BTW Quesnay's reading of Confucius was, shall we say, curious - and
Confucius is ill-understood if one thinks of him in "rationalist" terms.
Confucius' prime concern was that of creating a stable society, and his
influence succeeded in "freezing" Chinese society into place for some
hundreds of years - e.g. is it "rational" to advocate and believe in
unquestioning loyalty to the State, as Confucius did?
The deification of rationality in Quesnay's time needs to be seen in the
light of the "need" of the elite of that time to escape the stifling
influence of the Roman Catholic Church and its symbiotic relationship
with European royalty/nobility/aristocracy. Was it not Diderot who
said, "Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the
entrails of the last priest"?
Probably intended or released as hyperbole, the sentiment became reality
during the French Revolution - which surely stands as a constant
reminder of the limitations and dangers of mere Englightenment
rationalism.
Prabhu Guptara