Nodes of History: The Human Rights Challenge in the Philippine Security Sector
b) How did Libertarian ideas (Liberalism)
develop and become a material force
worldwide? How were they propagated?
The great debates in the coffee shops of Europe starting in
the 17th century led to the introduction of new socio-political
ideas that were considered heretical.
The most prominent of these venues was Café Procope where
Voltaire and Rousseau hanged out. But its real significance was
when the Liberals Diderot and d’Alembert, over coffee at Procope, decided to come out with the earthshaking book project,
the Encyclopédie.4
These two editors decided to make a collection of articles on
human knowledge, a heretical act in those days. They commissioned hundreds of the most progressive intellectuals
of Europe. When completed, the Encyclopedie had 28 volumes, with 71,818 articles and 3,129 illustrations. The first
17 volumes were published between 1751 and 1765. Denis
Diderot wrote that the purpose of the Encyclopédie was “to
change the way people think.”5 Though immediately banned,
it quickly spread among Liberals in Europe and its colonies.
Liberals used Masonic Lodges to expand their ranks in Europe
and its colonies and propagate liberalism. Masonic lodges
28
Jailed at the Bilibid then exiled to Guam at age 84: Tandang Sora gave refuge to the
Katipuneros and refused to divulge information about the revolutionary activities.
eventually were used as jumping boards in organizing the
people for revolution. It influenced and inspired a world revolution that included the American War of Independence, the