Rousseau
Social System in the 18th
C. France
Start
of the Enlightenment - importance given to
reason
Shift
to Romanticism – significance of emotion/ passion
These movements are not limited to France, but
impacted the rest of Europe.
Ideas of John Locke (empiricism) and Isaac Newton (natural laws)
Montesquieu – eulogising reason
Diderot – reconciling reason with emotion
Hume – acceptance of the dominance of passion
Voltaire
This shift of importance from reason to passion
marks the drift. Two philosophes identified with this:
Rousseau
Kant
This shift did not weaken the revolutionary
process.
French Revolution was an outcome.
Situations in France inspired English Romantic
poets.
World’s interest in the French ideals of liberty, equality
and fraternity.
Criticism towards Enlightenment
Thus, French Revolution is more closely identified with
Romanticism.
Born in Geneva
Mother, daughter of a Calvinist preacher, died soon after his
birth.
Father, a watchmaker, spent time with him reading books;
inspired in him the love of republicanism.
Shift of interest to Plutarch’s “Lives of the Noble Greeks
and Romans”
Calvinism in Geneva: Puritanical interpretation of the Bible.
When Rousseau was 10, his father left Geneva.
Rousseau and his brother were taken care of by their uncle
Abraham Bernard
Two years with a Calvinist minister: some informal education.
Rousseau introduced to Francoise-Louise de Warens by a Roman
Catholic priest; conversion to Catholicism
Relation with de Warens; initiation into the world of
letters.
Secretary to the French Ambassador to Venice – contact with
Italian music. This even brought him problems when he criticised French music.
Moves to France
In love with Therese Levasseur. The lady and her mother stay
with him. A belief about all his five children being entrusted to a foundling
hospital.
Return to Geneva; re-embraced Calvinism
Affair with Sophie, a twenty-five year old girl
Strained relations with Madame d’Epinay, his patroness and
landlady
Friction with the encyclopedistes – Grimm, Diderot,
D’Alembert
Points on religion in his book “Emile” caused severe
criticism. His protectors helped his escape; seeks asylum in England; David
Hume finds him a lodging.
Paranoid fantasies
Return to France
Died in 1778
Of his works coming to around 20, we consider only 8, which
are mentioned in the textbook.
Confessions of
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Les Confessions), 1770, published 1782
Initiated the modern genre of autobiography
Discourse on the Arts and Sciences (Discours sur les sciences et les arts), 1750
First written as an essay for a competition, on the question
whether the development of the Arts and Sciences had been morally beneficial.
Rousseau argues that the degeneracy of the times was a direct result of the
development of arts and sciences. He won the prize for the competition. This
essay was later published, but the arguments were less bold.
Dissertation sur la musique moderne, 1736
Articles on music for the Encyclopedie
Le devin du Village: an opera, 1752
Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men (Discours sur l'origine et les fondements de l'inégalité
parmi les hommes), 1754
His political views, starting with the hypothesis of a
primeval state when each individual was independent. This changed with the
emergence of primitive communities and civilization.
Julie, or the New Heloise (Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse), 1761
The central character is modelled partly on Sophie, and
partly on de Warens.
The Social Contract, or Principles of Political Right (Du contrat social), 1762
Expression of his political views
Emile, or On Education (Émile, ou de l'éducation), 1762
Philosophy
“The profane trio” – Voltaire, Diderot and Rousseau (Will and
Ariel Durant)
But Rousseau differed from the other two of his
contemporaries.
Other than Montesquieu, many of the philosophes did not venture
to formulate original political theories; Rousseau’s historical mission was to
evolve a political philosophy that would encompass the whole of a people.
Contributions of Rousseau:
(i)
pioneered the
literary movement called Romanticism
(ii)
laid down the
principles of a modern system of pedagogy.
(iii)
brought out unique
views on politics: the idea of “Social Contract”
Every theory brought out by Rousseau rests on the basic idea
that man, in his primitive stage, had a certain virtue and goodness, which got
lost when he moved to civilization.
Theory on Education
Ideas on education found in “Emile: or On
Education”.
Questions considered by Rousseau:
Can man be regenerated with nature?
Can the strife between nature and history be
resolved?
This idea has a few paradoxes:
denounces the arts and the sciences; yet, he is deeply
involved in them;
extols the innocence of the savage, yet, is eloquent
about the general will, the ancient city;
loves to be a solitary roamer in the country at
peace with himself; yet, is aware of his status as a citizen.
Amour de soi vs. amour-propre:
Amour de soi (lit. "love of self") is a
concept in the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau that refers to the kind of self-love
that humans share with brute animals and predates the appearance of society.
Rousseau contrasts it with amour-propre, which also means self-love, but in
which one's opinion of oneself is dependent on what other people think and
which arises only with society. (Wikipedia)
Amour-propre debases man. Therefore, education
should emphasise on natural inclinations.
Rousseau’s concept of education is founded on the
distrust of civilization and urban social life. Hence, children should pursue
their early learning in the country. The sense of moral obligations interferes
with the natural development of the senses, thus enslaving children.
On Books: Rousseau discourages reading books at
the growing stage of a child. When he wanted to gift a book to his ward, his choice
was “Robinson Crusoe”, which speaks of an isolation from society, which
contributes to be away from vanity, fear and the desire for reward. A child
brought up thus would be his/ her own master.
Negative Education: exclusion from the larger
world. This helps man to escape from social pressures that drag one from
himself, make him greedy, vain and competitive. (Read through the content given
in the box: p 38 of “Cross Currents”.)
Tears of a baby: Tears signify personal
discomfort, and is a plea for help. Once that help is got, the child uses this
to get things done by others – a means of dominating the will of adults. Amour
de soi gets converted to amour-propre. Negative education wards off this
division. Yet, the child gets fundamental moral lessons unconsciously. And by
the time the child is fifteen, he would have become master of himself, and can
be introduced into society.
Sexual Love: A child brought up away from civilization
values sexual love in relation with the sublime (lofty ideals for the society).
This helps the person to develop a needed sense of amour-propre. There is a jubilation
of being liked; this is above the realm of the merely physical. This helps the individual
to have his energy directed to greater goals.
Rousseau’s work “The Social Contract, or
Principles of Political Right” expresses his political views. It starts thus: “Man
is born free, but everywhere he is in chains”.
As man can’t return to his primitive state, there
has to be a contract between individual and society: an unwritten covenant.
This has not been advantageous to man, as the system has brought in
incongruities and absurdities.
Rousseau redefines the contract: it should be a
willing act on the part of the individual to submit himself to the “general
will” while retaining his freedom.
Conditions should be laid down so that the
selfishness of man would not exceed a limit. (E.g. One should not amass wealth
at the cost of another.)
People alone are sovereign. This is exercised
through a government that is responsible to them, and which can be revoked any
time.
There can be the presence of a “civil religion” which
would ensure the people’s commitment to the general will.
(“Civil religion”, for Rousseau, was a synthesis between
Christianity and the rationalist and materialist thought of his time: he also called
it “materialism of the wise”.)
View of the Primitive Man
The Enlightenment had an obsession with progress.
The development brought out through the spirit of scientific inquiry supported
this. This idea presupposed that the barbarous earlier man was not fit to have
access to the later phases of philosophical achievements.
Rousseau stated that this view of progress was
false and illusory. The culture that contemporary France took pride in was an
ugly veil to mask pettiness and mean self-interest.
Rousseau postulated the prevalence of uncorrupted
morals in the state of nature: the idea of the ‘primitive man’, which uses a
term equivalent to the English ‘noble savage’.
Morality is not a social construct; it is natural
and innate, and is not taught through civilization. This morality comes up from
a natural disinclination to see suffering.
Rousseau removes a possible confusion on this: he
does not say that man acted morally in a pre-political society. He had no idea
of justice or self restraint. His goodness was that he was not contaminated by
the vices of political society.
Contribution to Romanticism: Rousseau fuelled the
shift in thinking among the philosophes and people, from the importance of
reason to the significance of passion. His theories point to what is natural,
which is found not in urban societies, but in the rural environs. There, people
have more liberty and self esteem.
Thus he remains as the forerunner and crusader to
Romanticism, a spirit taken up by the French revolutionaries and the English
poets of the time.
Prepared by
Jacob Eapen Kunnath
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