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THE EARLY
ROUSSEAU
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JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU Portrait
by Allan Ramsay, painted in England in March 1766 Hume. (Reproduced by
while Rousseau was a guest of David
permission of the National Gallery of Scotland.)
THE EARLY
ROUSSEAU Mario Emaudi
CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS Ithaca,
New
York
Copyright
© 1967 by Cornell University
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof,
must not be reproduced
in
permission
from the publisher.
in
writing
any form without
CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS First
puhlished 1967
Library of Congress Catalog Card
Number: 67-15958
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY KINGSPORT PRESS, INC.
Prefiace
TODAY
Rousseau
increasingly seen as the most influential
is
men and
thinker of the eighteenth century. His views, on
on private and public
life,
astonishingly relevant to twentieth-century problems. therefore, being read
society,
on economics and government, seem
He
is,
now with a care and a thoroughness he did own time and for many years afterward.
not always get in his
Perhaps only in the
last
two generations has Rousseau's thought,
begun
be fully understood.
in all
its
extraordinary complexity,
As
all
of his writings are taken into account,
much
has been missed before, and
have been some of the
how
earlier criticisms.
more aware of the importance and
to
one
realizes
how
simple and inadequate
One
begins also to be
variety of
what Rousseau
wrote before 1756, and a renewed inquiry into the politics and
economics of the early Rousseau seems necessary to a better comprehension of the later work.
The
early
Rousseau
is,
of course, well
known
as the
author of
the two Discourses, one on arts and sciences, the other on inequality.
He
is
specialists, for
known
also for his Political
the essay State of
War
Economy
and the Letter
and, by the to Voltaire
on the Lisbon earthquake. But too few readers have paid serious attention to the Dedication
and the long footnotes of the Dis-
M
PREFACE course on Inequality.
And
even fewer have seen the
earlier frag-
ments on history and education; the poems and long
and Conzie;
his friends Bordes, Parisot,
particular the Observations
critics, in
and the Last Refly; the
Preface to Narcisse and the letter to Philopolis;
on Saint
Pierre, the Discourse
letters to
the replies to his
all
all
the writings
on Wealth, and the many early
autobiographical and other fragments.
A
reading of what Rousseau wrote in the twenty years from
1737
1756 brings forth the importance and singular coherence
to
of this period of his
come
afterward.
modern
1
These
what
years have a special attractiveness for the
this
to the picture of
span of time that
Rousseau's mind. For
many
it
this
is
of the misunderstandings,
of the difficulties of interpretation, find their origin. It
during
to
who not only sees Rousseau with fresh eyes but new evidence which, placed in its proper context,
adds a great deal
many
and illuminates much of what was
reader,
also discovers
within
life,
is
period that Rousseau begins to express himself in
his contemporaries believed to be the paradoxes of a
man, and what many of
his later critics felt
mad-
were views which
could not be reconciled with the thought of his major works.
The modern
reader
who
in a systematic
way
tries to
look at
everything Rousseau said in those twenty years discovers a wealth of
themes not smaller than that of the
of
man,
later years.
The
of the different stages of social development,
successive transformations of
tensions of civil life section of
man
as
and the anxious look
—
all
and of the
he goes through them; the
government and economic
building of the ideal state
analysis
at the future; the dis-
issues
and
are there. In the
classes;
the
end the reader
gathers an unexpectedly rich harvest.
1
See the Index for an inventory of the writings of Rousseau used in
this book.
[vi]
PREFACE own
For Rousseau had written on history and about his
and dealt with the problems of educating
ings,
had developed his views on nature, a
man, and
dozen vigorous and detailed statements.
war and peace and the conditions dence and on
He
civil religion.
He had
and outlined the premises and
the ideal republic.
He
added up the sum
is
difficult writer.
on
total is
But the
provias the
institutions of
issues of justice, of the rich
When
all
very impressive. Rousseau
re-
and the poor, and of the economic this
written on
for a united Europe,
root of inequality
mains a
He
young man.
a
civilization in half
had dealt with property
had faced the
read-
tasks of the state.
difficulties are
not those of in-
coherence.
The
year 1756 appears as a logical cutoff point. In that year
some
(just before Rousseau's break with
the curtain falls on the lished
of
enough
man
to
is
to
show where the
be found.
He
life.
He
and has
the state,
failed.
has tried to return to Geneva in a
He
has
Montmorency, where the writing few years
and Emile
—
and
—
now
man and
retired to the quiet of
in feverish haste in the space
of the Nouvelle Heloise, the Social Contract,
will begin.
This book attempts revival
has pub-
core of the present unhappiness
demonstration of the seriousness of his views on
final
of a
of his closest friends)
act of Rousseau's
first
give an explanation of the Rousseau
first to
meaning; then follows
its
a series of brief sketches
placing Rousseau in his contemporary setting. Chapters III—VIII analyze, in rough chronological order, the unfolding of Rousseau's
thought and the growth of
Throughout, straint in
his less
let
it
be said
quoting Rousseau
famous
taken from his familiar ones,
pieces. less
it
its
major themes.
at once,
at length,
felt that
is
from both
Apart from the fact that
famous pieces prove
was
there
to
be
no undue
re-
his
famous and
many
of the lines
as quotable as the
the beauty and the tenderness, the [vii]
PREFACE strength, the anger
and the
irony, of
what Rousseau wrote
are
too great to hide.
The of
some
concluding chapter deals with the subsequent history of the
the discussion:
main strands it is
more
of ideas caught
up
in the course of
a series of reminders than a systematic
review.
Mario Einaudi Paris,
[viii]
1966
Contents
Preface I
Rousseau Today
i
The New Understanding
Two
We
What II
of Rousseau
i
Fresh Lines of Interpretation
9
See in Rousseau Today
The Contemporary
16
26
Setting
Places
26
Men
33
and Ideas
Way
61
III
Rousseau Seeks His
IV
Rousseau Faces the Enlightenment
74
The Statement The Debate
74 84
Narcisse
V
The
105
Roots of the Trouble
The Recovery of
1
14
of the Past, the Passage
Time, and the Study of
Man
114
Natural Man, Natural Law, the Original State of
Nature and
Its
End
118 [ix]
CONTENTS Progress and Inequality
The The
VI
The
First State,
131
and Economic
Property,
Man
"Dedication" and the Ideal State
Ideal State
The Problem
The General Will and The Support of Virtue
VII
War
the Architect
IX
The
191
Profession of Civic Faith
201
the State
208
and Peace
208
214
Have Cut Wealth and Human Happiness
224
Waiting
233
Roots
224
I
for the
Tree
to
Die
238
After 1756 Barharus hie ego
The Road
We
On
sum ...
Have Traveled and
Choices before
238 the
Us
the Inevitability of
242
Change and Revolution
Index of Names, Works, and Suhjects
[x]
179 185
Needs
Absolutism and a United Europe
VIII
167 172
Satisfaction of Public
Beyond
150
167 of the Origin of the State
Rousseau and Diderot
The The
139
260 279
THE EARLY
ROUSSEAU
I
Rousseau Today
The Neiv Understanding
ONLY a
few
of Rousseau
of the thinkers
who make up
our cultural heritage
are subjected in successive centuries to the kind of reappraisal
which, in
intensity, expresses
its
guidance in their thought. praisal,
when
it
And
an urgent need
to seek fresh
even more rarely does the reap-
comes, sharply alter the outlines of the accepted
tradition.
Among
those affected by our constant rewriting of the past,
which he has
Rousseau stands out for the depth of the scrutiny
to
been subjected, and
changes in the
way we look more than
at
to
for the significance of the
him. That
this
should have happened to Rousseau
any other writer of the
last
three
hundred years
is
proof enough of the central position he occupies today and also of
Not only do we know more about him but we read manner that seems for the first time to do justice to
his greatness.
him
in a
what he was
trying to say.
As
a result,
we
feel that
Rousseau
very close to our thinking and to the problems of our age. publication at this point of the 1
first
worthy edition of
his
is
The
works
x
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Oeuvres completes, gen. eds. Bernard Gagne-
bin and Marcel
Raymond
(Paris, la Pleiade):
Vol.
I,
Les Confessions, [i]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU is
symbolic of this re-evaluation of Rousseau's thought, which for
the
time
first
seen as wholly relevant to the political and moral
is
issues confronting
modern man.
Nearly two hundred years of age, as the times
changed and have
after his death,
Rousseau has come
and the problems of organized
in effect developed in
ways that Rousseau often
anticipated. In the last fifty years in particular
come very
enced, or have
1929, in 1939, in 1945 the
phenomena
ness,
a
which
way
—
in
experi-
19 14, in
of the ultimate consequences of
of disintegration, loneliness, chaos,
and
selfish-
are at the center of Rousseau's preoccupations.
It is
had appeared
to
Sometimes
was being sought
was
it
him
said white
off
said
that the unity
out. Indeed, this
valuable undertaking, as unity there
meant the rescue
with what for so long
be the unfathomable mysteries and contradic-
tions of Jean-Jacques.
of his thought
in
and
reassuring, therefore, to witness the extraordinary
fruitful efforts of recent years to grapple
written
we have
close to experiencing
—many
have
societies
is,
and
to
was
have shown
of Rousseau from simpleminded critics
by adding up
literal
most
a
it
who had
proofs that on one day he
and on another black.
But more important than the unity, the modern
and the tensions of Rousseau
readers have found the torment
and
critics :
for
they have seen in them the root of his meaning, a meaning
which goes well beyond any attempt It
at
system and completeness.
required the sensitive nature of a poet such as Amiel, already
nearly a century ago, to discover the miracle of a
man
alone
Autres Textes autobiographiques (1959), eds. B. Gagnebin, R. Osmont, and M. Raymond; Vol. II, La Nouvelle Helo'ise, Theatre-poesies, Essais litteraires
Contrat
(1961),
ed. B.
Guyon,
Starobinski, S.
volumes are
to
come. This edition
completeness, the interest of
wealth of
its
annotations.
its
Scherer,
and C. Guyot; Vol.
is
notable for
Ill,
Du
possible,
it
its
textual care,
its
and the extraordinary will be the one referred to
introductions,
Whenever
(cited throughout as O.C.*)-
[2]
J.
(1964), ed. R. Derathe, F. Bouchardy, J. Stelling-Michaud, J.-D. Candaux, and J. Fabre. Two more
social, Ecrits politiques
ROUSSEAU TODAY against the wealthy
and the powerful and the vain world of
and philosophy, and
letters
to suggest that the
Rousseau could be brought back "All
well as
is
it
to
what he had
key thought of
said in the Emile:
comes from the hands of the Author of things,
everything degenerates in the hands of man."
:
Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the ven-
omous
portrait of
Madame
d'Epinay, the sad witticisms of Vol-
judgment of Burke, mattered more than
the ill-informed
taire,
Kant's reading of Rousseau. Often this was due to an implicit rejection of it
was due
Rousseau or
to
an incapacity
to the difficulties of
to read
placing Rousseau in the attractive
simplicities of eighteenth-century rationalism,
wish
to resolve all
conflicts
and
to a
stubborn
doubts and to see the development of a clear
system where everything would find
Hence
him; sometimes
its
place.
the vagaries, the misinterpretations, the unresolvable
between extreme individualism and
collectivism. Rous-
seau appears one time as the ideologue of the French Revolution;
another time as the father of modern totalitarianism. Rousseau,
man
the sick existed.
obsessed by the fears of conspiracies that never
Rousseau the
primitivist, the
propounder of a return er
to nature.
enemy
and the
of society,
Rousseau the incurable dream-
and Utopian.
We
appear today to have entered a
new
phase, one in which
respect for the writer, seen at last in the complexity of
all
his
work, and the growing awareness of what Rousseau stood for
and of
its
Rousseau 2
value for us, are the chief aspects. As a result, a is
slowly emerging from the fogs of yesterday.
new
3
H.-F. Amiel, "Caracteristique generale de Rousseau," in Jean-Jacques
Rousseau juge far les genevois d'aujourd'hui (Geneve, published on the occasion of the iooth anniversary of Rousseau's death, July 2, 1878), 23-64. 3 Many of the new trends are to be found in Peter Gay, The Party of
Humanity (New York, 1964), ch. 8, "Reading about Rousseau, 211—38. Gay pays a deserved tribute to the work of Lanson, Vaughan, Wright, Cassirer, Derathe, and Starobinski. [3]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU Rousseau
is
no longer the confirmed
liar
Serious efforts to check the narrative of his
cumulative proof of
to
its
reliability.
he was thought life
Key
to be.
have generally led
episodes
which
until
very recently were believed to be prime evidence of Rousseau's inability to tell the truth,
seem
to
have occurred exactly
as
Rous-
seau said they did: the stories of his conversion, his life in Savoy, his role in Venice, his life in Paris, are today seen as accurate 4
renderings of the
What now
facts.
strikes the scholars interested
in this aspect of Rousseau's personality
and
is
his recall of the past
his painstaking care in putting the facts
Far more important
is
down on
that Rousseau has
paper.
become more com-
prehensible today than at any other time. His ideas are no longer
seen as paradoxes, flights of the fancy, or perverse attempts to say the contrary of
what was the common opinion
of his
times.
Rather, they appear for what they were intended to be, with a relevance and a complexity of structure which
more meaningful
The
point of reference as
man
related to
we
example,
is
seen for what
a model, a standard of try to decide
what has
of Rousseau's state of nature
any particular
are acquainted.
He
is
man who
is
nature he
that
perception
comparisons and
own 4
is
if
state of affairs.
no
less vital
we want Modern
the
to
to
certainly
measurement, a to
be done.
The
not necessarily
whom we
from which tells
we may
us that the
never have existed, but
us
if
we want
be in a position
to
make
to evaluate
our
anthropologists have been taken by
Cf. Bernard Gagnebin, "Verite et veracite dans les Confessions," in a
volume published under the auspices
Commemoration de
J. -J.
(Paris, 1964), 7-20. truth,
or the
Comite National pour
la
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques Rousseau et son oeuvre
Gagnebin adds
"Rousseau was led
criticized."
[4]
may
talking about
is
it
has existed or with
a starting point
proceed to solve our problems. Rousseau openly state of its
all
to us.
state of nature, for
was in Rousseau's mind:
natural
make them
that,
by saying that he possessed the
to justify all his acts,
even when they could be
ROUSSEAU TODAY man
confused with presocial tool for the
we
If
under
begin
He
man
certainly
is
is
is
obviously not natural man.
far
advanced on the ladder of
a fairly recent type
is
him simply because he
man, but he
is
and Rousseau may
corrupt than contemporary
less
no model and he may be separated by an
immeasurable passage of time and by great qualitative
We
ences from natural man.
but there can be for modern
to illuminate
man no return
our plight
it,
but Rousseau wants something far more
shift
shadow, and
is
toward hard
the ideals of natural
to
is
wrong with
is
ourselves
still
and can give us clues
essence of natural man. But just as savages do not
we
is
come
but a
abound. tell
back
him
is
to primitive life; the to
possibility for civilized
only issue
improve himself, and
forward, carrying with 5
no
him
Claude Levi-Strauss finds
this
is
whether
man
it is
us
as to the
to live in
Europe, so Europeans should not become savages or go and
with them. There
set
difficult
He
man.
describe, while savages
if
Savages are useful, because by their behavior they can
what
vital;
to the condition of the
good savage. Such a return might not even be possible
namely, a
differ-
have to study him, of course,
because everything that can help
our minds to
man
nature and the state of
their proper place in the general context of
a matter of fact, the savage
evolution.
5
then a number of related issues become
Rousseau's thought. Savage
like
societies.
to see the state of
this ideal light,
human
not to be
they find a wonderfully fruitful
comparative study of
and acquire
clear
As
man
approach, and in this image of a natural
this
live
of going
possible for
can be done only by moving
the vision of natural man. in Rousseau's Discourse
chief source of inspiration. See Tristes
Twpiques
6
on Inequality a
(Paris,
1955), 284,
3536
Arthur Lovejoy's crucial
such care by here. See
many
role in dispelling the
myth
cultivated with
eighteenth-century philosophes should be recalled
"The Supposed Primitivism
of Rousseau's Discourse
on In-
equality" (1923), in Essays in the History of Ideas (Baltimore, 1948),
14-37. [5]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU Similarly, the idea of the general will can be grasped as an
attempt
to separate the selfish
of civic duty
found
as a definition
"among our
in the capacity to distinguish
coming from
interests those
from the unselfish,
founded on
a fallacious self-love
ambition and property, and those coming from nature in present condition, and to accept the appropriation of interests
and
spite of the
their superior value as attested
its
common
by conscience,
in
apparent and strong prestige of our particular inter-
ests.
Again, just as
it
was not necessary
that the state of nature be
any given time and place,
identified with
it is
not necessary that
We can begin
the general will be an immediately realizable goal.
both concepts as ideal poles in the
to see
life
of
man, the
first
hav-
ing to do with his past, the second with his future. For Rousseau, then, the questions are: state of nature?
and
How far have we traveled away from
What
are the difficulties
to get close to the general will?
we must overcome
As Jean Fabre points
concepts are norms on which thought must regulate
ments of measurement
the
out, the itself,
two
instru-
determine the concordance or the
to
discordance between the real and the possible, between fact and right.
8
As we look
today,
and read properly
for the
first
time, at
those autobiographical writings to which Rousseau dedicated the last fifteen or
justify
and
twenty years of his
clarify
what he had
personal exhibitionism as so
we go through
Pierre
said
effort to
and done (and not out
many have
of
so firmly believed), as
the endless pages of the Confessions, of the
Dialogues, and finally of the 7
an immense
life in
Burgelin,
Dreams
of a Solitary Walker,
La Philosophic de Vexistence de
].-].
it
Rousseau
(Paris, 8
1952), 543"Realite et Utopie dans
Annates de
la
Societe
].-].
192-4. (Hereafter referred [6]
la
pensee politique de
Rousseau,
XXXV
to as Annales.~)
J. -J.
(Geneva,
1
Rousseau,"
959-1 962),
ROUSSEAU TODAY becomes
clear that the earlier political concerns of his life are not
forgotten. If
is
true that Rousseau's motto, vitam 9
becomes vitam impendere
vero, to
it
deny the
social
and
political
pages in which Rousseau
tells
sibi,
it is
quite impossible today
content of even the most personal us he has cut himself off from the
Dreams
of a
Walker, Rousseau sings the praise of the active
life,
world. Over and over again in his last work, the Solitary
assuring us that he
and
solitude
dom.
impendere
that
is
he
not anxious to have others join is still
him
in his
thinking about the problem of free-
10
Rousseau's madness becomes a responsible madness in which the world his life
not forgotten.
is
Out
of the strains
and
absurdities of
emerges a pattern of action and belief which modern
man
finds
issues
he
understandable and valuable in sorting out the
faces.
Thus, Rousseau's position in the history of ideas
coming much more
clearly etched.
prerevolutionary times, from
While many
Hobbes
to
is
now
be-
of the figures of
Montesquieu, retain
either the key position in past developments or the frozen dignity
that will forever belong to them,
addresses himself to us as of letters insights
Rousseau has come
someone who,
which was singularly
blind,
to life
and
in the midst of a society
had the most astonishing
and anticipations of the future.
Rousseau's work, and especially the Discourse on Inequality, is
now
seen as a major study of the evolution of mankind.
Bertrand de Jouvenel gives Rousseau the place he deserves Rousseau
9
is
the
first
great exponent of social evolution. His
attempt to depict systematically the historic progress of
first
Jean Starobinski, Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
la
was the
human
transparence et Vobstacle
(Paris, 1958), 249. 10
See the essay by Jacques Proust, "Le Premier des pauvres,
Les Reveries du promeneur
solitaire,"
essai sur
Europe (November-December
1961), 13-21. [7]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU society.
Here he comes
who were
a full century before Engels
and
all
the others
make the evolution of human society a popular theme. His concern to mark out stages of social development and to bring to
out the factors which he sive against the
deemed
was then talking about
progress, but in a very loose
Rousseau was the only one understood.
effective in the process,
is
impres-
background of contemporary writings. Everybody
who
thought of
it
manner, and be
as a process to
11
For these reasons, Claude Levi-Strauss has recognized Rous-
among
seau as an anthropologist
philosophers: "Rousseau our
whom we have shown so much ingratitude, but to whom each page of this book ought to be
master, Rousseau our brother, toward
For Levi-Strauss, Rousseau, unlike Voltaire, has
dedicated."
shown
for the
many
societies
he was examining a
curiosity filled
with sympathy for peasant customs and popular thoughts. Unlike Diderot, he never glorified the state of nature, but was the only
one
to use
dictions
it
as a tool "to
where we
are
show us how
still lost
what we today
describing
call
in the
to get out of the contra-
wake
of his enemies." In
the neolithic age, he had
close to identifying the "unshakable bases of
human
come
society."
12
Rousseau, the student of evolution, the anthropologist, can also give a
new
accent to the age-old polemics about wealth and
poverty, the rich and the poor, property, luxury and conspicuous
consumption.
13
He
appears as a pathbreaker for later
socialist
thought, with this difference however, that his conclusion that everything hangs
hangs from 11
is
not
from economics, but that everything
politics.
Bertrand de Jouvenel, "Rousseau the Pessimistic Evolutionist," Yale
French Studies (i 961-1962), 83. 12 TristesTrofiques, 351-2. 13 For two recent examples of the importance given to the economic aspects of Rousseau's thought, see Iring Fetscher, Rousseaus Politische Philosophic (Neuwied, i960), esp. 213-59, and Otto Vossler, Rousseaus Freiheitslehre (Gottingen, 1963), 100—38, 366-89. [8]
ROUSSEAU TODAY The
reader of today, then, finds himself attracted by the
originality, the rigor, the relevance, of
the younger scholars,
who have
Rousseau's thought. Even
often been tempted to consider
the history of past ideas as a dreary form of intellectual activity, are driven to write such passages ^as this:
the world can
make
easier to forgive the
it
accommodate Rousseau's which most and moral
principles.
all
world
which more
clearly associate
When we
political activity.
seau's principles,
it is
not too
much
the realism in its
inability to
For his principles are those
forcibly demonstrate the connection
life,
hood and
"Not
between
politics
autonomous man-
have understood Rous-
to say,
we have understood
the distinction between a fully acceptable political order and one that
is
Two
not."
14
Fresh Lines of Interpretation
One may suggest two reasons for the new understanding of Rousseau. To use two concepts currently in vogue, one reason places itself at the existential level, the other at the level of dialectics.
The
first
has to do with the discovery of the autobio-
The second has to do with the the many hidden or open tensions
graphical writings of Rousseau.
perception of the meaning of
inherent in Rousseau's work.
There
is
no question that what Rousseau has written about
himself or about
man
with Rousseau's tragic
—any life,
man who
—has accounted
quest for himself sal
appeal.
could identify himself
and
his self-analysis,
for Rousseau's almost univer-
Today everywhere men
see themselves reflected in
the Nouvelle Heloise and in the Confessions. of the fisherman meeting the Swiss scholar
the
Senegal:
Then, 14
slowly,
"
his perpetual
There
is
the story
on the banks of
'You come from Paris?' 'No, from Geneva.' the fisherman
George Kateb, Utopia and
its
pulls
Enemies
from
(New
his
pocket an old
York, 1963), 94. [9]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU copy of the Nouvelle
whenever you want.' that in our
own
"
Helo'ise: 'Thus, 15
And
Lionel
you can go
Gossman
to Meillerie
finds
it
'natural
troubled and uncertain times, readers should be
and
primarily interested in the subjective aspects of Rousseau that they should turn most happily to those parts of his
which they
find an echo of their
in the intimate writings that
today."
we
own
concerns."
best find our
16
work
"Indeed
man
in
in
it is
Rousseau
17
There
is
no doubt that what we
also
by which we mean
tensions,
call
Rousseau's dialectical
at times his pessimism, his skill in
describing progress in terms of the difficulties
it
creates, the
view
of men's freedom to be gained only at a heavy price of suffering
and
of discipline, have
much do
tions, so
simplicities of the
become today
familiar
and accepted no-
our ideas of progress differ from the linear
Enlightenment, and so
much have we
learned
discount an ideal of freedom to be secured by restraints
to
Today we
find
Rousseau's tensions and "contradictions" most fruitful and
illu-
imposed upon
a distant
enemy
called the state.
minating. Starobinski suggests that Rousseau's withdrawal
upon himself
has helped rather than weakened his historical influence. 15
The
Rousseau 16
story et
is
18
This
by Marcel Raymond in an opening address
told
son oeuvre,
to
xxiii.
"Time and History in Rousseau," in Studies on and the Eighteenth Century, ed. Theodore Besterman, Vol. XXX (Geneva, 1964), 311. Gossman's essay is, however, concerned, and quite rightly, with showing the historicity of Rousseau. 17 A comment, quoted in part by Gossman, of Raymond Giraud, Triumph or Tragedy," Yale French Studies, "Rousseau's Happiness Lionel Gossman,
Voltaire
—
(1961-1962), 75. 18
and
"We
have seen that his essential preoccupation shifted from history
social philosophy, to focus almost entirely
personal sensibility. But
we must admit
upon the
exigencies of his
that this retreat toward singular-
from weakening Rousseau's historical influence, has on the conit. If Rousseau has changed history (and not only literature), this is not the result only of his political theories and of his
ity, far
trary
[10]
reinforced
ROUSSEAU TODAY has been so for
many
different reasons.
writings, which go from the Emile
seau reveals to his reader for the
here that
It is
we
find
in the nonpolitical
It is
to the Dialogues, that Rous-
first
time the whole
what has been
life
called Rousseau's "great
discovery" of the child and of childhood, a period in the
man
with
its
own
laws of development and
man when
and renewed, one
in
which "nature succeeds
this
and
liberating concept
man's internal
life
which
life
of
wonders,
indeed a time lived
is
in achieving a
which
a condition
is
troubled by memory, anticipation, imagination;
To
is
the mythical golden age
balance of faculties and desires. This
of conservation of oneself
own
its
reaching a state of maturity and perfection. This in the life of each
man.
of
it is
of one's well being."
not
is
the pure age
19
Rousseau adds a description of
surprises those
who have been
looking
only at the hard outer appearance of man, who, moving about in his social relationships ity of
but bounded on
all sides
by the multiplic-
mediating factors modern civilization has created, can no
longer maintain a link with the real world of his views on history:
it
is
the result, perhaps
much
being.
20
even more, of the myth
developed around his exceptional existence" Qop. emphasizes rather too
own
cit.,
55). Starobinski
the view that this retreat has been accom-
plished at the expense of a concern for social philosophy. 19
cit., 485-6. Also see Burgelin's whole chapter on Gossman, op. cit., 315: "The marvelous description of childhood and adolescence is, of course, one of the glories of the Confes-
Burgelin, of.
Emile, and
cf.
sions.
Rousseau's discovery of the child, the concreteness with
.
.
.
which he portrayed him, the intense and unique life he revealed in him, these things were possible only in the context of his historical outlook." 20 Gossman, of. cit., 314. Gossman also recalls a passage in a draft of the introduction to the Confessions (O.C. I, 1149—50) in which Rousseau rejects the "false sincerity" of Montaigne: "The most sincere are truthful at most in what they say, but they lie because of their reticences, and what they are silent about changes so much what they appear to confess, that by telling only part of the truth they don't say anything. I place Montaigne at the head of these false truthtellers who want to deceive as they relate the truth. He shows himself with some faults, but [11]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU
How
splendidly,
on the other hand, has Rousseau described
the whole of man's inner
which comes from
ness
eliminating
all
life,
the beauty of dreams, the happi-
a direct contact
with nature capable of
the mediating barriers stifling the
man. In
life of
the happiness of contemplation and in the search for solitude,
man seeks relief from the anguish of his daily life. 21 The fundamental purpose of this introspection is to end mediation. To achieve that "transparence" which will reveal the true essence of man against the obstacles and the opacity of social relations in a
world which has established
Rousseau creates the transparence of the
man.
upon
injustice,
which
will free
itself
self
22
By
eliminating mediation and establishing the immediacy of
personal transparence, Rousseau believes he
is
setting
up the
necessary conditions for the existence of nonalienated man.
Man
he gives himself only agreeable ones; no man has a hateful one. Montaigne's self-portrait resembles him, but it is a profile. Who knows whether a scar on his cheek or an empty eye on the side hidden from us might not have entirely changed his physiognomy." 21 Marcel Raymond, "La Reverie selon Rousseau et son conditionnement historique," in Rousseau et son oeuvre, 77-94; Giraud, Of. cit., 80-2. 22
Jean Starobinski's work, ]ean-]acques Rousseau, la transparence et is a fundamental piece in the new dossier of
Vobstacle, already quoted,
Rousseau
studies.
more than an
As the author
interpret Rousseau's it is
opposed.
tells
"internal analysis":
It is
us in the Foreword,
"For
work without taking
it
is
purpose
its
is
obvious that one cannot
into account the world to
which
through the conflict with an unacceptable society that
the inner experience acquires
its
privileged
function.
.
.
.
Rousseau
longs for the communication and the transparence of hearts; but he frustrated in his expectation, and, choosing the contrary path,
is
he accepts
and provokes the obstacle, which allows him to withdraw into passive and the certitude of his innocence." In his annotations of the Discourse on Inequality, Starobinski points to a number of examples of the role of transparence and obstacle in Rousseau's political writings, as in the formation of society, and in civic festivals QO.C. Ill, 1340, resignation
1344-5)[12]
ROUSSEAU TODAY is
alienated
—
that
with his fellows
cut off from real
is,
—by
public opinion, of money, and of
all
life
and from communion
and by the consequences of
social reality
the institutions that have been
born since the decisive turning point in the history of
which the Discourse on Inequality "study of the
human
enduring relevance/'
Down
to
heart"
last
find "the chief reason for his
all
with the
"The
and alone on the face
political fate of
historical
drama have the same design."
It
we
25
is
never
In Rousseau's autobiographical
see retraced the unfolding of our civilization.
on the tensions between
centers
man
of the
drama and the biographical
therefore possible to say that
is
man around
In Rousseau's
Discourse on Inequality and the Dialogues develop
along parallel lines.
writing,
23
desperate pages, in which he de-
abandoned by
earth, the identification
The
built.
24
Rousseau's
scribes himself as
lost.
we
is
all
man and
of Rousseau's society
work
and between
the different stages of man's growth, on the dialectics of the historical process,
on the contrast between being and appearing.
We have, on the one hand, solitary man, who may find in himself perfection
and happiness; on the other hand,
integral part of a
freedom.
we must
community
The two
in
which he may
social
stand apart and sometimes Rousseau
choose between the freedom of
man and
the citizen. But are the two goals unreconcilable? 23
ical 25
and
tells
us
the freedom of 26
Cf. Bronislaw Baczko, "Rousseau et Falienation sociale," Annates,
XXXV 24
man, an
find morality
(1959-1962), 223-37.
Judith N. Shklar, "Rousseau's Images of Authority," American PolitScience Review, LVIII (1964), 932. Bertrand de Jouvenel, "Essai sur la politique de Rousseau/' in de
Jouvenel's edition of the Contrat Social (Geneva, 1947), 58. 26 Robert Derathe seems to think they are: "No middle ground,
no compromise between the two lives proposed by Rousseau as ideal or exemplary" ("L'Homme selon Rousseau," in Etudes stir le Contrat Social [Dijon, different
1964], 215). But since Derathe feels that they are but two
moments
of a
common
opposition to "the corrupt society of his [13]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU Certain
that the contrast
it is
the basis of Rousseau's work. cal
between nature and
They
are
development which has created
face.
27
Man
Nothing
is
the problems
it
and
entire historical process
carries
new
a witness to
is
difficulties
man
and the needs.
himself
is
its
"the author of the evil
has to
The
man
forward,
which makes him bad and
factitious
has created an opaque and divided world, which at
the same time belongs and It is
man
with him.
slave of political institutions, prejudices,
He
at
ambiguity and tension.
Perhaps necessity, perhaps accident, have pushed but
is
dialecti-
solved in the transition from nature to society.
changed by
is
all
society
two opposites of a
is
true that only in this
foreign to him."
28
way does man succeed in acquiring member of a society, he possesses
the moral qualities which, as a for the
first
time.
But he
is
also, as a result of
the events which
are taking place in the course of history, multiplying the contradictions
which beset him.
nates, but later ises
and the
Up
to a certain point
chance domi-
developments follow of necessity from the prem-
institutions accepted
by man. The contrast between
being and appearing gets worse. In the Preface
Rousseau
tells
us that
ever see ourselves as
to
Narcisse
now become impossible to let us we really are. And in the Discourse on it
has by
Inequality he traces back to this fact the treachery and the vices
which beset
us.
Hence, Rousseau cannot avoid giving the impression of unhappiness in the century in which the achievement of happiness
was considered not only possible but
pessimism in the
a right, of
century in which confidence in progress was the rule. Living
within the historical drama he had conceived, he saw progress leading to the disintegration of the
man
inevitable in the absence of
times,
community and
any
alienation of
significant social ties
and they both aim, though in divergent ways,
man
at the realization of
the same ideal of liberty and equality" (217), there would seem to be a relationship 27
[14]
between them.
Burgelin, of.
cit.,
236
ff.
28
Baczko, of.
cit.,
232.
ROUSSEAU TODAY could understand. Rousseau's pessimism and sense of frustration
come from
his awareness that
what he
destruction through
had
built of
an ideal
made
contract
it
man
furiously seeking his
is
calls progress.
state
The model Rousseau
and
of nature
own
of an ideal social
unavoidable that he would view with dismay
the 'golden century" in which he lived.
He
had
built
the one hand,
two models
and the
two
for the
citizen
man Emile on
ideals of
who had
:
accepted the Social
Contract on the other. His thought kept moving from one to the other in a perpetual navette.
time and history, and
And
must be
life
was no escape from
yet there
lived within the boundaries of
earthbound experience. But the models were there,
a concrete,
and Rousseau carried on
happy and
self-sufficient
world rent by
civil
to the
end the dialogue between the
man who
can view from afar a bloody
war, and the disciplined citizen
the acceptance of the contract both freedom
integrated community.
can aspire is
to stay
solved
it
and
are
The duty of most of us The point is not to reward that man will reap with
fight
should be
to identify the
progress
to
if
must be
to eliminate
to a self-sufficient solitary life.
where we
is
a special
it
out.
problems which have
be achieved. There
mere condition of
the
made which appear
deep gloom that characterizes Rousseau. Very few
consider progress the inevitable time;
finds in
29
In the end, certain choices are in part the
who
and equality in an
about happiness.
social life to bring
kind of
social life.
What
to
be
nothing inherent in
is
It
has been done pales
29 Gossman, of. cit., 343-4. Gossman writes: "Modern sensibility, which Rousseau did so much to cultivate and to explore, develops in growing opposition to society. Thus it brings with it not joy and .
fulfillment, but misery
and
.
.
alienation, for
it
cuts the individual off from
others without rebuilding the bridges that lead to them. sensibility
demands
a
new
society constructed
on
its
.
.
own
.
Awakened
principles of
and sympathy, but this society remains an ideal to which the reality French society in the eighteenth century stands in absolute and
love of
apparently unresolvable opposition" (3 29-30). [15]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU what
into insignificance in comparison with
As the reader
still
among
constantly buffeted
is
has to be done.
the dichotomies,
the contrasts, the alternatives, the barriers, the different ideal
he may be
standards,
baffled
and he may incline
to
speak of the
insuperable "contradictions" in Rousseau's thought. But today he rather tends to speak of
them
reveal deeper truths about
human
These "contradictions"
nature than he had suspected.
which
are the traps into
sively cartesian
commentators. As Marcel
truth, his unity,
is
and
distinct
but
thought, envisaged in
formulae."
entirety,
its
And
an underlying, deeper
at
his truth
His
level.
not reducible to portable
is
it is
he himself
them. In the Dialogues Rousseau
is
is
idle to talk of Rousseau's
aware of them and studies
not showing himself
in search of himself, quite a different thing.
end he knows he
with what he
is
the straight line,
human
nature for what
31
and
circumstances were right. For
Rousseau
is
who
to realize
all his
He
to the other
and he despises the geome-
the simplifiers
it is
off.
From beginning
moving from one extreme
calls incredible speed,
ters of
rities,
"His
discourse than
less that of a
is
Or, as pointed out by Munteano,
to
the excessays:
30
"contradictions," because
is
fall
Raymond
not to be looked for always at the level of clear
ideas,
that of dialectics.
which
truth-giving tensions
as
fail to
what
it
"contradictions"
desperately trying to
understand
could do
move ahead
if
the
and obscu-
in an impossi-
bly difficult and corrupt world.
What
We See in Rousseau Today
Because Rousseau has made us ready
and private man and with both 30 31
Rousseau Basil
95-112. [16]
et
liberty
to deal
and
with both public
discipline, his
words
son oeuvre, xxv.
Munteano, "Les
'Contradictions'
de
J.-J.
Rousseau,"
ibid.,
ROUSSEAU TODAY throw a sharp shaft of light on our problems, many of which are the consequence of an industrial revolution Rousseau did not witness.
Given
his "anthropocentric"
could only deplore the misuse of tion
and
no
in effect as
view of the world,
man viewed
32
Rousseau
as a tool of
better than a machine.
We
have become
keenly aware today of what Rousseau had to say about to
misuse the land than
misuse man,
to
33
produc-
it.
Better
better a loss of efficiency
and of output than a loss in the dignity and the hopes of man.
What
any society reduced
a dreadful future for
to the exploita-
man for the sake of so-called economic progress. The unique and, if lost, irrecuperable qualities of man must
tion of
be defended within a manageable community in which the
emphasis
is
exploiter of
man,
Within such change and left alone.
from the
shifted
of the egoist
community, the idea of freedom
a
This right
the right of a
man
is
to
be
left
to
man
is
34
bound
to
right to
be
is
mere
walk in a
forest to seek solitude, or
alone with his conscience and his
side of the coin of solitary
is
reckless
not challenged and Rousseau defends
man
But the other
grated man, and
what Rousseau
and the
of responsible collective action.
to lose the attractive simplicity of a
stoutly the right of a
beliefs.
we
to the
I
integrated
analyzing
is
man most
man
is
inte-
of the time, because
organized society, where
man
is
at
every point brought into multiple relationships with his fellow
men and
with institutions, and the decisive component of free-
32
"Man and his life ... are in the forefront. His thought is more psychological than metaphysical. It is anthropocentric. His conception of the world comes after that of man. ... It is personal experience which leads to cosmic aspirations" (B. Groethuysen, ].-]. Rousseau [Paris, .
1949], p. 238). 33 Cf. Vossler, op. 34
cit.,
.
.
especially 385-6.
De
Jouvenel, "Rousseau the Pessimistic Evolutionist," 95, in giving this formula, suggests that the shift is feasible only in a "small and
immutable" community. But even in the small community Rousseau foresaw the possibility of deep change. [17]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU dom becomes want
to do.
that of not being forced to do
35
Man
what one does not
when he can manage
free
is
to
salvage
something from the maze and weight of fixed commitments, to be himself and
to
do what he must do in a way that
As
violence to his personality.
this
will not
notion of freedom seems to
do fit
rather well the needs of the twentieth century, Rousseau's skill in shocking us
is
welcomed
rather than resented.
Rousseau's complex notion of freedom plex notion of nation. His
name
is
matched by
his
com-
has long been attached to the
idea of nationalism. But his views on the subject go beyond the
decked
this
appealing monster.
A
we have bemade up merely
with which
traditional formal institutional notions
nation
is
not
of independence, sovereignty, boundaries, codified laws, armies,
and central government.
and
of laws that
It is essentially
embody
to the beauties of the land.
optimism
disappearance of state,
when all
community
certain ideas of justice;
keep together even in the midst of
full of
a
This
diversity;
is
it is
of beliefs,
it is
a will to
an attachment
why Rousseau seems
in spite of the
to
be
smashing up and gradual
the traditional outer trappings of a national
he predicts the survival of the Polish nation and gives
advice which, in the light of history, cannot be described as Utopian. Poland's anarchical traditions, class divisions, land sys-
tem, customs, and civic
spirit will
keep
ultimate realization of a Polish nation.
In raising the question 35
op.
On
cit.,
this, cf.
495
Shklar, of.
how
cit.,
alive the idea
and the
36
nations communicate with one
931; on liberty in Emile, see Burgelin,
ff.
36
See the good discussion of this issue, and the contrast between Mably's "utopia" and Rousseau's "realism" on Polish affairs, in Fabre,
To defend Polish traditions meant to reject and "in those days the suggestions of the French way of life had perhaps an even stronger 'demonstration effect' than in our day the American way of life" (de Jouvenel, "Rousseau the Pessimis"Realite et Utopie," 205-13.
the "French
tic
way
of life,"
Evolutionist," 91).
[18]
ROUSSEAU TODAY another, Rousseau poses one of the baffling issues in an age of
He
nationalism.
weakens one of the slogans of nineteenth-
—
—
for his
view
the competitiveness of international trade relations
may
century liberalism
that trade fosters peace
is
foster
war. Rousseau leaves no room for illusions. Interdependence 37
breed bitter
rivalries.
But we
the self-sufficient nation
end
society ready in the
may to
also
know
may
autonomy of
lead to tensions within a stagnant
The
chief
then, that of dispelling the
hope
do violence
value of Rousseau's warning
that the
that
is,
to its neighbors.
on an accelerated exchange of commodities or on other
that
economic
policies
one can build peace among nations.
But the preponderant weight of Rousseau's analysis seems directed to
what men do among themselves economically
inside
the national community. His conclusions are the same. Given
the turn taken by
human
affairs,
deepening injustice and chaos
are to be expected. It
is
undoubtedly symbolic of
new way
this
of looking at
Rousseau that one of the two distinguished editors-in-chief of the
new
edition of Rousseau's complete works should in effect place
the third volume, which includes the political writings, under
the aegis of a Discourse on
ignored until today.
The
fact
is
that
Wealth which has been
practically
38
Gagnebin
is
right,
overemphasize what Rousseau has
and
to say
that
it is
difficult to
about property, wealth,
money, and about the rich and the poor.
The famous ing property
is
battle cry of the Discourse
seen
seau's views, never to later,
and not the
now
as a
on Inequality concern-
fundamental statement of Rous-
be canceled by anything that he was
result of
mere
literary
whim
to say
in order to be
unpleasant and to shock his friends. Property becomes the pivot 37
Stanley Hoffmann, "Rousseau on
cal Science 38
O.C.
War
and Peace," American
Politi-
Review, LVII (1963), 321.
Ill,
xxv-xxvi. Cf. infra, p. 224. [19]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU What he
around which the evolution of mankind revolves. is
says
based upon a solid and detailed foundation of economic analy39
and from
sis,
it
flow the train of consequences Rousseau never
developing.
tires of
What
Rousseau envisaged was the outcome of
a process of
accumulation of property, of increasing reliance on money, of
advancing technology, and
arts,
of
more luxury,
of a deepening
gulf between the rich and the poor, and the final loneliness of social
tion"
urbanized man. All
he saw
this
went against the "mediocre condi-
as the ideal. All this
an
political values in
intricate
meant
suffocation of moral
network of
and
and greedy
selfish
economic relationships.
Money he saw immediate human
as
which destroyed
the poison
relationships. It
direct
was the mediator which did
away with the immediacy and the transparence he wanted. capital
40
He
pleads for a direct consumer's
accumulation will not be possible.
goals of a rising bourgeois society.
enemy as
of
modern
capital.
de Jouvenel points out,
42
41
He
and
economy
He
so
much
in
which
deprecates the
With Burke he
is
seen as the
defends "obsolete" ideas which,
Rousseau knows are obsolete, oppos-
ing as he does techniques and technocracy, economic progress, or policies of
economic development which pay no attention
human problems they create. 39
See Fabre, "Realit6 et Utopie," 183; in general Vossler and Fetscher,
cited above; Kateb, "Aspects of Rousseau's Political
Science Quarterly, restrictions real,
to the
43
and
Thought,"
Political
LXXVI
sacrifices;
(1961), 529 ("Every society necessitates and Rousseau, with his matchless sense of the
does not think that even the good society can be free of them").
40
Starobinski,
41
Eric Weil, "J.
1 29 ff Rousseau
o-p. cit.,
J.
et sa politique,"
Critique (Jan.-June
1952), 25. 42
De
43
Fabre,
Jouvenel, "Rousseau the Pessimistic Evolutionist," 93. "Realite et Utopie," 214-15: "In opposition to a
civilization
that
[20]
and
to those
human problems
it
has chosen as
its
blind
guides, Rousseau keeps saying
cannot be denned and settled
first
of
all
in terms of
ROUSSEAU TODAY He
was fighting
a battle against
phetic vision which
told
the multiplication of
ties
rial
him due
Mammon
because of a pro-
that the multiplication of needs, to the necessity of satisfying
mate-
requirements, meant a decrease in freedom and a weakening
in the moral fiber of
man. Unless checked and
controlled, the
frenzy after wealth would unbalance the equitable relationship
among members
of the
community. Society would inevitably
enter a period in
which luxury would become
phenomenon and
in
would become
classes
As many modern
which an
a
destructive
irreconcilable division
among
a reality.
critics
have realized, Rousseau was the
problem of rich and poor,
to consider the age-old
first
as the conclu-
complex economic analysis which included property
sion of a
and the technical and
institutional factors
which contributed
to
the widening gulf between rich and poor. Thus, the condition of
being rich or of being poor, while due
denied skills,
And to
it
—
was
this
in
some measure
in greater
measure due
was the point
help steer a
Modern
new
at
—and
Rousseau never
and
to inequalities of intelligence
which
human
to deliberate
political action
action.
could intervene
course.
civilization, in accepting as
permanent
a rigid division
not only between rich and poor but between extreme wealth and
extreme poverty, was heading straight toward a worsening of the lives
and
and poor. Enclosed within
qualities of both rich
their
separate circles, the two classes tended to exhibit in ever stronger
fashion the worst
traits
of each.
No
improvement of
society
was
possible as long as this state of affairs continued. For everybody
production and of consumption, that one must certainly share the wealth
end of societies is not an increase in wealth, that and not secondarily a moral being, that one should treat
equitably, but that the
man
is
him
as
essentially
such and that therefore
it
is
necessary to substitute for the
blandishments of a materialistic economy the hard laws and exigencies of political
economy.'
"
hi]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU there
would be
end
in the
total isolation,
a world of strangers or enemies where
with each
all
human
man
living in
contact
would
44
be
lost.
Cut
from
off
become wedded Rousseau the
man and from
being.
45
But
if
he had
man was
man from
the awful
was
built for himself
not going to be an easy task to
man. But the attempt had principles held in mind. called the
'
mediocre"
to be
still
make
possible. It certainly
46
The
a citizen out of civilized
One of the standards was what Rousseau
state, or
the happy middle ground, or the
much above
standard to be imposed
certain average (that
is
'
mediocre") way of
reach of a community in which every citizen participant.
A
it
life is is
within the
a hard-working
and
stability are achieved.
This
society
be an urban
capitalistic
be a society in which
rather,
one in which a
is
made up only of independent farmers, common tasks are many and exacting. But neither
would not be a
would
or below a
society in which, through a variety of public
interventions, order, continuity,
because the
was
made, and certain standards and
condition in which no one would be very
golden mean.
man would
the recovery of natural
impossible, perhaps the rescue of civilized trap
nature,
monstrous urban agglomerations which
were the ultimate tragedy in the disintegration of
felt
human
his fellow to those
machine-oriented one.
politics
had
It
would,
taken the upper
finally
hand over economics. For there was nothing fatal about the laws 44
Baczko, of.
45
Cf
.
cit.,
226—7.
the section on "Deterioration of
Mores through Urbanization,"
in de Jouvenel, "Rousseau the Pessimistic Revolutionist," 87—90. 46
214
On ff.;
Rousseau's etat mediocre and juste -milieu, cf Fetscher, of. cit., Concept of Freedom in the Light of his .
Fetscher, "Rousseau's
Philosophy of History,"
Nomos
IV, ed. Carl
J.
Friedrich
(New
York,
1962), 54-5 (and 56, where the restraining of "the dynamics of social development" is rightly seen as support for "a higher moral and political
freedom 352. [22]
for the citizen"); Burgelin, op.
cit.,
501; Levi-Strauss, op.
cit.,
ROUSSEAU TODAY of economic development.
The community was
the future course of events. Often
in the past
lost his
freedom and sharpened inequality because there were those out deliberately to seek those goals. Nothing prevented
set
on
free to decide
man had
who man
from seeking with equal deliberation different ones.
On
the
way
events
fairly consistent affairs
and
would be
and
would shape
A
clear.
man
downward
was
human
would continue.
It
trend very difficult to stop. At times
it
in the condition of a
in the future, Piousseau
gradual deterioration in
even appears that the trend
in society
developing into a
is
spiral,
with
dramatic events taking place at an accelerated speed. Pessimism
was
justified
by the evidence.
things were, one
was true that no matter how bad
It
was grateful
for the little mercies of apparent
order and the elimination of open banditry. But the world was
touching bottom, almost, and found
itself in a
darkening valley far
from the dazzling peaks the Enlightenment thought
it
had
reached.
The
question was whether anything could be done.
It
is
quite probable that Rousseau thought that something could be
done about small
owing
states, either
to their size, or
societies
because they were manageable
because the corruption of multiple-need
had not yet reached them. Even here the best that
might be hoped was
a
slowdown
of the degenerative process.
Such pessimism brings Rousseau
to a consideration of the role
of revolutions, or of the great upheavals
points in the history of civilization.
the
coming revolution
as if
it
tions of
At
were
inevitable given the premises of
its
which mark the
times,
were
a certainty or as if
it
analysis. Since the
founda-
which
is
bound
to
deepen
onisms, a revolutionary explosion cannot be avoided.
De
crisis
Rousseau speaks of
contemporary society are based on injustice and on a
principle, that of property,
47
47
Jouvenel, Essai sur
la
politique de Piousseau, 84.
class antag-
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU Rousseau has no in a great state:
illusion as to the
he begs us
to
consequences of revolution
imagine what would happen
mass of French society started moving. Hence,
would
goes to great pains to
show
his conservatism
Rousseau
is
if
clear that
he
possible.
He
and prudence and
deprecate violent commotions which can raise
lems than they can
it is
showdown,
like to avoid a revolutionary
the
if
many more
to
prob-
solve.
facing the dilemma of the social
damaging
critic
who
has
interpretation of the forces at
work
around him and has demonstrated the moral necessity of
their
offered the most
doom, and who yet would the obvious conclusion.
what looks
like to stop short of
He
manages
through his faith in the possibility
to rise
that,
like
above the dilemma
adequately warned and
educated and given the right circumstances, man, a moral being,
can reassert himself over history and regain a mastery over his fate
which hitherto
The antagonism brilliantly
of moral
shown,
48
history seems to have denied him.
of nature
and
high plane
There
visible ideal of a state of nature, of a
the other hand, there
Henri Gouhier, "Nature
which we ought
is all
unhappy chances, and with 48
this
his responsibilities as citizen.
age, of a standard of perfection
Annates,
Henri Gouhier has
can perhaps be eliminated on
man assuming
remote and only half
On
history, as
its
of history, with
mistakes.
et histoire
XXXIII (1953-1955), 7—48.
dans
to
is
golden
bear in mind.
its
hazards and
Things have happened la
pensee de Rousseau,"
Starting from the opposition of
nature and history, Gouhier argues that Rousseau's alternative
is
not state
condemns man of nature' become man of man': but had man perforce to become what he has fact become? Rousseau cannot dream of a 'return to the state of nature'; he equally obliged to maintain the status quo? The question which of nature or history:
posed
is
"An
a
effective necessity
therefore not: state of nature or history? but:
to
in is is
this history or
another one?" (20) And if property belongs to the historical order, "it does not belong to that effective necessity which makes history inevitable," for lost,
[24]
Rousseau speaks of calamitous chance. way can be found (26).
the right
And
if
the right
way was
ROUSSEAU TODAY which might not have happened. ine that
man
will forever
mistakes he has
made and
Is it
impossible, then, to imag-
be unable
to
redress
some of the
try to achieve reconciliation
between
nature and history?
Rousseau says that
it
is
not impossible.
many
express the satisfaction of so
phers
who thought
plenty, perfection,
If it
was absurd
to
eighteenth-century philoso-
the world to be on the eve of the greatest
and pleasure
it
had ever
seen, with
man
himself getting hints of immortality or at least of a possibility of life to
which no
finite
term could be given,
believe that nothing could be felt to
done
to
it
was wrong
to
change a course Rousseau
be catastrophic for mankind. Therefore, Rousseau leaves us
with the hope that the recovery of a worthy freedom for well-ordered society
is
man
in a
possible.
[25]
II
The Contemporary
Setting
Places
THE
Rousseau before us
from 1736 Books
to 1756.
and
vi, vii,
The
viii
is
the Rousseau of the twenty years
vicissitudes of those years are narrated in
of the Confessions, in the pages
with the words "Here begins the short happiness of
end with the chian
>
retreat
which
my
life,"
start
and
from Paris "under the jeerings of the Holba-
1
clan.'
Within
this
twenty-year span, three places are decisive in their
influence on the intellectual
development of Rousseau: Les
Charmettes, Paris, and Geneva.
The
happiness of
man
as
he moves from nature
represents the predicament of
away from the ideal of
civilization
what the
first is
of
life
man
he has
to society; the
but
trying,
built.
man might
the symbol of the lost
be.
The The
failing,
third
is
second to get
the distant
years of Les Char-
mettes run from 1736 to 1742. Paris accounts for most of the years from 1742 to 1756. reference, except for a
Rousseau would as a
1
vi,
is
but a
memory and
few summer months
like to
haven of happiness,
Confessions, bk.
[26]
Geneva
O.C.
in 1754.
remember the time for
I,
it
a point of
at
Les Charmettes
was undoubtedly spent
225; bk.
ix,
O.C.
I,
401.
close to
THE CONTEMPORARY SETTING nature and
garden
its
beauties, a time of solitude, of
as well as of intensive
also a time filled illness
work
manual work
of the mind.
with tensions and
It
was, however,
There were
fears.
in the
serious
and the premonition of death, the unhappiness
crumbling of the foundations on which
Warens
rested, the first disquieting
Lyon, where the opulence of
become the
at the
Madame
awareness of a large
civilization
starting point of the road followed
abandons the innocence of
dis-
which might perhaps
Charmettes in the end became
ideal city. Les
de
city,
and commerce was
played, and glimpses of the native city
more than the
with
life
by man
little
as
he
his original condition for life in so-
ciety.
Paris
is
at first
only a brief apparition. For Rousseau's intro-
duction to political
life
takes place in one of the oldest political
member
systems then in existence, that of Venice, and as a
one of the oldest branches of public
diplomacy.
service,
2
of
What
he finds out about both of them will leave in his mind the "germ
which
of indignation against our stupid civil institutions in
public good and real justice are always sacrificed to
know what apparent
I
real
do not
order, destructive in effect of all order
and
which only adds the sanction of public authority to the oppression of the
weak and the
against the
background of
iniquity of the strong." this
3
And
it
is
major theme of the contrast
between being and appearing that Rousseau
will begin to think
about his future work on political institutions. In crossing the Alps, on his return from Venice to Paris,
Rousseau gains some of the courage he needs years ahead of
2
him and
to tolerate
to face the difficult
the contrast between the
Rousseau's dispatches of the years 1743 and 1744, written when he to the French ambassador, have been published in full for
was secretary the
first
time as Depeches de Venise, O.C.
Ill,
1
045-1 234, with
intro-
duction and notes by Jean-Daniel Candaux. 3
Confessions, bk.
vii,
O.C.
I,
327. [27]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU appearance of order and the
Nature comes
reality of disorder.
and convinces him
his rescue,
of
its
to
He
superiority over art.
suddenly has a revelation of the beauty of the mountains and discovers their "amazing mixture of savage nature
vated nature," and he at the
same time of
culti-
struck by the gathering in one spot and
is
all
and of
the panoply of the earth
—"on the East
the flowers of spring, on the South the fruits of autumn, on the
—
North the
ice of
where one
feels a "greater lightness of
The
winter"
body, a serenity of
years from 1744 to 1749 are indeed oppressive
Rousseau
feels the cruel pressures of deprivation
way which he
is
to
remember
and
with nature.
He
is
is
4
and hard.
injustice in a
he
is
a direct contact
struggling against poverty and
with society and commerce with men." Paris
air
spirit."
for the rest of his life, just as
remember the strength man can obtain from
to
and subtle"
in the midst of "pure
a
is
"disgusted
"town where
arrogance rules and where the virtuous poor are the object of 5
contempt." for the rich
But even
who
as
he was driven
to the
humblest of work
could pay, he was also thinking furiously and
reading the classics of political thought, from Bodin to Grotius,
books of history both ancient and modern, and accounts of travels
4
and
of the ethnography of distant peoples.
6
See the famous description of the Valais in La Nonvelle Heloise,
O.C.
i,
76-84. 5 Letter to Roguin, July 9, 1745, in Correspondance generate (hereafter C.G.), ed. Th. Dufour (Paris, 1924-1934), I, 270; also in the new edition of Rousseau's correspondence now under way, Correspon23,
II,
dance complete de
] eon-) acques
Leigh (Geneva, 1965-), II, 1 1 50-3. 6
The
Rousseau (hereafter C.C.^), ed. R. A. M. de YEtang, O.C.
83-6. Also see Epitre a
dispersion at auction between 1951
Madame Dupin, intensity
II,
and 1958 of the archives of
Rousseau's protector and employer, has revealed the
and range
of Rousseau's
work
as
shown by
several thousands of
pages of excerpts of readings and of essays written under
Madame
Dupin's dictation. Cf. the note of Gagnebin and Raymond, the editors of the Confessions, in O.C. [28]
I,
141 3:
"The inventory drawn up by M. A.
THE CONTEMPORARY SETTING With the answer he gave in 1 749 to the question posed by the Academy of Dijon, Rousseau tells us, there began a period of which
intense mental activity fantastic,
sudden success
lasted for several years, the years of
as well as of final crisis: "All
my
small
passions were set aside by the enthusiasm for truth, for freedom,
and what
for virtue,
maintained
itself in
measure perhaps 7
other man."
as
To
most amazing
is
my heart for more high
the
is
five years in a
any
in the heart of
what Rousseau thought and wrote
this decisive period of his life, to
unity of inspiration,
that this effervescence
was found
as ever
find out
is
than four or
which he himself
main
task as that of setting forth his
in
gives a singular
object of this book.
He
saw
his
view of man's progress through
time and of finding the causes of his downfall.
He
has to do
it,
surrounded by adulation, in the
the heart of the civilization he was condemning.
about
to leave Paris for the Ermitage, he regrets
ful of
what
had done
Paris
for him.
"live in the
midst of friendship in
mankind, in
this
austere
immense
wisdom and
shelter
foolish
.
.
it is
.
on
When
he
is
not unmind-
Happy is the man who can the common fatherland of
open
to all
men, where both
youth are equally happy; where
humanity, hospitality, sweetness and ciety rule
it,
city placed at
all
the charms of easy so-
this great theatre of fortune, of vice
and
sometimes of virtue, that one can profitably watch the spectacle of
life;
but
it is
plete in peace his
Yet he
feels
in his
own."
he has
to
own
country that everyone should com-
8
go away.
The
year
is
1755, and he finds
unbearable the burdens placed on the successful writer by a Senechal of the works consulted by Rousseau on behalf of Mme. Dupin shows that the writer has considerably increased his knowledge of political science (Bodin, Domat, Grotius), of history (not only the history of antiquity, but that of France, Spain, and England in modern times) and of ethnography." 7
Confessions, bk.
8
Lettre a Philopolis, O.C. Ill, 235.
viii,
O.C.
I,
351.
[29]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU commercial
civilization.
An
work did not become
his
when one
nobly
author could be respectable only
a trade. "It
thinks only in order to
own
one's
success."
9
An
tion
was whether the
must not depend upon
escape from the city in spite of the
had become
"jeering" of his friends
In order to be able,
live.
in order to dare, to say great truths, one
was
flight
The
inevitable.
be again
to
only ques-
to the forest
was
it
to
be
an "ideal"
to
where
come
the great thoughts of the Discourse on Inequality had
him, or whether
if
too difficult to think
is
to
Could Geneva be
city.
his salvation?
The
on Rousseau
issue of Geneva's influence
a perennial
is
one, and learned and well-documented arguments have been
developed to maintain
as well as to
it
deny
10 it.
But
in
any
meaningful sense the answer must unquestionably be that Geneva's significance
both continuous and large.
is
This can be seen
and
tions,
first
of
all
work from the
Bordes of that the
"reawakened
1
74
1
and
my
tarch"
—
new
heart of that
strength, first
Confessions, bk.
10
On
742
first
my
ix,
to carry
O.C
I,
Rousseau
et
Geneve
Rousseau, Suisse, 2
[30]
of the letters to
the state-
me
to write
cf.
father,
my
fatherland and Plu-
answer
King
to the
403.
On
side, J.
12
S.
/.-/.
Spink,
the entire problem of Rous-
monumental work by Francois
vols. (Fribourg,
Cf. infra, pp. 32, 69-70.
of
out more fully the task he had set
(Paris, 1934).
the
it,
and completed the fermen-
the affirmative side of this question, see Gaspard Vallette,
seau and Switzerland, 11
—
Discourse in 1750
Rousseau, Genevois (Paris, 191 1); on the negative ].-].
and n
leaven of heroism and of virtue
to his declaration in the 1751
Poland that in order 9
for his
1
the ideas which had caused
placed there in infancy by 12
of 1737
of
Parisot
to
winning of the prize all
animated them with a tation in
words of longing in the
earliest
Le Verger
Confessions, to the verses of
ment
be found
allusions, as well as of specific statements, to
in Rousseau's
to
in the flood of memories, recollec-
Jost, /.-/.
1961). Confessions, bk.
viii,
O.C.
I,
356.
THE CONTEMPORARY SETTING himself,
for
13
Geneva
—
would
he
in Paris in the fifties
ships
—everything also
find
and the
conduct
to
to
be
sum
total of feelings,
many
memories,
:
Geneva
Rousseau's attitude toward
that
in
set aside
man and
shaped by some of his fundamental views about Like his father,
research
his
with Genevan exiles
political relevance of those relation-
points to a
and plans too strong
We
have
to his continuous relationship
and
of the inhabitants of the city
is
nature. of the
surrounding villages on the lake and in the mountains were sturdy independent artisans
—
that
men who
is,
in the midst of
advanced society had maintained an autonomy of personality
and of
skills that
made them
better
men. And the closing pages
moving terms the
of part iv of the Nouvelle Heloise confirm in
magic attraction that land had for Rousseau. That attraction was a combination of the
irresistible
charm
and awesome
of a wild
nature and of political considerations. Rousseau contrasts the
happiness and prosperity of the peasants of his fatherland, secure in the
enjoyment of what
their hard
work has
yielded, with the
poverty of the neighboring Chablais, a land no less favored by nature, but ruled by distant princes.
earth opens
come
who
its fertile
cultivate
to life at the
bosom and sheds it
"to
two governments on the
wealth, number, and happiness of man.
peoples
was possible then
It
distinguish the different effects of the
It is
its
thus
.
.
that the
.
treasures to the
for themselves. It appears to smile
sweet appearance of liberty
.
.
.
On
happy and
to
the other
hand, the sad huts, the brush and thorny weeds covering a semi-desert land
ruling
announce from
afar that
an absent master
is
it.
There political
is
a great deal more:
meaning
chiefly the
of Rousseau's attachment to
considered himself a citizen of 13
Cf. infra, pp. 88-9.
14
La Nouvelle
Heloise,
iv,
1
7,
hard and
specific
Geneva. Rousseau
Geneva and always proudly
O.C.
II, 5
1
pro-
5-6. [31]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU claimed himself one. There never was any fuzziness about the
view Rousseau had of citizenship in Geneva. citizen,
He
was horn a
both his father and his mother belonging to the Geneva
bourgeoisie. In 1762
he goes out of
who
no longer
time
at that
is
he had provided in
correct classification
Volume VII far as I citizen."
his
way
of the Encyclopaedia:
"No
his article
for the
on Geneva in
other French author, as
know, has understood the true meaning 15
someone
to praise
his friend, d'Alembert,
word
of the
D'Alembert had correctly distinguished between the
four orders of persons
who made up
the population of
Geneva
in
the eighteenth century: the citizen, the bourgeois, the habitants,
and the
natives. Rousseau, son of bourgeois parents
Geneva, was a
citizen.
one of belonging describes in his
As such he had
to the
poem
those rights, including the
General Council, which he so proudly
to Parisot.
And
if
participation in the political system of
were not quite in keeping with the
Geneva
after the crisis of
his views of
Geneva
There was, above
all,
what
actually
direct
meant
realities of political life in
1738, they were far closer to the
substance of things than has often been admitted.
at least in its history,
and born in
the attachment to a
and even then
in
its size,
16
community which, embodied many of
the values Rousseau was developing in his political theory. In the
happy phrase of Jean Fabre, Geneva "reappears every time
Rousseau needs a middle term between the
Geneva
is
the
way
station
between
and the
real
a lost past
true."
17
and an unfathom-
able future. Finally, the decision of 15
Contrat Social,
16
Cf. the precise
i,
6,
Rousseau
O.C.
comments
Ill,
to return to
Geneva
in
1754
361—2.
of B. Gagnebin, in the discussion of the
paper by O. Krafft, "Les Classes sociales a Geneve
et
la
notion de
volume published under the auspices of the Comite National Pour La Commemoration de J.-J. Rousseau, Jean-Jacques Rous-
citoyen,"
in a
seau et son oeuvre (Paris, 1964), 228-9. 17 Jean Fabre, "Realite et Utopie dans seau," Annates,
[32]
XXXV
la
(1959-1962), 198-9.
pensee politique de Rous-
THE CONTEMPORARY SETTING and a fundamental moral
represents a turning point in his life
and
commitment,
political
if
as I think
one must,
his native city
was a
18
real one.
For a
one assumes,
permanently in
that the intention to settle
man
dedicated by
man
condition of
governed,
now
was necessary
it
Geneva represented
improve the
to the thesis that to
a
to
improve the way he was
good way out of the dilemma in
which Rousseau was caught, on the one hand of the impossibility of a
return to nature, on the other
hand
life in the heart of a corrupt civilization.
some exaggeration, that spoiled everything.
Geneva
feels that
the storm,
had
I
Voltaire,
"I
Rousseau
by deciding
Having learned
is lost.
of the impossibility of tells us,
to settle in
with
Geneva,
of that decision, Rousseau
might perhaps have gone and faced
possessed the necessary talent. But
what could
I
have done alone and shy and speaking very poorly, against an arrogant and opulent brilliantly
supported by the credit of the Greats,
eloquent and already the idol of
women and
of
young
19
people?"
Even
man
if this
were not true in any formal sense,
substantial sense, for
two different
it is
true in a
Rousseau and Voltaire represented not only
styles of life,
but also two different philosophies.
Rousseau knew furthermore that a cottage was ready for him in the silence of the forest of life
would now have
Montmorency. The
to take place
shift to
not in the "ideal"
an "ideal"
city,
but in
the solitude of nature.
Men
and Ideas
Rousseau's relationship with the
what we
call
men who
together created
the century of lights was as complex as the strands
18
Cf. infra, pp. 157-8, also for an appraisal of the Dedication of the Discourse on Inequality to the sovereign members of the republic, that is to
the citizens 19
who formed
Confessions, bk.
viii,
the General Council.
O.C.
I,
396-7. [33]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU
No
of the political thought of that century. possible, but certain things are clear
simplification
and should enable one
is
to fix
Rousseau's position within his times with some measure of precision.
The
ties
thought
to
linking Rousseau to Montesquieu have often been
be
identify
to
difficult
and
Perhaps
evaluate.
to
Rousseau's attitude can best be described as one of distant awe for the great
at the
1755,
man who disappeared from the scene when the break between Rousseau and
his closest friends
began
to
moment,
in
appear probable. Montesquieu's authority could always
be invoked in supporting Rousseau's views on such practical matters as the size of political communities, the operating devices
which Rousseau's realism considered
of democracy, the issues
important and which on the other hand the cosmopolitanism of the Enlightenment viewed as tion of
an era about
to
trivialities
make
not worthy of the atten-
discoveries of universal value that
would guarantee permanently the happiness quieu was a pessimist and a
relativist,
and
of
his
men. Montes-
mind was
with a host of small problems which served to show
prudence was needed in the handling of
had therefore attracted the
human
sarcastic scorn
filled
how much
affairs
and he
who
of Helvetius
thought the task of distinguishing between good and bad govern-
ments an
so
infinitely easier one.
The Esprit des Lois, moreover, had so much to say in favor of many of the principles close to his heart that Rousseau could
not
to find
fail
it
to his liking.
renunciation of oneself of laws
.
Thus:
[which]
.
virtue
"political
may be
ing to the
and accumulate wealth were praised
common
welfare,
a
as contribut-
Montesquieu writes that "the com-
sense and the happiness of individuals
lies a
great deal in
the mediocrity of their talents and of their fortunes.
where laws [34]
is
defined as the love
and of fatherland." In an age where the drives of individ-
uals to acquire
mon
.
will
have formed
many
A
mediocre people
republic .
.
.
will
THE CONTEMPORARY SETTING govern the
itself wisely."
first
And how
when
writing
year earlier
he had
could Rousseau,
one
Discourse, have forgotten that
read in the Esprit des Lois these words
"Greek
:
knew
politicians
only one principle, that of virtue; those of today talk only about :
manufactures, commerce, finances, wealth, luxury."
Hence, Rousseau
He
greatness.
is
is
happy
among
to
those to
acknowledge Montesquieu's
whom
peoples of the earth could be entrusted.
omy
his
name
is
linked to that of Plato.
21
22
serious
work on the
In the Political Econ-
Indeed, a recent
critic
has been able to say that in appreciating the scope of the
Discourse
might certainly be better
"it
to see in
it
less a
first
declama-
tion inspired by platonic chimeras, than the systematic develop-
ment
of certain affirmations of
of politics."
Montesquieu on the
real values
23
However
may
well founded these words
be,
and however
frequent Rousseau's reliance on Montesquieu on "problems of
convenience or adaptation,"
24
we
are aware of a certain reticence
Montesquieu. This
of
Rousseau
of
which Rousseau was keenly conscious.
vis-a-vis
is
due
to
some
How much
contrasts
of Montes-
quieu's unhappiness about gross speculation, the rise of a
wealth and of a
new
class of enterprisers,
was due
of distress, being himself one of the landowners
power diminish change?
25
If
in the midst of great
new
to his feelings
who saw
their
economic turmoil and
Rousseau was against urban wealth,
it
was not
because he wanted to maintain the wealth of the provincial 20
Esprit des Lois, IV,
21
Discours sur Vorigine de Vinegalite, O.C.
22
Economie
23
A. Adam,
politique,
"De
5;
V,
O.C.
3. Ill,
213.
273. Quelques Sources de Rousseau dans Ill,
philosophique (1700-1750)," in Rousseau et son oeuvre, cites 24
la
litterature
128.
Adam
the last passage of Montesquieu quoted above. Fabre, "Realite et Utopie," 191.
25
This point is skillfully made by Jean Starobinski, Montesquieu par lui-meme (Paris, 1953), 53. [35]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU nobility. Indeed,
Montesquieu saw no harm
commerce" because thrift,
carried with
it
Luxury
of work, of order.
even though
But what that he
really ultimately
was engaged
itself is
democracy.
fatal in a
it
many
in the "spirit of
other qualities of
necessary in monarchies,
26
mattered was Rousseau's conviction
in a different endeavor.
Montesquieu had
provided the most useful foundations for a study of
might have been able not. is
Rousseau
doing
it
Rousseau
is
He
to
continue beyond that stage, but he did
is
continuing Montesquieu's work, but he
he
not at the practical, but above
and the
level,
feels
politics.
difference,
he thinks,
is
all at
the theoretical
very great. In the Emile
quite explicit: "[Montesquieu] refrained from dis-
cussing the principles of political right; he was satisfied with
and
treating of the positive law of established governments;
nothing in this world
is
more
different than these
two
studies."
27
here that the historical approaches of the master and the
It is
disciple part
way,
Rousseau seeks
as
to fix his
mind beyond
the
contingencies of time and place.
No
such duality of judgment
exists in the case of the other
great literary figure dominating the mid-century, Voltaire.
Even
Rousseau's early and almost entirely formal praise, in the Confessions
and
in his
first letter
of 1745 to Voltaire
countered by his criticism in the Verger: he has no lous authors whose goal sider
human
is
just to
be witty.
misery, he will read
28
is
already
taste for frivo-
When he wants to con-
Montaigne and La Bruyere.
29
Their relationship was altogether an unhappy and antagonis26
Esprit des Lois, xxi, 14, 16;
vii,
1,4.
2T
Emile, bk.
v.
"Nothing of what Voltaire was writing escaped our attention. The pleasure I had in these readings inspired my desire to learn to write with elegance" (Confessions, bk. v, O.C. I, 214); "For the past fifteen years I have worked to make myself worthy of your attention" (letter to Voltaire, 28
December 29
[36]
1
1,
1745, C.G.
Verger, O.C.
II,
1 1
I,
275).
29, 11 24.
THE CONTEMPORARY SETTING tic
one. Rousseau felt he
had
tried to
be respectful toward such a
but Voltaire treated him with contempt and
lofty personality,
misunderstanding: "I don't like you
Geneva.
lost
.
.
You have
.
at all, sir.
.
.
You have
.
me my
from
alienated
fellow-
land.
... It is you who will, force me to die in a foreign ... Of all the sentiments my heart nourished for you,
there
is
citizen.
only
the admiration one cannot refuse to your
left
beautiful genius
and
how
see
It is difficult to
your writings."
a liking for
30
could have been otherwise, because
it
more than any other leading "philosophe," Voltaire stood what was opposed
common grounds on which
were no
for
Rousseau was defending. There
to the values
a reconciliation could be
brought about. Voltaire supported the doctrines and institutions of
the
civilization
He
Rousseau had condemned.
was
for
property and wealth and luxury and for a suitably preponderant
and government
society
role in
who knew how
property and for those of life
for those to
and
The new
human
which they were operating. Thus
Melon's Observations sur with his usual
le
literature
yet another of the claims to
What
Rousseau has
indignation.
He
"What
man who
30
if
the
praising
commerce, Voltaire had summed up
been
fame
to say
so tied
up with
of our century."
about property
finance. This
is
31
fills
Voltaire with
annotates angrily the Discourse on Inequality.
has planted, sown and enclosed [his
Letter to Voltaire, June
Confessions, bk. x, O.C. 31
happiness
in
the position of the Enlightenment:
fatal clarity
"Never before has
social role
was that of
political philosophers
using for the advancement of culture and of the milieu in
acquired
enjoy the refinements
which accumulated wealth provided.
of writers, economists,
who had
I,
17,
field]
1760, as given by Rousseau in the
541—2.
Oeuvres completes, Moland
ed.
(52
vols.; Paris,
1877— 1885), XXII
(1879), 364-5[37]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU does not have the right to the fruit of his work?" the praise Rousseau bestows on the person
He
is
shocked
issued a warning against the private enclosure of land: it
possible to say that this unjust
man,
been the benefactor of mankind? This
at
who might have
this thief,
"How
is
would have
the philosophy of a
is
tramp who would like to see the wealthy robbed by the poor." The hope of Rousseau that sometime in the past or sometime in the future the ideal of a middleground with no extremes might
have existed or might as
he views
as utter fantasy Rousseau's
he
of the Canadians, for
Years
pamphlet
is
is
'
chimera," just
image of the Hurons and
convinced they are cannibals.
Rousseau which
is
far
more than
and of a rugged kind
of liberalism
views the rights of rich and poor as equal, one to get :
that, for
an uncompromising expression of an extreme
utilitarian doctrine
other to starve
32
Idees refuhlicaines, Voltaire was to continue
later, in his
in a polemic against this
exist, Voltaire considers a
"The
dress of the rich can
which
fat,
the
no more be regulated
than the rags of the poor. Citizens both, both must be equally free.
Each
will dress, eat,
be housed
if
he can.
If
you stop the
wealthy from eating wild cocks, you damage the poor
who might
support his family by selling them." There was no doubt in Voltaire's
mind
lazy
the jealous poor
.
.
.
that laws against luxury can please only "the
who do
not want to work or to
all
ow
32
Cf. G. R. Havens, Voltaire's Marginalia on the Pages of Rousseau (Columbus, 1933), 15, 17, 145. Of course, Voltaire expresses the same shocked view of Rousseau's madness throughout his work: "Thus, according to this great philosopher, a thief, a destroyer, would have been the benefactor of mankind; and an honest man should have been punished for telling his children: let us imitate our neighbor, he has enclosed his field, animals will no longer prey on it, his land will become more fertile, let us till ours as he is tilling his, he will help us and we will help him;
each family cultivating
more tranquil, XXVII, 339-40).
ier,
[38]
less
its
enclosure,
we
will be better nourished, health-
unhappy" (Oeuvres completes, XIX, 380;
also,
THE CONTEMPORARY SETTING those
who do
33
enjoy
to
life."
fatherland equaled property.
which
field
When
cultivate
I
For Voltaire, as Moraze points out,
What
my
is
and which belongs
country
to
not a good
if
34
me?
some questions
a friend of Rousseau, Romilly, raised
about Voltaire's presence in Geneva, this was the result: "I was
who
one day with a wealthy merchant of Geneva,
and the conversation
Voltaire,
neva.
weakening of
religion, to
in dissipation,
an increase in the
taste for
has benefited by more than 200,000 livres?"
thunder against
was
safe."
to a
to
good
you do not know that
heat,
since Voltaire's arrival in this country the city of
for Voltaire to
Ge-
luxury and
and would consequently be too contrary
What? he answered with
customs.
often sees
Voltaire's stay near
prove that his sojourn would only lead
tried to
I
on
fell
35
Geneva alone
Also,
it
was easy
remain with an asylum from which he could tyrants. Indeed, "all the
more cowardly
as
he
36
This was a prudent liberalism ready
to accept the practices of
enlightened despotism, of a system which, with due and essential
homage
to
freedom of thought and of
would be able
dissent,
to
33
Oeuvres completes, XXIV, 413-32. Luxury was "a necessary consequence of property, without which no society can subsist, and of a great inequality of fortunes,
which
property but of bad law" political
18). But Voltaire found good a
—"The
poor, in a
fit
of
who was
bad humour" (XXXIV, 200).
Charles Moraze, La France bourgeoise (Paris, 1952), 74 Moraze "If we open the Encyclopedic, we find that it is the collection
also writes
of
XX,
system based on property qualifications, and in any case
against luxury? 34
the consequence not of the right of
is
(ibid..,
all
:
the good
ways of producing wealth
.
.
.
while
it
offers the philo-
sophical justification of this love for the goods of the earth" (69). 35
Fragment
of
an unpublished
letter of
Romilly
to
Rousseau, 1763,
published by Michel Launay, "La Societe francaise d'apres
dance de Rousseau (textes inedits)," Annales historiques de franqaise (1962), 36
la la
correspon-
Revolution
418-9.
Diderot, Lettre apologetique,
March
mann, Inventaire du fonds Vandeid
et
25,
1781, in Herbert Dieck-
inedits
de Diderot (Geneva,
1951), 243. [39]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU hold in check the vagaries of the
could not even understand,
taire
wanted with
a universal duty.
seemed
him
to
to
be close
in
The
what Rousseau
like,
abstractions of the general will
to folly:
he would certainly refuse
Or
priests.
trust
to
which money and property were not key
"They have no more would have
which hard
society, in
Should those without land or a house have
ards.
A
alone
by magistrates or
a bridge built
community
let
regulate the
to
leisure of the rich. Vol-
and democratic
his austere
work was
cross
mob and
hamper the
disturbances which might
a right to
to regulate their
properly organized
it
to
a
stand-
a right to vote?
than a clerk paid by merchants
commerce."
37
community needed sharply defined and
divided classes and a mass of penniless peasants to do their duty as
wage
laborers
and
soldiers.
The
happiness of others: "They will be
latter
would share
they can. This liberty will replace property. of a just salary will sustain them. families in their painful class of
men
They
and useful
The
certain
38
How
hope
will cheerfully raise their
trades. It
is
above
so despised in the eyes of the powerful,
nursery of soldiers."
in the
free to sell their labor as best
all
which
is
this
the
brilliantly does Voltaire provide the
bridge between the earlier, seventeenth-century, expressions of
such views and their full-fledged practical realization a hundred years later.
foundations.
How happy the How convinced
minism, that tolerance
all
vision of a future built
he was, with
would be well
on such
his optimistic deter-
in the end, provided a climate of
and freedom was allowed
to flourish,
one in which
everyone would do as he pleased.
That Rousseau saw times
is
quake.
made It is
spectators
if
clear
by
this as
one of the overriding
his letter to Voltaire
earth-
necessary to be active participants and not passive
one wanted that
all
should be well one day.
37
Idees republicaines, Oeuvres completes,
38
Oeuvres completes, XX, 293.
[40]
issues of the
on the Lisbon
XXIV, 417, 425.
If in
THE CONTEMPORARY SETTING the natural order responsible
and
all is it is
man becomes
necessary, in the moral order
duty
his
to see that the practical arrange-
ments that are not working well be Rousseau defends moral freedom, will of revolutionary change."
set aside for better ones: "If
because he
it is
moved by
is
But Montesquieu and Voltaire were the exchanges and troubles of daily
life
fairly
remote
figures.
women
of letters,
middlemen and
literary
In
what mattered more was
the tangled mass of encyclopedists, fhilosophes, scientists,
and
a
39
men
peddlers,
of
which, during the period under consideration, Rousseau was part.
With each
of the protagonists of the play, Rousseau enter-
tained different relationships: with
many, of
close
and steady
friendship, with others of friendship turning into bitter enmity.
Only
which
that part of the story
recounted here, for
more
it is
is
related to ideas will be
profitable to consider Rousseau's
place within the contemporary setting by focusing our attention
on the substantive
issues
which by themselves
are
enough
establish a tolerably clear picture. Paraphrasing Voltaire,
seau refused to be a
he was playing
Very useful
member
a different
Rous-
was
of the team, but the reason
to
that
game.
to clarify the issues
is
d'Alembert, the
tireless
worker, the scientist, the co-editor of the Encychfedie, the friend of Rousseau in the forties. that rallied
He
was
a
member
of the group
around Rousseau during the noisy quarrel which
divided Paris between supporters of French music and supporters of Italian music. 39
40
The
former, Rousseau
tells us,
included
Jacques Proust, Diderot et VEncyclopedie (Paris, 1962), 324. As is not passive but wants to work actively for the
Proust says, Rousseau
dawn
of that day in
40
which
all
will
be well (325). For the Lisbon
1756, see infra, pp. 201-207. This was taking place in 1753 when the crisis between the Paris
earthquake
letter of
Parliament and the Monarchy was at
its
peak. But
Grimm
"the quarrels of the Paris Parliament with the Court,
its
relates that
exile
...
all
these events have been a topic of conversation in Paris for only 24 hours
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU "the great and the rich," the smaller band of the latter was
up
of lively, enthusiastic,
and
fine musicians.
made
41
D'Alembert had supported Rousseau's collaboration
the
to
Encyclopedic and had referred in flattering terms, even though critically, to his
friend in the Preliminary Discourse of
1
75 1
42
while Rousseau was to include him in the Discourse on In-
among
equality
And
the
those capable of serious anthropological work.
Grimm
ever-present
could
d'Alembert in his Melanges de
say
still
litterature,
43
1754 that
in
published early in
1753, had expressed views that were not too far from those of
Rousseau.
44
These friendly beginnings could not last,
for underlining every-
thing was a difference of views which explains the clash be-
tween Rousseau and the Enlightenment. say
to
about the Nouvelle
Heloise
What
d'Alembert was
and Emile
relevant.
is
D'Alembert charges Rousseau with having written until then works based upon an often ics.
He
and always worthless metaphys-
false
had depicted "a gigantic and imaginary nature," some-
thing of no value, d'Alembert must
been more receptive
to
One
through which he might move. loise,
however, appears
for giants, has shrunk,
to
feel,
while
man would have
a recognizable description
be that
of nature
merit of the Nouvelle He-
this distant nature, suitable
and we can take pleasure
only
in "the episodes,
the sidelights, the details on domestic economy, on the pleasure of
and no matter what
upon
itself
this respectable
the eyes of the public,
body has done it
in the past year to fix
has never secured for
thirtieth of the attention given to the revolution in music."
dance
litteraire,
Tourneux
41
Confessions, bk.
43
O.C.
44
Ill,
viii,
ed. [Paris, 1877], II,
O.C.
I,
384, 1447.
itself
one
(Correspon-
258-9.) 42
Cf. infra, pp. 87-88.
213.
319-20. The 1753 edition of the Melanges was limited to two volumes. The Elements de fkilosofhie appeared only in the edition of 1759, expanded to 5 volumes. [42]
Ibid.,
THE CONTEMPORARY SETTING the country." But this not
life in
this is the
work
someone who
of
enough
to
make one
forget that
has withdrawn from society and
has lost touch with reality. According to d'Alembert, the Emile
withdrawal
and proves
shows
this
phy
not in his head but in his heart.
is
too,
that Rousseau's philoso-
The major fault with Rousseau then lies in his wasting so much energy and intelligence in considering "man in a condition which he never
of abstraction, in those metaphsical conditions in
was and never
will be."
seau's attempt to
D'Alembert cannot approve of Rous-
understand the present through the recovery of
the image of an ideal natural telling us that social
man, and is is
useless:
must
live is
all rally
Make
is
man. Rousseau's
man
not natural
and
that the loss of man's primitive
not his fault
This
man
on
insistence
but a corrupted
original perfection
but the result of intercourse with his fellow men,
"You want,
among
I
will tell him, to educate a child
monsters, and you
want
to
make
of
him
not feasible; the giant will shock the monsters, against
him and chase him away under
who
a giant.
who
will
a hail of stones.
then of your child a monster like the others, but perhaps
as little a
disliked
monster
by
enough
as possible,
of a monster not to be
but not enough to be disliked by
his fellow monsters,
himself."
D'Alembert has understood the revolutionary character of
what Rousseau stands sophic,
for.
He
himself, in the Elements de philo-
had described the mid-century
as
an age of unparalleled
transformation in the development of mankind: If
one examines carefully the mid-point of the century in which
live,
we
the events which excite us or at any rate occupy our minds, our
customs, our achievements, and even our diversions, to see that in
some
respects a very remarkable
it is
difficult
not
change in our ideas
is
taking place, a change whose rapidity seems to promise an even greater transformation to come. all
directions like a river
.
.
.
Spreading through nature in
which has burst
its
dams,
this
fermentation [43]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU has swept with a force of violence everything along with stood in
way.
its
.
.
.
Thus from
it
which
the principles of the secular
sci-
ences to the foundations of religious revelation, from metaphysics to matters of
from music
taste,
from the
to morals,
scholastic disputes of
theologians to matters of trade, from the laws of princes to those of peoples, from natural law to the arbitrary laws of nations
.
.
.
everything has been discussed and analyzed, or at least mentioned. 45
Now,
few years
later,
the
fire
seems gone and the
lights
dimming. Victory against the "enemy," wherever he may be
are
found,
he
just a
is
really
unlikely:
"The
wants
be useful,
against evil,
to
it is
he
away.
is
is
It is
when
not that of unleashing himself
rather to find remedies and,
otherwise, palliatives. for
true purpose of the philosopher,
if
he cannot do
not a question of defeating the enemy,
too entrenched in the country to undertake to chase
We
must engage
in guerrilla warfare."
46
How
him
often did
the optimism and rationalism, the geometric perfection, the faith in unlimited progress,
and the universal unifying concepts of the
Enlightenment narrow themselves down
guerre de chicane?
to a
In spite of the lowered sights, any development from the present was
still
to
be a forward one
or in a zig-zag line, there
happiness and freedom, since arts
and
precisely
:
whether in
a straight line
would be progress toward
man w as r
at last
a future of
succeeding through
sciences in creating the necessary foundations. This was
what Rousseau did not
accept: a future based
man was doing today would be dark indeed. Grimm provides another illustration of the
on what
difficulties of rec-
45
"Tableau de Fesprit humain au milieu du XVIIP siecle," Elements de philosophic, in Melanges de litterature, d'histoire et de philosophic (Amsterdam, 1759), IV, 2-6. Translated and quoted by Ernst Cassirer,
The 46
Philosophy of the Enlightenment (Princeton, 1951), 3—4. D'Alembert's comments on Rousseau are taken from his Jugement
sur la Nouvelle Helo'ise and
Jugement sur Emile, probably written
1762. Oeuvres posthumes (Paris, 1799), [44]
I,
in
121, 123, 125, 128, 133-4.
THE CONTEMPORARY SETTING and Rousseau. As a
onciling the Enlightenment
indefatigable transmitter of ideas, news,
and
brilliant
gossip, his
the faithful echo of the prevailing thoughts of his times
cal
power and wit
Grimm
and of
power and money which sometimes
the moral corruption before
accompanied them.
and
words are
is
fascinated by the style, the polemi-
of Rousseau.
He
is
also impressed
by the 'Very
philosophical" discussion of the origins of languages and of love in the Discourse
on Inequality. These unexpected glimpses into
on the
prehistory are wonderfully entertaining. Still dwelling
remote past,
Grimm
Rousseau's analysis of the state of
likes
nature which avoids modern confusions, of which
Hobbes and
Pufendorf are particularly guilty: "The citizen of Geneva right to reproach
all
philosophers
who have thought
about
is
this
important matter for their failure to have a clear idea of the state of nature, to have always confused
have continuously transferred they had found in society."
Grimm
with the
to the state of
civil state
and
to
nature ideas which
47
obviously does not realize the importance of what he
has said and must lost in
it
still
believe he
is
praising Rousseau on topics
the night of time and with no bearing whatever on the
present. For
when
Rousseau
is
clearly
society
no more than
is
it
comes
to the present,
according to
Grimm,
wrong. His picture of the woes of modern a "masterpiece of eloquence."
His
criti-
cisms of arts and sciences are fallacious, for the progress of civilization
cannot be stopped. Rousseau has confused the animal
condition with the condition of man. In persisting in his attack
on the modern world in the preface
to Narcisse,
he
is
simply
worsening the bad impression already produced by a bad play.
Rousseau taken
47
it
is
"One is tempted make men hate their
a misanthrope:
upon himself
to
Grimm, Corresyondance
litteraire, II,
105;
III,
to say that
existence
he has
and
that
58, 54.
[45]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU he never
talks to
warn them
them about reason and happiness, except
that they are a thousand leagues
that they will never get near them."
The
list
could be lengthened.
48
The names
Helvetius would appear on
it.
ism, atheism, determinism,
would be seen
conflict.
in it
of d'Holbach
which the present was being used
closer to those writers
49
and
Rousseau's rejection of utilitarianas a
primary reason of
Often too the rupture could be brought back
was surely not by accident
to
away from them and
that
to the
way
or interpreted. Conversely,
Rousseau found himself much
who, beginning with inquiries into the
origins of
mankind, had either reached conclusions which Rous-
seau
supported his
felt
own
views, or
had simply been more
cautious or open-minded in drawing from
them inferences
ap-
plying to the present condition of man.
Condillac and Buffon belong to this group. Rousseau's friendship with Condillac, the brother of Mably, seau's early years in Paris. It
century
later, in
went back
was never disturbed and
to
Rous-
a third of a
1776, Rousseau, having failed in his attempt to
leave his manuscript of the Dialogues on the altar of Notre
Dame, turned
for help to Condillac,
48
who was,
"it is true,
philoso-
Ibid., Ill, 58; II, 320-2; IV, 395. For a somewhat different summary Grimm's attitude toward Rousseau, by Gagnebin and Raymond, cf. O.C. I, 1499-1501. 49 Rousseau sometimes describes his enemies as "Holbackiens" (Confessions, bk. ix, O.C. I, 438) and the "conspiracy" of his former friends as "Holbachique" (ibid., 401). He had found d'Holbach's friendship, acquired through Diderot, a curious one: "All my friends became his friends, which was natural enough but none of his became mine, which was less so" (Confessions, bk. viii, O.C. I, 369). At that time, his uneasiness derived from d'Holbach's great wealth. "You are too wealthy," he had once told him (ibid., 371). D'Holbach's materialism was to find its expression in the Systeme de la nature of 1770. On d'Holbach and Rousseau, cf. Pierre Naville, D'Holbach et la yhiloso'phie scientifique au
of
:
XVlir [46]
siecle (Paris,
1943), 72-83.
THE CONTEMPORARY SETTING pher, author, academician," but
who was
also honest.
50
Rousseau
had found Condillac's Essai sur I'origine des connaissances humaines of 1746 of great help in languages.
If
Rousseau cannot
said in his research,
given
him
The
chief
it is
study on the origins of
just repeat
even though
his initial ideas,
their analyses.
this
it
what Condillac had
confirms his views and has
because there are discrepancies in
that while Condillac presupposes
is
"some kind of society already established among the inventors of language," for Rousseau this the issue revolves.
is
the very question around which
51
Buffon was another contemporary
and doubts Rousseau for
felt
had
to
be
who
raised.
raised the questions
Hence,
his gratitude
someone who had, more than Condillac, contributed
to his
understanding and his fund of ideas about early man. Buffon's Histoire naturelle
had begun
to
appear in 1749,
very
at the
moment when Rousseau was beginning to concern himself with the problem of original man. By 1753, when Rousseau was writing his Discourse on Inequality, the sixth volume of Buffon's
work had been published, dealing with the natural man. In
it
history of
one could perhaps find the beginning of a solution
to a
problem not unworthy of the Aristotle of the century: "What experiments might be necessary to obtain a knowledge of natural
man; and how could we carry out these experiments within society?"
J2
He had
found in Buffon an analysis of the
50
Histoire
51
Discours sur I'origine de Vinegalite, O.C.
du precedent
ecrit,
O.C.
I,
981.
and the whole problem of Rousseau's "Recherches sur les Sources du Discours de influence
issue
Ill,
146.
On
Condillac's
sources, cf. Jean Morel, Vinegalite,"
Annales,
V
(1909), 119-98. For a perceptive discussion of the importance of contemporary studies on language and the relationships and differences between Condillac, Diderot, and Rousseau on these matters, see Franco Venturi, Lajeunesse de Diderot (Paris, 1939), 239-40, 262 52
O.C.
Ill,
ff.
123-4. [47]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU own: "Savage man
astonishingly close to his
is
...
animals the most singular, the least known, the most description, but
we
distinguish so
of
the
all
difficult of
between what nature
little
alone has given us and what has been communicated to us by education, art and example
we
.
.
.
that
it
would not be surprising
failed to recognize ourselves entirely in the
savage,
if
he were presented
the natural
traits
to us
alone which
if
portrait of a
with the true colors and with
make up
his character." If the
philosopher could really look at a savage, "perhaps he could savage
man more
was born only
in society."
clearly see that virtue belongs civilized
man, and
that vice
to
than to J3
Just as
Rousseau valued the anthropologists of his time more
clearly
than the philosophers.
They were helping him more
in the
concrete tasks at hand.
But the dominant derot.
was
must be
figure in this sketch
that of Di-
Rousseau and Diderot: the two "enemy brothers." There
their strong youthful friendship
and
close early identity of views followed
their
by
a
common
work, the
widening gap. The
bleak and long silences. In the end, Diderot's recognition of the
ambivalence of his
own
position. In
sum, Diderot's relationship
with Rousseau provides a most fascinating instance of the tribulations of literature
The two dozen 53
and philosophy
in the eighteenth century.
friends were tied by the closest links for
years,
and during
all
that time
one looked
more than a to the other
owe
this quotation to Starobinski, O.C. Ill, 1295-6; cf. also, Every student of Rousseau is indebted to him for his brilliant annotations of the Discourse on Inequality. Starobinski writes (1295) that "the idea of an experimental reconstruction of the origins/' accepted in the eighteenth century, was derived chiefly from Locke and from the 1
1
3 16-7.
experiments he advocates to prove that
man
has no innate ideas.
One
an instance of Locke's ambiguity. For in the fields of society and government the idea is certainly abandoned. And this is one of the reasons why Rousseau's ideas could find such meager support in could add that this
the
Two
[48]
Treatises.
is
THE CONTEMPORARY SETTING with the affection and interest that Rousseau makes very plain in the Confessions.
Nothing could exceed the agonies of Rousseau
when Diderot was
jailed,
for the Discourse
on Inequality was very
and the usefulness
of his friend's advice
great.
54
In those same
from Rousseau,
years Diderot probably learned a great deal
temporary society, "a recognizes
.
.
.
to
was
striking.
of con-
style of life
...
a morality
useful virtues and prudence."
cepted Montesquieu's views on the classical
city.
oC>
which only
They both
who
laments luxury, progress, property.
immediate agreement
at
because Diderot as well would like
"idolatry of intelligence."
If
it
is
there
is
Vincennes between Rousseau and Di-
derot on the proper answer to give to the also
academy
of Dijon,
blow
to deal a
last.
While Rousseau
fused to modify his position, Diderot shifted his grounds.
if
His
a certain incompatibility existed
style
of
more
other,
He
one cannot deny that Diderot
at ease in the society of his
is
life
"between the
thoughts of Diderot on the one end and social and cultural
on the
re-
taken the "paradoxes" of the First Discourse
with the deadly seriousness of Rousseau. changed, and
it is
to the
5T
This community of views did not
may never have
ac-
In his articles in
the Encyclopedic on agriculture, man, and the legislator,
Diderot
and
denounce the weaknesses
until the early fifties the similarity of their views
They were both moved
55
life
incomparably
time than Rousseau."
58
He now
54 Confessions, bk. vii, O.C. I, 348; bk. viii, O.C. I, 389. Cf. Jean Guehenno, Jean-Jacques: En Marge des Confessions, ij 12.-1 750 (Paris, 1948), 226 ff. 55
Proust, Diderot et VEncyclopedie, 341—2.
56
Antoine Adam, "Rousseau
et
Diderot,"
Revue des
sciences
hu-
maines (1949), 21. 57
In a few pages Adam gives an excellent analysis of the between Diderot and Rousseau. He also attributes to Grimm's thought more substance than is usually the case (22-3). 58 Herbert Dieckmann, Introduction to his edition of Diderot, Supplement au Voyage de Bougainville (Geneva, 1955), xciii-iv. Dieckmann Ibid., 22.
relationship
[49]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU joins the
'
enemy." Hobbes and Voltaire, the philosopher and the
man of affairs, now seem to him to human nature and government. The ing data which
make
attractive,
at
be telling the truth about economists are also providcertain practical
least for
purposes, the idea of utility and that of a society based on the satisfaction of individual interests.
59
In his Apologie de I'Abbe de Prades, Diderot in effect aban-
dons Rousseau on
many
pressed parallel views.
60
of the issues
From then on
on which they had
The
even though a kind of debate continues.
Diderot's answer to the economie politique?
answer
to the Droit naturel
ends with the break of 1757.
is 62
1
Droit naturel
The
dialogue
end of friendship
then, the
is
but Rousseau's
never published.
By
ex-
the disagreement deepens,
is
adds that Diderot met this residual incompatibility by the device of "soon stopping the publication of those of his works which expressed his personal thought and which he had most at heart" (ibid).
Or
as
Verniere
writes in his tormented appraisal of Diderot's politics, his eulogies of
Catherine the Great are public, while his criticisms remain hidden (Diderot, Oeuvres politiques, edited with Introduction and notes by Paul
Verniere [Paris, 1963], xxxvi). 59
Diderot's anxiety for
money and what he
did for
think of Rousseau, "of his poverty, of his pride
towards the powerful of this world" 60 61
62
it
filled
make Verniere with defiance
(ibid., xxxvii).
Adam, Diderot et Rousseau, 26-7. Rene Hubert, Rousseau et VEncyclopedie
(Paris, 1928),
On
friendship with
the quarrel that ended Rousseau's
Grimm, and
the other
members
26-29.
of the "holbachian conspiracy,"
Diderot,
and
that
Rousseau on his introspective path, the authentic text of a key item has now become available: Histoire de Madame de Montbrillant, started
Texte integral publie pour vols. (Paris,
195
la
premiere
1). In a careful
fois
.
.
.
par Georges Roth, 3
and judicious summing up
(I, vii-xlii),
Roth recounts the extraordinary history of this manuscript known since it was first "published" in Paris in 1 8 1 8 as the Memoires et correspondance de Madame d'Epinay. In its first version, it was a primary source of the legends and the fantasies that grew around Rousseau in the nineteenth century, until Frederika MacDonald published what Roth calls her "capital" work, /. J. Rousseau, a New Criticism, 2 vols. (London, 1906), the [5°]
THE CONTEMPORARY SETTING matched by
a contrast of ideas
rot's restlessness
ries
and
Two
when
which
is
not eliminated by Dide-
confronted with the outcome of the theo-
and
practices of his friends, both philosophers
kings.
points will be retained as of special importance.
man and
Natural
the state of nature appeared to Diderot as
something that could be retrieved. Having accepted, unlike Rousseau, existing social arrangements, which might be im-
proved upon but never
Diderot
set aside,
for his surrender to the pressures of the
felt that in
exchange
immediate world, he
should find an alternate world, not outside of history or of time, but available here and now. His Supplement au Voyage de Bougainville portrays Tahiti as a model of perfect and happy as the island
They
where man could seek refuge. Here
are both real,
separate
and man can take
his choice.
and without any influence upon one
life,
two worlds.
are
But they are
other.
Having
given up the possibility of a revolutionary transformation of the
world in which he
lives,
Diderot points to the remote islands as
the alternative. This lack of any dialectical tension between the
two worlds or between the present and the finds unacceptable: the past
No
our hands.
is
escape or transfer
with the society in which
we
is
future,
hold the future in
possible
and we must deal
63
live.
fruit of the first critical inspection ever
undertaken of the manuscript,
insertions, corrections, falsifications. Also indispensable are the
Henri Guillemin, "Les (1941-1942), 59—258, and of
A balanced
and,
we may
Rousseau
we
gone, but
Affaires
de
FErmitage,"
its
two works
Annates,
XXIX
Un Homme,
hope, final
deux ombres (Geneva, 1943). judgment on the matter is provided
by Jean Fabre, "Deux Freres ennemis, Diderot et Jean-Jacques," Diderot Studies, III (Geneva, 1961), 194-203. Fabre makes the admirable point that what Diderot and Madame d'Epinay concocted was no more than a secret weapon that was never used and whose authorship was not concealed. 63
The most
distinguishes
analysis of this issue
sensitive
"Introduction," op.
cit.,
is
that of
lxxxv-xciv. Speaking of Rousseau,
between the
real
and the
ideal states of nature
:
Dieckmann, Dieckmann
"The
first is
[51]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU Diderot's determinism often lacked the will to action, or a
autonomy and the moral freedom
belief in the
own
his
clearly.
free
man
of
to create
surroundings. His letter of 1756 to Landois shows this
Free will
beings.
.
is
.
What
actions,
added
act,
deceives us
"is
determined by the
is
"the motive
only external,
is
the prodigious variety of our
our habit from birth of confusing the voluntary
to
...
with the free
word and "there cannot be any
only what
are
When we
chain of events." foreign."
a meaningless
We
.
if
there
serving praise or blame.
.
.
no freedom, there
is
There
.
properly speaking: physical causes."
is
is
no action de-
only one set of causes,
64
Rousseau was then writing in the Nouvelle Heloise:
man, and
great deal of reasoning against the freedom of
these sophisms, because a reasoner can well prove to
all
am
not free, the internal sentiment, stronger than
"I
hear a
I
despise
me
all his
that
argu-
ments, will forever deny them; and no matter what decision take in any deliberation whatever,
I
am
convinced that
am
I
I
I
free
to take the contrary decision. All these subtleties of the school
are vain, because they prove too ple,
even
meaning. being
is
much ...
God
is
.
They begin by supposing
.
.
to listen to those peo-
not free, and the word of freedom has no that every intelligent
purely passive, and then deduce from this supposition
consequences to prove that he posing that
we
and
are active
placed in the past;
it
has been
is
free;
lost.
not active.
we The
.
feel that
.
we
.
We
are."
are sup-
65
on the and the norm by which
ideal state of nature,
contrary, continues to exist within us, but buried, hidden, repressed rejected.
By
reference to the present this ideal state
the condition of civilization
is
into the future as the goal towards 64
which mankind must
it
is
projected
aspire" (lxxxix).
Letter to Landois, June 29, 1756, in Diderot, Corresyondance, Roth,
ed. (Paris, 65
is
judged; at the same time,
1955),
La Nouvelle
I,
213-15.
Heloise,
i,
7,
O.C.
II,
683. Roth quotes part of this
passage in a footnote, and raises the question of whether Diderot's letter
was an answer [52]
to
it
(Diderot, Correspondance,
I,
213). Bernard Guyon,
THE CONTEMPORARY SETTING way
Against these radical differences on the
and
history
freedom of
ideal history
man
were
in arranging for a possible
other contrasts appear small. ever, is
is
66
which
in
What must
meeting of the two, be underlined, how-
Diderot's refusal to be narrow-minded or dogmatic.
neither Franklin nor Babeuf,"
6T
real
be related and the role and
to
and he cannot
"He
forget Rousseau.
Diderot was never quite at ease on the materialistic and deter-
The
ministic foundations of his thought.
Helvetius'
De VHomme moved him
book whose principal
thesis
publication in 1773 of
to a strong refutation of a
he could well
call his
own. But
Diderot finds that materialism alone cannot deal adequately with
human
nature.
The
complexities of
which Helvetius pushes
wrong and Helvetius
is right.
view of
man
man and
in society
in his annotations to
alluding to
De
Guyon seems people*
and
and
But
his
is
society,
La Nouvelle
agree with
'the school'
of enemies of freedom.
Diderot rejects
is
it Rousseau is one with Diderot. But
Heloise, feels that in
who was
Mornet "who
at
invites us to see in 'those
not just one man, Helvetius, but an entire group
Must we go back
to
Spinoza? Perhaps, but at
persons
who
we
feel
are close,
dangerous, at whose head Helvetius, d'Holbach, Diderot, are
marching" (O.C. 66
false."
but in the end Rousseau's
through these lines a polemical wind aiming living,
is
not enough: "Rous-
is
preferable. Rousseau's philosophy
VEsprit by Helvetius, to
this
Rousseau
consequences true; while your
and your consequences
Rousseau's view of
escape a philosophy
to excessive generalizations.
seau's principles are false
principles are true
man
II,
1779).
Proust, Diderot et V Encyclopedia,
makes
a
points on Diderot's distinction between strong
number
of interesting
and weak,
as
against
Rousseau's between rich and poor (3 72); on the general will (3 8 8-9; cf. infra, p. 172); on Diderot and physiocracy (466-7); on the support by Diderot of the "interests of a property-owning enlightened elite to whom a monarchy, politically absolute
and nomic domain, was useful" (510). 67
liberal in
thought and in the eco-
Verniere, in the Introduction to Diderot, Oeuvres philosophiques,
IV.
[53]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU made up
of "bits
"perhaps
I
Not only practice as
and
pieces," while Helvetius has a system.
is
it
the theory badly developed:
The
The
right of opposition
arbitrary
government of
a "just prince"
"Without
sacred:
is
69
fat pastures."
almost as bad as poverty,
evil
who
badly applied in
it
is
always bad.
the subjects are
herd whose protests are despised, on the excuse that
being led toward
an
it is
leads Helvetius to a defense of enlightened despot-
ism.
like a
And is
it
is
the view that boredom
is
the view of a "wealthy
man
has never had to fight for his dinner."
Rousseau cannot be dismissed. Diderot makes one to get closer to
year
But
68
would rather be him than you."
Rousseau and
to repudiate his
own
move
final
world.
The
Grimm is the target. In a letter unearthed by Grimm appears as a career man, without taste,
1781 and
is
Dieckmann,
70
reduced to the sad condition of servant of the powerful. In
men
general, says Diderot, is
a coward.
Linguet
better than the rest?
is
of letters offer a pitiful sight. Voltaire
a liar.
"Why
And why
is
Rousseau so much
Rousseau eloquent and Linguet
is
only a rhetorician? Because, consequent to certain principles, feel that the first
is
even
true,
second, without principles,
Rousseau 68
lies
Diderot,
only in the Refutation
VHomme, Oeuvres
is
when he false,
first line;
de
suivie
I
speaks falsely, while the
even
when he
from the Vouvrage
first
speaks truly.
line to the last
d'Helvetius
intitule
philosophiques, 575-6. Verniere writes "Against the
Montaigne and the on the new sciences which reveal
'behaviorism' of Helvetius, Diderot relies not only on entire tradition of
humanism, but
also
the infinite complexities of the world of life" (5 5 8). Fabre, "Deux Freres i s very illuminating. The Refutation was written in
ennemis" (204-7) 177469
Refutation, 619—20.
The
prince praised by Helvetius was Frederick.
Already in 1771 Diderot had launched a violent (but private) attack on this particular pet of the philosophers in his Pages contre un tyran
(Oeuvres yolitiques, 135-48), 70
[54]
Cf
.
his Inventaire.
first
published by F. Venturi in 1937.
THE CONTEMPORARY SETTING Linguet
is
a liar."
What Grimm
is
doing
is
to expose to public
contempt those of our citizens "whose enemies have of occupied the temples, the palaces, and the tribunals/'
"Death has been merciful with Diderot. not to forgive or to repent, not above choose."
has given
It
to
all
all
time
71
him time but
forget,
to
72
In the end, then, the issue was not chiefly one of personal conflicts,
but of ideas: "The confrontation was between two
conceptions of the world."
3
Rousseau became the enemy, be-
cause he was challenging current ideas about progress. result
was
philosophers to discredit him." as
on the part of the
"a continuing systematic attempt 74
Amiel saw nearly
The
a century ago:
The
opposition was a deep one,
"He was
for
God
against
d'Holbach, he was for providence against Voltaire, he found a soul in
man
against
La
Mettrie, he
was
for
moral freedom
against Diderot, for disinterested virtue against Helvetius, for
spontaneity against Condillac, for the rights of the heart against 71
M. Grimm,
Lettre apologetique de I'Abbe Raynal a
fhilosofhiques, 631—3. Diderot offers a bit of advice to
continue to curry the favor of the powerful apologist/' For,
when judged by
.
.
.
in
Oeuvres
Grimm: "You can
but do not be their Grimm could be
the tribunal of God,
thrown "into the cauldron where both the protectors and the damned race of the protected will roast for all time." Diderot must, however, agree with Grimm's possible answer that
world than in 72
"it is
better to be roasted in the other
this one."
"Deux Freres ennemis," 213. Fabre ends with 1782 when, in re-reading his Lettre sur les aveugles, Diderot "gives back to the heart all his rights. In this secret domain Fabre's conclusion of
a final anecdote of
And so Diderot writes: "I could man who arranges his flowers with the delicacy claimed by Rousseau when he was confiding to his friends, seriously or in fun,
Jean-Jacques has of necessity his place." cite a J.-J.
blind
his plan of
opening a school in which he would give lessons
to
the
flower-girls of Paris" (ikzd.). 73
Guillemin, in
74
De
J.-J.
Rousseau
et
son oeuvre, xxix.
Jouvenel, "Rousseau the Pessimistic Evolutionist," 84. [55]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU Maupertuis, against the absolutism of Hobbes."
communism
Indeed, Rousseau's protest of contemporary society."
wants
is
76
is
directed "against the very essence
Against the prevailing corruption, he
freedom and independence. Against greed
to protect his
and wealth he wants he
to
be poor. Against unbelief and skepticism,
anxious to reaffirm a belief in
communion with
of Morelly, against the
75
God and
a faith
which
his
the encyclofedistes, "far from weakening, had
only strengthened."
7r
Both Rousseau and the fhilosophes saw in Hobbes the fountainhead of eighteenth-century utilitarianism. of appetites to be satisfied,
showing
his
Man
was
fundamental
mass
a
traits
al-
ready in the state of nature. Contemporary thinking envisaged in essence a manipulative state which by skillfully allowing satisfaction of those needs
maintained peace and progress. Rousseau,
even under conditions of a "perfect hobbism," which, however,
he
felt
and
could never be realized, saw only tensions, degeneration,
crisis as its
table:
consequences. Both sides saw despotism as inevi-
one imagined
it
would be exercised with
a light
hand,
such as would not hamper the growth of freedom, of culture,
and wealth. The other
science,
identified in
factor, favoring the grossest cupidity ity of a self-reliant citizen
The
75
H.
76
Starobinski,
77
democracy.
to nearly
still
strong mercan-
F. Amiel, "Caracteristique generale /.-/.
18
everybody as a wonderful way of recon-
Rousseau,
la
de Rousseau/' 44—5.
transparence et I 'obstacle, 44.
viii, O.C. I, 362, 380, 392. published in abbreviated form in 1706;
Confessions, bk. First
second edition 1723; French translation 1740. F. B. Kaye (Oxford, 1924). [56]
possibil-
residues of the times. Mandeville's Table of the Bees
had appeared
78
a demoralizing
century had started with a steady development of hobbe-
sian utilitarian individualism, adapted to the tilistic
it
and destroying the
first full
edition, 1714;
The modern
edition
is
by
THE CONTEMPORARY SETTING autonomy needed
ciling the individual
to satisfy private interest
with the retention of a guiding public hand. Mandeville was not
The
a precursor of laisser-faire.
title
page slogan, "private
vices,
publick benefits" meant that "private vices, by the dexterous
management
of a skillful politician
benefits."
"They
the whole
is
This
is
are silly people
who imagine
Melon has
the political and economic society
in his essay
on commerce of 1734.
profit of society.
Luxury
some
drunkenness absent.
is
must
is
human it,
of
mind
passions for the
we can hope to human behavior:
limited to the countryside,
Luxury provides well-being, and
the multitude
in
the necessary consequence of a prop-
of the negative aspects
now
79
We are dealing with a corrupt
exploit
Indeed, by fostering
erly policed society.
eliminate
that the good of
consistent with the good of every individual."
world, and the legislator
still
might be turned into publick
where luxury
is
this is necessary for
which cannot be kept happy with glory alone and
spartan virtues.
There
is
the economic argument, too, that the
poor are nourished and kept working by growing luxury.
What-
ever might be said about religion trying to destroy luxury, the state
must exploit
80 it.
Rousseau found these ideas shocking and said that they repre-
them
sented a total reversal of western thinking. Voltaire liked
much he put Melon
to verse in
Le Mondain two
so
years later.
81
Mandeville, A Letter to Dion (1732), edited with an Introduction by Jacob Viner (Los Angeles, 1953), 36—7, 49. Viner is convincing in his demonstration of the mercantilistic leanings of Mandeville. He also 79
reminds us that Helvetius, in writes that personal interests
De
V Esprit, echoes Mandeville
would lead
to a
good society only
by a clever legislator" (15). Melon, Essai politique sur le commerce
when he if
"manip-
ulated with skill 80
J.
F.
"Du Luxe/' 129—30, 132-6, 81
1
In 1737 Voltaire followed with the Defense
Lettre a
M.
le
Comte de
le luxe, les
du Mondain and
the
Saxe, both apologies for luxury. In 1738 he
wrote the Observations sur
commerce,
(Paris, 1734), ch. ix,
50-1.
MM
monnaies
Jean Lass, Melon et Dutot, sur le Dutot even
et les impots. Voltaire likes
[57]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU
When Hume's his
essays
were
first
translated into French in 1754,
more moderate arguments on economic man and luxury and
his reservations
added by the
about Mandeville were masked by long footnotes
translator,
who by
Rousseau,
and
ridiculous
quoting Melon or indirectly attacking
then had made his views known.
It
useless, said the translator, to attack sciences
was
and
What
praise ignorance or to go about dressed like a "quaker."
Melon has written on luxury disposes of all these arguments. 82 Without question the Hobbes-Mandeville-Melon-Voltaire line of thought, this extraordinary mixture of philosophy, eco-
nomics, and literature, offered the most attractive explanation
and
justification of current life.
Even
a moralist such as
Vauve-
nargues, in a Discourse on the Inequality of Wealth, written in
1745 but unpublished until the end of the century, spoke of
men
natural
as
"monsters," destroying one another through
"frightful slaughter." Early
man was
kind," given to "impious customs."
wealth was established,
needed charity.
to 83
make
The
of doctrines
rich
it
was on
indeed the "shame of man-
When,
later,
and poor equal was the obligation of sweep
kind were few and
faint.
and
practices of this
an excessive attachment sion.
was
voices raised against the all-encompassing
Fenelon could say that luxury corrupts a nation; 85
inequality of
"just foundations." All that
to
wealth
is
84
Claville that
the most tyrannical pas-
Morelly could link greed and property and suggest that an
Melon. Dutot's work, Reflexions folitiques sur les finances et commerce, was a "hard money" man's answer to Melon's "inflationary" tendencies: cf. Paul Harsin's Introduction, xvii-xxi, to his edition of
better than le
Dutot, 2 vols. (Paris, 1935). 82 David Hume, Discours politiques, 2 vols. (Paris, 1754),
Melon 83
84
[58]
quoted
II,
II,
81-3.
at II, 52, 63, 75, 85, 92.
Discours sur Vinegalite des richesses,
1806), 85
is
Oeuvres completes (Paris,
201, 202, 205.
Plan de gouvernement (171 1), Oeuvres (Paris, 1824), XXII, 595. du vrai merite de I'homme (Paris, 1734), 308-11.
Traite
THE CONTEMPORARY SETTING would
ideal republic
abolish property.
86
But no echo of these
could be heard. Montesquieu himself was
voices
ineffective,
because the Persian Letters were then more important than the Spirit of the
The
Laws.
physiocrats might be opposed to luxury for reasons Rous-
make
seau could in part
his
own
:
it
weakened the only produc-
tive class, that of agricultural workers.
87
But
their
approach to
economic problems was in the mainstream of the times, and
Quesnay wrote
in his article
on Grains
in the Encyclopedie that
expensive bread would keep small people working hard and
away from
laziness.
88
Whether
the physiocrats, by saying that
only land was profitable, were trying to achieve a tural society or
economic
whether they were trying
to
develop modern
they were certainly satisfied with traditional
policies,
by
despotic political forms, softened only judicial control. In
any
case, they stood
a partial introduction of
opposed
tionary thought of Rousseau, hidden from view
defense of an obsolete economic system.
Apart from the
static agricul-
to the revolu-
by
his
seeming
89
and of
specific content of doctrines of utility
pragmatic political arrangements, Rousseau judged the world
around him
as
of the contrast
of the
human
one of deception, one
to
be measured in the light
between the shiny surface and the infernal depths
soul, the
appearance of politeness and the being of
crude selfishness. Late in
life,
he looks back on
his former friends
86
Cf.
Grimm, Correspondance
87
M.
R. de Labriole-Rutherford, "L'Evolution de la notion
depuis Mandeville jusqu'a
la
Utteraire,
II,
219.
du luxe
Revolution," Studies on Voltaire,
XXVI
(Geneva, 1963), 1034. 88 Henri Denis, "Deux Collaborateurs economiques de YEncyclopedie:
Quesnay 89
et
Rousseau," La Pensee (Sept -Oct., 195 1), 46-7.
Fetscher, Rousseaus Politische Philosophie, offers this
summary: The
physiocrats used traditional political forms to achieve revolutionary eco-
nomic goals while Rousseau pushed revolutionary political forms tain traditional economic and social relationships (257).
to
main-
[59]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU and
asks
:
Am
I
forced to choose between a "rootless and fruitless
some noisy
morality," "pompously displayed in books or in tions
on the
stage,
ac-
but of which nothing ever penetrates the
heart or reason," and a "secret and cruel morality, internal doctrine of all their initiates to as a
mask?"
No
which the other morality
such choice was possible in a world in
progress
meant the disappearance
modern
industry,
cities
and mines were making
of mass poverty; in
human
life unfit for
mankind, were driving the peasants
which
to
to the
ruin
which
beings; in
contempt of
and
to
vain
I,
1022.
91
90
Les Reveries du fromeneur
91
Moraze, La France bourgeoise, 76.
[60]
in
crisis,
of artisans, the beginnings of
and the extension
which land "enclosures, " held up by Rousseau
protest.
serves only
90
solitaire, 3
e
Promenade, O.C.
Ill
Way
Rousseau Seeks His
WE are in the orchard of Madame de Warens in the countryside Rousseau
of Savoie.
Indeed,
it is
is ill
because he thinks he
pelled to
commit some
Were he
to
But since
what he
case,
is
At
feels
com-
work
for the is
good of
entitled to
do
people repleted with wealth and
we
throughout their lives?" In
have
shall
to see
whether those
me
poetry are ready to employ
do
to
1
twenty-five,
the society he
to
an end, he
to
just that
tells us,
my
criticize
better.
coming
"How many
Rousseau
something
dying that he
and he would have
his life
pleases.
who may
be near death.
of his thoughts to paper, in poetic form.
brimming with health do any
is
to
enjoy good health he would feel a sense of responsi-
bility for his activities
society.
and considers himself
Rousseau already
knows he
will
feels the
have soon
vague
to face.
hostility of
His years
at
Les
Charmettes are the years of innocence, solitude, and peace, of
happy days spent and flowering envy
in a pastoral landscape of
trees.
He
has learned to look without regret and
at the "frivolous taste of senseless mortals."
groping for the order he knows 1
II,
murmuring waters
is still
His mind
missing from his
is
life.
he Verger de Madame la Baronne de Warens, Avertissement, O.C 123-4. Le Verger, published in 1739, was probably written in 1737.
1
[61]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU Geneva
is still
present in his
mind
as a fixed point to
which
again and again he will come back in spite of the difficulty of fitting the small
ideal views of
and no longer democratic community
man and
which must be protected from back
wisdom
to the
slavery
be
will try to
He
if
into his
the dear fatherland
Geneva can
still
community. Her
spirit of
by recovering the
as free as
is
present follies and brought
its
of the old ways.
and recover the ancient
be happy
will
Geneva
society.
avoid
citizens
faith of their ancestors they
they were.
has spent these years of peace and happiness reading a
great deal
2
and
men and on the The Orchard of Madame
on the mistakes of
reflecting
And
good and bad things they do.
in
He
de Warens he summarizes his thoughts.
has tried to enter
which move the universe.
into the hidden principles
He
has
observed nature, which has appeared to him touching and
ways pure this task
in the Cleveland of the
Newton he can examine
to
He
is
helped in
the laws of bodies and of
thought. In reading Locke he can see the development of
He
has also been fumbling with Descartes
The
Latin classics from Horace to Plutarch
the history of ideas.
and
Prevost.
by Socrates and the divine Plato. With Leibniz, Male-
branche, and
human
Abbe
al-
his aberrations.
Cicero occupy a large place in his reading, as do the modern
from Pope
Fenelon. Claville and Saint Aubin are
to Barclay to
also included.
He
moving and
finds Voltaire
his writings will
always be dear to his heart. But, Rousseau adds,
always refuse any frivolous essay please the
may
He
can well abound in
well spread flowers everywhere.
my spirit 2
spirit.
"I
has to be satisfied."
soon realized that
diction
among
taste will
.
.
brilliant antitheses, .
My heart
to
he
rather than
3
these authors were in nearly constant contra-
all
themselves.
"my
whose author only wishes
.
.
.
My
head was confused and
I
was mak-
ing no progress." Rousseau then decided to read only for the purpose of
accumulating a "store of ideas" (Confessions, O.C.
I, 237). In 1735 he reassures his father that he has developed a system of study to add to his fund of useful knowledge as well as to "form my heart 3
[62]
ROUSSEAU SEEKS HIS WAY He
not frightened by poverty, a condition which he finds
is
natural to him.
He
what
asks
is
the reason to do good in his
anybody worthy of being rescued from the
century. Is there
ranks of the poor?
Is it
possible to be honest
and poor?
Isn't it
better to use wealth in order to enjoy the pleasures of life rather
than to be charitable?
The
conclusion
that
is
it is
much
better to
the rich follow these "frightful sentiments," to stay altogether
let
clear of their influence,
poverty."
From
and
to
be ready,
if
necessary, "to face
4
the beginning, then, Rousseau
of poverty
is
haunted by the theme
and wealth and has no sympathy with the widespread
notion of his times that there are advantages in poverty and that the poor ought to be
making 1
74 1
it
happy
in the
knowledge that they are
possible for the rich to carry on. In a letter written in
to Bordes, his friend then, his adversary later,
that there
he suggested
was no wisdom where poverty ruled: "Under the
weight of hunger, defeated worth allows virtue to be extin-
many pompous
guished in a sad heart. So
discourses on the happi-
ness of indigence are clearly born in the midst of plenty: clever
philosopher, careful always to preach the virtues he does not
need."
5
Later,
Rousseau was
in the poor
Here he rich
maintain the opposite theory that only
can the authentic qualities of
is still
and the
to
man
be kept
alive.
puzzled by the paradox of poverty exalted by the
false piety of
accept for themselves.
He
men who is
worried about the degradation
praise
what they
refuse to
ready to face poverty, but he it
is
entails.
In any case, he had resolved to use as his guide the work of
Father Lamy, Entretiens sur to
wisdom and
virtue/'
And
the purpose of his studies
my 4
QC.G.
is
in
les sciences,
1736 he
32-4, 47); C.C. Le Verger, O.C. II, 1 124-9.
spirit"
I,
5
Letter to Bordes, 1741, O.C.
6
Confessions, bk.
vi,
O.C.
tells
that "of forming
I,
II,
I,
6
having been impressed
another correspondent that
my
heart and of cultivating
31-4, 42.
1131.
232. [63]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU by Lamy's views on fortify one's
own
tribulations of
history.
History was useful above
From
life.
history,
Lamy
writes
all
man and
resignation before the follies of
to
the
and Rousseau
"we recognize the malignity and
transcribes in his Chronology,
we learn the contempt with which wealth and we learn that great fortunes lead
misery of men, their vanity,
we must
consider
often to terrible catastrophes/'
The
which Rousseau
tanism which
is
of
objects, for they introduce a cosmopoli-
value.
little
And when
honest man."
my
country,
my
to
But
be
to
common
Rousseau
community
mankind more family and
my
expressing sentiments which
men.
this
cosmic vision lacks the concreteness
is
to the historical experience.
the
man who
And he
ill-defined notions?
my
an
to all
which must be attached to his
"I love
country more than is
convinced that
is
parts of the study of
Fenelon writes,
family more than myself," he
ought
Rousseau
must be "one of the principal
history
than
on the other hand, has views on
"illustrious" Fenelon,
history to
7
asks:
harbors such
"Are
we
How useful humane but
permitted to ignore
the things that are of interest to us and to our families? Should
we not be fully informed of our own affairs, and is there one man of common sense who would refuse to take any part in what goes on around him?" It is
8
with these questions in mind that Rousseau faces the
problems of education and writes the two essays of 1740 and 9
1743, in which he gives us an anticipation both of some of his 7
Quoted by Rousseau des temps,
generate
Dufour, "Pages inedites de
Lamy
is
quoted
8
Ibid.,
9
Projet pour
at
in his
dated circa J.-J.
Chronologic universelle,
1737 and
first
ou
histoire
published by T. L.
Rousseau," Annates,
I
(1905), 213—20.
217.
215. I
'education de
M.
dc Sainte-Marie (1740), Oeuvres de
Rousseau, ed. E. A. Lequien (Paris, 1821), XII, 3—2,7; Fragment du J.-]. memoire presente a M. de Ste Marie pour V education dc son fits (1743),
C.G. f6 4 ]
I,
367-79.
ROUSSEAU SEEKS HIS WAY on education and of the Discourse on Arts and
later ideas
Sci-
ences as well.
The problems
of education are external
and
internal.
external insofar as they relate to the specific task of
young man a member of
his society.
They
these are the most important problems
proper training
The
and development
ultimate end of education
is
to
way of dealing with is to make sure, from
making the
are internal
—and
they relate to the
as
mind
make
of the student.
of the student a
the external requirements of
best
education
young person
that the
is
the earliest possible
Hence, the need
activities
and
moment,
not cut off from the world and does not
follow a solitary path which will inevitably life.
are
man."
"perfect
The
—
of the
They
make him
unfit for
to
encourage active participation in the
intellectual
exchanges of the groups within which
the student finds himself.
And
this
exposure to the world cannot
take place at too early an age.
Whether Rousseau
is
himself a teacher capable of carrying out
education along these lines he cannot say. traits
He
is
aware of certain
of a negative kind, chiefly of his inability to engage actively
in that social intercourse
he
is
recommending, because
essentially
he does not care for the opinion of others. Hence he finds difficult to
acquire an inclination to social
life.
seau accepts the requirements of the social does not accept the extreme
student
who
There
is
will enter society should
young person
to attain that happiness.
the educator: he
is
to
of his times,
He
he
feels that the
to control himself.
may
the central issue
is
Rousseau sees a choice confronting
try to satisfy the passions of his pupil, or
satisfaction of pleasure
is
and unhappiness. The only way
remember
be able
Although Rous-
moderate them. His decision cannot be in doubt.
immoderate ness
life.
make him happy. But
of a
try to
of that
very
general agreement that the purpose of the education
how may
way
life
it
that the convenience
he
The
in itself a source of uneasiis
and the
to
check passions and
to
tranquility of others are [65]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU to
be taken into account.
No
alone in the world. satisfy his desires
But the major
ment
of the
mind
without
It is
not possible to behave as
rational
man
if
one
is
can believe that he can
limit.
task confronting the educator of his pupil,
the develop-
is
and here Rousseau proposes
as the
proper task of education the development of the heart, the judg-
ment, and the
spirit,
in that order. It
is
only from right senti-
ments, buttressed by reason, that a mind capable of dealing with the problems of tors
who
life
can be formed.
How
wrong
are those educa-
think that the accumulation of information
is
the only
object of a good education. Rousseau agrees with Moliere that "a
learned idiot
mon
is
more of an
idiot
than an ignorant
Com-
idiot."
sense comes before the abstract constructions of reason: "It
appears indeed that
common
sense depends
much more upon
sentiments of the heart than from the enlightenment of the
and
it is
a fact that the
not always those 10
life."
much."
What
is
themselves best in the
affairs of
"to think rightly rather than to
know
n
In the light of these principles, what studies?
spirit
most learned and enlightened people are
who conduct
matters
There must be no
is
a proper curriculum of
cluttering of the
mind
of the
young
with a multiplicity of precepts about religion and morality. not in this
way
will guide his tiring his
that the pupil can acquire "solid principles
conduct for the
memory with
rest of his life.
as
.
.
It is
which
Rather than
.
the detail of laws and duties, one should
dispose his spirit and his heart to
them
the
know them and
to appreciate
the occasion will arise."
The same
rule applies in the teaching of history
and geogra-
phy, where the dryness of a mere chronological treatment should
be eliminated. In any
case,
modern
rather than ancient history
should be taught. Also to be eliminated as useless are rhetoric, logic,
and
scholastic philosophy.
10
Oeuvres, 1821
11
Letter to d'Eybens (spring 1740), C.G.
[66]
ed., XII, 16. I,
124; C.C.
I,
116.
ROUSSEAU SEEKS HIS WAY The
sciences, while not to
be neglected, cannot "take preced-
ence over morals," especially in a lively and
to think
first.
"If
he has had the misfortune of allowing
his heart
man
if
he doesn't learn
be corrupted, sciences will be jn his head
to
mind. For
how
they are of no use to straight
restless
as
weapons in the
hands of a madman." (The same thought reappears ten years later in the
Discourse on Arts and Sciences, where science
Of
is
some teaching
of
mathematics and the natural sciences will be required. But
it
attacked as a "dangerous weapon.")
course,
should never outweigh the teaching of morals and of natural
knowledge of "the principles of good and
law, because only the evil
and of the foundations on which
member he
rests the society
whose
worthy of an honest man.
is," is
Always, in any case, the teaching of history will have to be the core of the right plan of education: "I will not lose sight of history as the principal object of all his studies
branches reach out the furthest over
As Rousseau
human
raises
sciences,
he
is
Vico (the defender of
New we is
all
and
as that
other sciences."
history to such a lofty position
among
forging a link with Vico, both the early
humane
and the Vico of the
sciences)
Science (the champion of history, because
we know what
do), whose final version was even then in the making.
the
whose
12
same polemical note against
scientific
There
education at the
expense of a humanistic one; the same complaint against the attempt to
make
of
man, who
is
moral being, a machine
a
subjected to the rules of mathematical thinking; the same conclusion of
:
the placing of history on the highest rung of the ladder
human
sciences,
as history
therefore the most certain
through which
was the creation of man and
and valuable
man would know
himself.
12
Oeuvres de
13
In the Project on Education there
].-].
Rousseau, 1821
Abbe de Mably's views on Romains
tool available to
ed., XII, 13, 12, 26. is
a favorable reference to the
history, published in
et des Frangais. Pierre
man and
13
Grosclaude
1740 in the Parallele des Rousseau a Lyon [Paris,
(/. J.
[67]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU The
reading of a French translation of Pope's Essay on
one of
inspires Rousseau, in 1742, to write
statements of these early years.
and the happy likes
life.
He does
him very much on
The
the
Man
most significant
about the "chain of being"
It is
not like Pope at
all
on the former; he
latter.
attempts to establish an unbroken continuity from the
lowest to the highest forms of
"In spite of
And
and beyond, are bound
Montaigne and Pope
to
to fail:
ennoble
always remains a furious leap from there to rea-
between animal and human
just as the link
at this point, so the
and the
life
breaks
chain does not end with God, because reason
between the creator and
will never find a relation infinite
life,
the efforts of
all
instinct, there
son."
14
his
his work, the
finite.
But how overwhelmingly moving once but twenty times,
we
is
Pope
what he
in
says (not
are told) about the conditions of
happiness: "That vice can never be happy. That virtue delivered to
sorrow knows greater happiness than vice in the midst of pleas-
ures."
And "what
is
virtue or the peace of the heart
the happiness of
to
Mr. Pope, beyond
is its
fruit, to satisfy fully
needed according
which
man? Only two
things, health
and what
is
1933], 46-49) suggests that it was in this way that Rousseau first started about the problems of progress in arts and sciences and of luxury
to think
as they affect the condition of
man. In
his Parallele,
Mably had expressed arts. But this was
himself strongly in favor of progress and luxury and the a position taken it
was Mably,
by
or
all
writers of the time
Melon
or Voltaire
who
and
it is
difficult to say
whether
Rousseau
as their
appeared
to
what is unique is that by the time Rousseau wrote his first Discourse, Mably himself had altered his stand and come close to Rousseau in some essays on the Greeks and the Romans which he published in 1749 and 1751 (Grosclaude, 50). The question should then strongest advocates. Rather
perhaps be put in reverse:
and sciences 14
as a result of
Was Mably won
over to a
critical
view of
arts
Rousseau's influence?
Letter to de Conzie, January 17, 1742. This letter was discovered and published in 1962 by Jean Nicolas, "Une Lettre inedite de J. -J. Rousseau," Annates historiques de la Revolution frangaise (1962), 385-96, text of the letter 389-96. The letter is also in C.C. I, 132-43. [68]
ROUSSEAU SEEKS HIS WAY necessary.
Happy
is
men on
a sad spectacle to see
is
enough
the heart moderate
happiness to which Mr. Pope
tries to
to secure a
and
veritable sources of
lead them."
Rousseau agrees entirely with >what also realizes that, if
satisfied! It
earth rush after honors
abandon the
chimerical goods and therefore
be
to
Pope
saying.
is
But he
he follows Pope's advice, he will never be able
foothold on the shore of fame and comfort he had
dimly perceived in Lyon the year before, houses of the powerful. But he
is
one of the
as tutor in
reconciled to his fate and closes
the letter by quoting, eight years before inscribing
on the
it
title
page of the Discourse on the Arts and Sciences, Ovid's verse: 15
"Barbarus hie ego sum, quia non intelligor
When
at the
same time Rousseau addresses
verse to one of his friends, Parisot, there that
he
is
illis."
The
taking a different line.
between contemporary
his
is
to believe
always the same
Genevan upbringing moral outlook. Rous-
rigidities of his
seau's verses are evidence of the
no reason
contrast
and
civilization
and the semijansenistic
is
a long letter in
continued anxiety caused by the
world with which he feared he would have to come to terms.
He
could not forget the outlines of an ideal
equal citizens,
all
called this
upon
to
sacrifices
of
they are going to be
make, and of the heroic stature which because of
they are bound to acquire. But before his eyes are paraded
the very different pleasures of taste,
opulent
This ble
made up
sharing in the exercise of sovereign power and
aware of their duties, of the
all
state,
the attractions of an
life. is
what Rousseau
and enslaved, but
ideas
all
tells his
his
friend: his life
is
now
misera-
youth has been influenced by other
and he has been taught that he has
to love his fellow
men
15
Ibid., 391, 393, 395—6. In his interesting presentation of the letter, Nicolas reminds us that in his 1756 letter to Voltaire on Providence,
Rousseau was to express an identical view on the chain of being (387); and adds that here for the first time Rousseau brings together his thoughts
on nature, virtue and happiness (388). [69]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU and
that
he has
obey the laws of the community.
to
been taught that even though he was merely
he had
citizen
No
had
privilege
has also
member
because he was a
city
doubt had been to
He
weak and obscure
a right to share equally in the exercise of the
supreme power of the sovereign.
a
left in his
mind
of the
that such a noble
be defended and safeguarded with the heart and
the dedication of a hero and the virtues of a philosopher.
He
had
therefore learned that the divine gift of freedom can be a fatal disease
when
on these learn
given to evil men. In Geneva he had been nursed
principles, not to press
how
even for legitimate
and how
to obtain the best magistrates
but to
rights,
to secure the
wisest laws.
The
contrast offered
dominate
by
societies in
Whatever "power
striking.
is
which art
arts
and sciences
had produced
is
quite
soon destroyed by luxury," while the greatest force of democracy is
in
but
its
weakness:
"We live without regret
within our soul
at least
we
live in
obscurity
freedom." In Geneva "arts
are not the support of our republic: politics."
humble
in a
to
be just
is
the only
In words recalling those of the dedication of the dis-
Genevan
course of 1754, Rousseau adds that
magistrates, with-
out any exhibition of glittering uniforms and luxury, are, however, not lost in the
mass of the
citizens.
They
stand out, but
because of what they do.
On
the other hand, he
friends
and
pleasures." It
He
is
Don
now was
is
Quixote:
"It
Why
me."
16
[70]
should he try
would not be good
less inequality
among
regulated the estates on earth and for
some innocent
right to learn to practice virtue without excess.
overtaken by pessimism.
should be
enjoying "more polished
a less savage climate together with
for society
be a that
new there
.
Destiny has
will surely not
change them
its it
to
classes.
.
.
16
Letter to Parisot, July 10, 1742, O.C.
II, 1
136-44.
ROUSSEAU SEEKS HIS WAY The letter to Parisot may show the uncertainties of someone who has not yet found his way. But it seems too much to say that Rousseau evokes
his egalitarian
purpose of rejecting them. silk
They
are
still
much
very
for the
and the elegant
life
of the cities
may be
The
alive.
manufacturers of Lyon and their "innocent industry"
there, is
and republican memories
exciting.
1T
are
But
this
not a permanent accommodation on Rousseau's part or a
renunciation of the democratic community.
18
In spite of the
doubts besetting him, he knows that a choice must be that the search
must be continued
which the simple
necessities
to find Pope's
become, in the
good book, a friend, freedom and peace."
making the choice and of finding
made and
happiness in
letter to Parisot, "a
The
that happiness
possibility of
eludes
still
him
in 1742.
He
will
have
to
spend wandering and unsatisfactory years in
the midst of a world he increasingly rejects.
Venice and back
From
Paris to
Les Muses galantes and Les
to Paris; writing
Fetes de Ramire and earning Voltaire's appreciation; composing articles
on music
for
the
Encyclofedie,
at
wealth. This 1 746, in
is
a "sad
and slow
career,"
which "vain and tumultuous
request
the
d'Alembert; earning his living as an employee of
men
Rousseau laments in
projects" are forever
ising
him "happiness and wisdom." So much planning
ing.
The
reason
with
satisfied
fortune.
.
.
.
is
the
Woe
that ambition
necessary, to the
is
has
of
of great
at the root of little
contemptible mortal
fear
who
prom-
for nothit.
of
"Man, adverse
in his insati-
able soul nourishes an ardent thirst for gold." 17
1741,0.0. II, 113 1-2. Maurice Masson, La Religion de ].-]. Rousseau (Paris, 191 6), I> 1 3>3^ agrees with this view. Starobinski ("Tout le mal vient de rinegalite," Europe [Nov.-Dec. 1961], 142) takes a contrary view and suggests that Rousseau's vows of democratic faith are no sooner uttered than they are withdrawn, in an act of acceptance of civilized life and the frivolities of mundanity. 18
Letter to Bordes,
Pierre
[71]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU The man.
desire for wealth
He
is
not the only evil surrounding civilized
behaves as
also
"Woe
important ones:
own
his
if
interests
men,
to all violent
own
untouched by anything except their
wishes to appear different from what he
weakness and
wisdom the
call
and
thinks,
approaching.
On
"They
:
be the
moment
first
to declare himself for
new
of liberation. In his
literary world,
uses a
mocking and
by Le
Persiffleur, a
also
mask
their 19
He
perhaps
is, is
of 1749
and
of the
what was supposed
seems
to anticipate the
role of critic
he
what
will say
indeed of the world
satirical style,
proposed
all
what he
summer
the eve of the
issue of a journal.
he thinks of the
Man
will feel free to say loudly
"illumination" of Vincennes, Rousseau drafts to
mortals left
to all
felicity."
inclination they have adopted."
But the moment when Rousseau
what he
is
were the only
at large.
He
such as would be required
critical
journal of review of
new
books after the English models which Condillac, Diderot, and
Rousseau were
to publish together.
But the
and the
wit,
flare for
sudden and dramatic contrasts that
will
literary career, are here, as well as a
disenchanted and independ-
stamp
all
of Rousseau's
ent attitude toward the contemporary writers and scribblers
and the dispensers of
jesters,
the
who
will
useless information,
soon be arrayed against him.
The
arrows point straight and true.
Rousseau has never
wasted his time reading anything printed in the contemporary journals nor has he lost any time in the study of sciences. repeats again
what he had
told the father of his
be able to judge, one does not have required
is
to think straight
His character other.
His mood
encies:
19
[72]
is
and be able
unstable.
varies,
He
to
Lyon
be learned.
He
tutees: to
What
is
to write.
moves from one extreme
to the
but there are certain fundamental consist-
"The reappearance
L'Allee de Sylvie, O.C.
II,
of the
1
146-9.
same
objects usually
renews
ROUSSEAU SEEKS HIS WAY me reactions similar to those I had He is always the same with the same
the
in
alternating constantly
between
his
time
first
person.
I
saw them."
He saw
two hebdomadal
himself as
one
souls:
week he would be "wisely mad," the next he would be "madly wise," with
the is
madness always underlying both weeks. But
madness that enabled him
the concluding sentence of
in the 20
Le
this
"to stand always for truth."
Le
Persiffleur.
A
20
few months
was
This later,
Discourse on Arts and Sciences, he was to take his stand. Persiffleur,
O.C.
I,
1
106,
1
109-10,
1 1
12.
[73]
IV Rousseau Faces the Enlightenment The Statement
UNTIL
1749 Rousseau had only some plays and poetry and a
Dissertation on political
Modern Music (1743)
in print.
had reached the eye of the public. Some good formula-
tions of his thoughts
had come
to state
had occurred
to
them openly, even
him, however, and the time if
he had
which might be considered paradoxical,
The
Almost nothing
issue to
which Rousseau intended
do
it
or worse,
by
his friends.
in a
himself was
to address
than that of the relation between the nature of
nothing
less
and the
institutions of civilization.
way
to
The theme
man
proposed by the
Academy of Dijon, Has the Restoration of the Sciences and Arts Tended to Purify Morals?, gave him the chance he needed. 1 As we open the Discourse on Arts and Sciences, the tension is apparent. Rousseau
is
eighteenth century and 1
Discours sur
caught in the heady atmosphere of the is
almost overwhelmed by
les sciences et les arts
it.
His friends,
(1750), O.C. Ill, 1—30. For the which enabled him to break
celebrated account of the "happy chance,"
the
ties
keeping him "bound
to a society
which
I
esteemed so
Rousseau's second letter to Malesherbes, January 1
135-6.
[74]
12,
little," cf.
1762,
O.C.
I,
ROUSSEAU FACES THE ENLIGHTENMENT
to
appears
be carried away by the promise of the times as they open up
an endless vista of a
He
excitement of the age, press on him.
his readings, the
new
human
progress
historical era. Life has
man
the account
and
changed
gives of himself
is
Man
felicity.
is
living in
few generations and
in a
a source of emotion
and
wonder.
What we self,
are witnessing
through his
own
the spectacle of
is
efforts,
through the use of his rational
man away from
was
this
lifting
past.
him-
He
is,
the darkness in
lights, dissipating
which nature had enveloped him. True, darkness intended to keep
man
above the void of the
a protective
the dangers inherent
own potentialities. But the results have been man has reached to the outermost regions of the
in a full use of his
remarkable and
universe and with giant strides encompassed
This
a grandiose
is
What would
the attempt by
man
to grips
far
its
endless reaches.
on the part of man.
more trying would be
from these outer boundaries of
with himself and with the task of
nature, his duties,
and
his ends.
Rousseau caught in the forward sweep of
than he recoils from
most
to retreat
own
understanding his is
effort
be even more striking and
knowledge and come
sooner
and moving
difficult
with the inner
and self
its
No
his times
frightening horizons and proclaims as the
as the
most important issue that of dealing
and of identifying the proper
tasks of
man
in
society.
The
question
is
whether or not those philosophers who have
claimed the leadership in the enlightenment of mankind are
engaged in lieves
this
endeavor. Rousseau makes
it
clear that
he be-
they are not, as one looks at the substance of the writings
of the
most influential among them.
tudes
is
What
they teach the multi-
wrong: "One holds that there are no bodies and that
everything
is
appearance. Another that there
other than matter, or any
God
is
no substance
but the world. This one suggests
that there are neither virtues nor vices
and that moral good and [75]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU evil are chimeras.
That one
one another with
a
These
are the views
Mandeville,
pushed man world and
to
Hobbes far
that
men
good conscience. "
of Berkeley,
—the
3
d'Holbach, La Mettrie,
views of philosophers
above his early
reach for the
and can devour
are wolves 2
state of
Can
stars.
innocence
who have conquer the
to
they be trusted as guides to
carry to a successful conclusion that essential re-examination of
human
nature which Rousseau
Given the
role
assumed by the
proposing?
is
The answer is no. we run is to be
sciences, the risk
confronted forever by the dangerous dreamings of Hobbes and
Spinoza and their followers.
Rousseau
feels the
beauty of an age of discovery and promise
but finds
wanting the
toward a
new Garden
there
intellectual leaders
of Eden. In
no wisdom but only
is
idle
who
could take
man
what the philosophers say
declamations and catastrophic
paradoxes, for they are undermining the foundations of com-
munal
life
and are destroying
doxes, those advanced
by
And among all the parawho presume to strengthen man
virtue.
writers
by destroying the foundations upon which alone built are
most dangerous and are
to
tension between Rousseau and his age had, as started well before this fateful
summer of
If
man
can be
resisted.
we have
1 749. Here
manifest beyond a doubt, and was never to
Rousseau begins as a
his life
be most strongly
it
The seen,
was made
falter.
of his age,
by assuming that
everything has to be questioned and that the search for the
answer rests
at
to the
problems of man's
upon the blind acceptance
life
cannot be successful
once adds that the answers provided by contemporary 2
O.C.
Ill, 3, 6,
if it
of the inheritance of the past,
he
political
27-9. As a rule, the English translation used for the
Discourses will be that of Roger D. and Judith R. Masters: Jean-Jacques
The First and Second Discourses, edited, with Introduction and Notes, by Roger D. Masters (New York, 1964). 3 Identifications in O.C. Ill, 1254-5.
Rousseau,
[76]
ROUSSEAU FACES THE ENLIGHTENMENT philosophers are not the proper ones and that society needs something quite different.
The way
to the heart of the
problem seemed
to
Rousseau
to lie
through an open challenge to some of the universally accepted assumptions of the times, chief material progress for the
first
ences to
human
among them
the significance of
happiness. Thus, the basic theme of
Discourse became that of the relation of arts and
human
paradox; he
sci-
nature. Rousseau did not consider his answer a
felt,
rather, that his fellow philosophers themselves
were engaging in
idle paradoxes.
By
was
contrast Rousseau
stat-
what appeared to him a fundamental truth. He also felt it was own and that no doubt should exist about the sincerity of his position. The evidence of the years before 1749 appears to confirm the view that this was not an improvisation. The reality ing his
commitment
of the his life
and thought
view seems strengthened by
to his point of
after 1749.
Rousseau's contempt for the literary manipulators, the prideful scientists,
the poetasters and cheap philosophers, crowding the
scene in search of popular applause
and mass following,
ited.
Their presence in such great numbers
tion.
How much
inferior
better
would
is
harmful
is
unlim-
to civiliza-
be had these bad poets and
society
mathematicians devoted their energies
to the
necessary occupations that are needed to sustain
simple and
life,
such as
clothmaking, a calling in which they might have excelled.
As
for himself,
survive
beyond
Rousseau fully
his times
be understood, for he
is
realizes that if his ideas are to
he must speak a language that
and fashionable members of the Paris writing for those temporaries: for
"To
who live
will not
not concerned about pleasing the witty
are influenced
beyond
salons.
Rousseau
by the views of
one's century
is
not
their con-
one must not write
such readers."
There Rousseau stands: write about
man
in a
in the age of lights but setting out to
way which
will appear surprising
and [77]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU incomprehensible, using the tools provided by the
arts
and that reason which man has strengthened
ences,
and
sci-
in himself
over the centuries, in order to challenge the assumptions and to
deny the purposes universally accepted around him. Well he could repeat, quoting again the same verse of Ovid on the
sum
page: "Barbarus hie ego to
quia non intelligor
be a prophetic view of Rousseau's
The weakness
Man
others. Everything conspired
stage in
which urbanity
reality,
ant
a stage in
But urbanity was
to
himself and to
deception an ever
this
man, who had reached to
which
make
all
to live
intercourse
a surface gloss hiding a different
among
us
if
"How
if
decency were
our maxims served as rules of conduct." But
realize that reality
is
we
the attire of a rich man.
not to be found under the
The
deceitfulness of appearances has been multiplied arts.
our passions rustic
to
should
quite different and that strength of charac-
ter is
progress of
pleas-
external countenance were
always a reflection of the heart's disposition; virtue; if
a
virtues appeared
and those shining virtues had no substance:
would be
it
appear
to
make
custom seemed
among men easy and fruitful, to flourish.
to
in the life of
of
This was
was being deceived about what he
was by the way he was made
more important element
illis."
life.
widening gap between
of civilization lay in the
being and appearing. really
own
title
glitter of
by the
"Before art had molded our manners and taught
speak a contrived language, our customs were
and natural and differences of behavior announced
at
once
differences of character."
So great the deception has become that any foreigner
Europe and trying
to find
out what the
realities of
are on the basis of the surface appearances of
its
visiting
European
quotidian
life
life,
of
the perpetual mutual exchanges of demonstrations of good will, of the vying with one another of in an anxious
game
of
all
of reciprocal assistance,
estimate of the situation [78]
men
ages and conditions
would
arrive at
which would be the opposite
an
of the real
ROUSSEAU FACES THE ENLIGHTENMENT modern
one, so successful has
somber
As
realities
remain obscure and
from the
retreat
his heart, to
its
more
behind a screen of appearances.
Rousseau himself,
for
been in hiding
civilization
his decision
is
made, and that
is
to
to listen to the voice of his conscience, to
"celestial" spheres to listen to the
shed the
pomp
promptings of
of appearances in order to seek out
his being.
The wanted task
was simple
task
as far as
he was concerned. But
The
to
begin with the restoration
4
loss of virtue leads to
wealth and luxury. Wealth and
luxury weaken the strength of the political community. is
certain.
The tiller
The
progression
mind
is
Virtue
who
has established his roots
abandon the bounty and
reluctant to
the strength of the soul with
is
body which shows
men who
to its children. It is
which nature bestows on those who understand
nature blesses those
the tools
men
who
follow
itself in
it.
Virtue
aids to life
which the
mankind. Virtue shows in the
poor and ignorant, but
which is
who by
life
her.
a life close to
the strength of the
the laborers, the peasants, the
are concerned with the creation
and the
link
the active virtue of the
on the land which gives nourishment
the beauty
The
inevitable.
of the person
soil,
a virtue attached to
to
is
virtue Rousseau has in
of the
firmly
one
with the problems of a given society, then the
to deal
was immense and would have
of virtue.
if
humble
and the fashioning of
riches of the earth provide
of those peoples, apparently
rejecting the rash of idle knowl-
edge have maintained their happiness
—such
as the people of
Switzerland today, of Sparta yesterday. Rousseau's virtue pose
4
is
O.C.
is
an earthbound
social virtue
whose pur-
not the finding of happiness in another world but the
Ill, 7, 8.
[79l
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU make communal
assuring of conditions of this world which will life possible.
Virtue
is
the thread providing the cohesion, unity,
and understanding which ity of
in a social state give
man
the possibil-
understanding better what he must do. Virtue
the
is
transparence through which obstacles can be seen and removed.
Virtue provides the candid revelation of man's inner feelings and
The
thoughts.
and greed
virtuous
to his soul.
speak an
artificial
sight for
what they
man
does not add
Virtuous
—
that
is,
l.iyers
simple
of deception
—men
refuse to
language and stand revealed before public In virtuous societies
are.
security in the ease with
"men found
their
which they understood one another/'
The maintenance of virtue is what makes possible communication among the members of a political community. The loss of virtue then is also to be lamented because of its social
consequences. Man's pride has detached him from
With
beneficent contact with nature. sciences virtue has declined.
all
the development of arts and
Apparent
have multiplied
social ties
but the real conditions necessary for their maintenance have
been destroyed. Luxury has made
its
appearance, born from
multiplying wealth and kept alive by the active search for more.
What can be the chances of the survival at
one with modern
life "it will
wealth regardless of the cost?" the inner springs of
human
of virtue
if
become necessary
What
will
in order to be
to
accumulate
be destroyed will be
nature.
Rousseau sees in business and money the chief preoccupation
men
with
Today
these
of his times. In the past, of morals
and
virtue.
merce and wealth.
which
them
relates
An
human
political responsibility
same men
talk
about com-
economic doctrine has been developed beings to economic values and judges
in proportion to their
economic worth. "One
man
in a given country a
which he
will be sold in Algiers. Another, using the
is
will
tell
worth the amount for
you that
[80]
wrote
same
calcu-
ROUSSEAU FACES THE ENLIGHTENMENT where a man
lation, will find countries
where he
other countries praise
men
is
worth
as herds of cattle."
less
worth nothing and
is
than nothing.
They
ap-
Montesquieu and Fenelon, before
Rousseau, had expressed themselves in favor of sumptuary laws.
But Rousseau in
attack
this
on the
"political
William Petty and the economics of Melon
is
roots
of a civilization political
The state
and
the result of the gradual development
whose thinking
and economic
final absurdity
on the
is
not looking to any
That condition has
legal remedy for the condition he laments.
much deeper
arithmetic" of
is
colored by certain dominant
doctrines.
can be seen in fixing a man's worth
basis of his capacity to
consume.
The
to the
greater the
consumption of goods, the greater the value of the citizens are capable of reaching ever fresh peaks of
Those who
are unable to increase their
pariahs of the
new consumption
who
economic attainment.
consumption become the
civilization.
The middle
of the
eighteenth century was witnessing the barest beginnings of the transformation of the economic machine of Europe from quality to quantity, from craftsmanship in the production of goods for
purposes largely unrelated to individual needs but closely linked to social values, to
mass production of commodities intended for
individual use. But Rousseau
had
a vision of
what the future
would bring: the very opposite of what was commonly expected by the vast army of philosophers bent upon singing the praise of the world around them.
The
future would bring the downfall of those states which
saw only advantages
which
set their
in multiplying wealth
standards and fixed their sights by the satisfac-
tion of those goals. History
is
witness to the downfall of states
caused by excess of luxury. Athens and examples.
One
and consumption and
could, with
the distance of places
no great
Rome
are only
two
effort of imagination, bridge
and the gap of time and
feel that
what [81]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU happened more than once yesterday
own
countries and under our cal ones
is
repeating
itself
"in our
The
issues, then, are politi-
which have
built their institutions
eyes."
and of immediate concern. 5
Modern
political societies
on the foundations of commerce have created a modern kind of This
slavery.
the slavery of seemingly happy peoples with
is
polished customs and the all-pervasive temptations of wealth, but
which the appearance of perfection conceals an altogether
in
different reality
and
in which, in spite of the glossy surface, the
from such a
radical inequality flowing
state of affairs
is
becoming
increasingly visible.
"We
are deceived
way
in
The
reality of
to be.
by the appearance of good/' This
which Rousseau, quoting Horace, begins
What
our society
is,
is
is
quite different from
is
the
his Discourse.
what
it
appears
in effect the result of our betrayal of duty, of
our abandonment of the fatherland, of our lack of care for those
who
are
unhappy
or our friends.
Had we
kept faith with duty,
country, the poor, and our friends, the result
much
would have been a
simpler society in which arts and sciences would not have
flourished but in
which
social
retained the upper hand. injustice
no law needed
cohesion would have gained and
Without luxury no
to repress
but without the weight of history
it;
art,
but without
without tyranny no history,
man would have
stayed closer
to his natural goodness.
The goes to
system of education
enormous lengths
their duties.
Going back
is
at fault, for
it is
a system
which
to teach the
young everything except
to the earlier
themes of his Project on
Education, Rousseau laments the superficial values of an education
which weakens both the mind and the body of the student
and, by stressing only the sciences and literature, citizens.
5
O.C.
[82]
We
may have
Ill, 8, 19, 15.
poets
fails to
create
and painters and astronomers and
ROUSSEAU FACES THE ENLIGHTENMENT chemists in great numbers, but there will be few the capacity to
fulfill
political society.
And
men
with
left
the tasks of a responsible citizen in a
the concepts of magnanimity, equity, tem-
perance, humanity, and courage will no longer be understood.
The as in
consequences will be serious because in
political
the moral activity of man,
Citizenship
is
duty before
a
it is
"it is a
great evil not to do good."
a right.
It
the responsibility of acting in a perceptive
The
politics,
imposes on the citizen
way
for the
good of
all.
community without an adequate supply of citizens capable
way
of acting in
this
useless citizen
may be
is
weak community. Indeed, "every
a
regarded as a dangerous man."
Thus, in the end, Rousseau's discussion of the ences, of the corruption of customs
economy
of luxury
and morals, of the
government. Everything goes back
movement
planets, the relations
between the body and the
we were
less
a great
many
of bodies, the revolution of the soul,
which
stars
The
question
well governed?
is:
The
Had we
implicit
do
failed to
answer
is
that
so, if
capable of a greater concentrated effort on the social
problems of the erned.
good
to
claim to have penetrated the most remote
secrets of the universe.
would we be
an
to the
to a central political question.
sublime things: the
We
rise of
what these developments do
We seem to know, Rousseau proclaims rhetorically,
light.
sci-
and of grasping wealth, comes down
ultimate consideration of
have no
and
arts
human community man would
be better gov-
6
The
task then
must
ing the conditions social life
one of
clearly
which
solidarity
be the revolutionary one of
will
make man
and not one of
creat-
better governed
conflict.
The
and
prolonged
polemical debate opened by the publication of the Discourse was to
provide Rousseau with an even better opportunity to state the
sweeping implications of his thought. 6
O.C.
Ill, 7,
25, 17, 24, 26, 18.
[83]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU
The Dehate The
publication of the Discourse on Arts and Sciences had
repercussions that pected.
It
went
beyond what Rousseau himself
far
suddenly confronted intellectual Europe with a
of extreme assertions for
which
it
was poorly prepared.
What
misunderstanding and confusion.
itself to
ex-
series
It
lent
were the pur-
poses of an attack against the values that appeared to be imbed-
ded without challenge
and culture?
at the core of civilization
Rousseau himself knew that what he had said could bear tion
and
sciences
clarification.
was couched
Too much
of his criticism of arts
and of philosophy could be
construed as an attack on culture.
enough
to place his
and
and whimsical language.
in paradoxical
His criticism of the sciences
repeti-
And he had
not had time
views within a proper social and political
context and to relate his analysis to a clear enough
summary
of
the evolution of mankind, the growth of institutions and the necessities of
his case,
if
human
governance. Rousseau was anxious to
possible, in
such a way that
wide and make everybody
impending
as clearly
would reach
aware
make
far
and
as possible of the
crisis.
There were
six replies
by Rousseau
among them,
made
of
to Narcisse
and, taken together, they were more than twice as
long as the Discourse
itself.
They were
75 1 and the end of 1753.
all his critics
to the criticisms
one includes the preface
his First Discourse, seven if
1
it
all
written between June
Had Rousseau
wished
to reply to
he would have written many more. But
the end, must have appeared to
meantime he had
him
this, in
a pointless task, for in the
seized another opportunity to develop inde-
pendently the thoughts that had been forming in his mind: by
November 1753 the Academy of Dijon had come to his rescue by providing him with the theme of the origins of inequality. [84]
ROUSSEAU FACES THE ENLIGHTENMENT Some
of Rousseau's critics
were people with ideas (Bordes and
the adviser to the king of Poland), some were petty polemists
Gautier).
Freron,
(Lecat,
wanted
to
Some,
widen the discussion around Rousseau's
Rousseau answered some of them
nal).
not at
rectly, yet others
The
directly,
a
Monsieur VAbbe Raynal, was
published in the Mercure de France of June 175
some observations which were probably due This
the briefest of the replies, and
is
better
known
ideas (Ray-
others indi-
all.
Lettre
reply,
first
who
were friends
finally,
it
1,
answer
in
to
Raynal himself.
to
7
was followed by the
Observations de Jean-Jacques Rousseau, de Geneve,
published in the Mercure for September 1751, in answer to
also
an anonymous author known, however,
much November
Poland. This
Grimm
of
a
is
longer essay.
to
The
discussing
1751,
be Stanislas, king of third
was a
Gautier's
published by the Mercure the previous October.
letter to
refutation
The
fourth,
Derniere Response de Jean-Jacques Rousseau de Geneve, was published in the Mercure of April 1752 and Discours sur
les
a reply to the
et
des arts by Charles
same journal
in
December 1751.
Bordes, published in the is
is
avantages des sciences
the longest and the most important of the replies.
was published
Lettre a Lecat,
The
sixth
and
d'une seconde
last
The seau.
a Bordes,
Lyon
in
in 1752.
fragment of a more
a five-page
8
had been exceptionally
had been a great deal of the time
even sometimes
seemed
is
which was never concluded.
years since 1750
He
pamphlet
active for Rous-
and
in the limelight
at the center of the fashionable salon life
to reject.
It
fifth,
reply to a second attack by Bordes, Preface
lettre
extensive essay
as a
The
These had been years
of both successful
he
and
unsuccessful presentation of his plays, of tension between the pull of the bright culture of his times 7
O.C.
8
All the replies are in O.C.
Ill,
and the urge
to establish
1256. Ill,
31-107; see
also
C.C.
II,
149-53. [85]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU his
own
on the principles he was advocating. The
private life
publication of the Discourse had faced Rousseau with the issue
"How to reconcile the
of his personal life:
adopted with a
how
them, and
could
I,
severe principles
which bore very
style of life
little
March 1751 he
had
cashier of a collector general of finances,
preach with good grace disinterestedness and poverty?" In
I
relationship to
9
resigned his post and henceforth earned his
He
livelihood by copying music.
thus became free to
fix
the
proper order of priorities and to set the stage for the bombshell of the Discourse on Inequality. In the end Rousseau proudly an-
nounces that
his "system"
is
ready.
Throughout the debate, Rousseau
He
and uncompromising.
are sharp ing.
What
he has said in the
much thought and paradoxes, and he
is
has no intention of retreat-
First
Discourse
and confidence
They do
is
He
as
his
is
full
he
mind. This explains
he addresses himself
to his contra-
has in store for them for he
fight.
convinced that his judgment on
is
He
What
merely on the periphery of the
know what he
not
has barely begun to
right.
the result of
anxious to restate his ideas clearly.
more complex structure shaping up in
dictors.
is
not of an idle wish to amuse himself with
is
has said in the First Discourse
his elation
confident and his replies
of
hope about
his
ability
mystery of existence and the relation of
man
human to
nature
is
penetrate the
to nature,
and
to
9
Confessions, O.C. I, 361—2. Giving up his job with Francueil may have forced Rousseau to give up his children too. But he brought himself to see the problem as part of the larger struggle between rich and poor. A
poor
man
cannot nourish properly his children:
"It is the class of the rich,
need for my children." In any case, Rousseau's children would have been brought up as peasants and not as writers or office workers and his action is not due to vicious
your
class,
which robs
my
class of the
character but to poverty (letter to
C.G. [86]
I,
308-10; C.C.
II,
142-6).
bread
Madame
I
de Francueil, April 20, 1751,
ROUSSEAU FACES THE ENLIGHTENMENT common man. He
understand the virtues of the philosopher (Descartes?) piercing God's secrets eternal
wisdom:
He
"who
pities
the great
thinks of himself as capable of
and dares
vaunted wisdom
to link his
to
approves, he blames, he corrects, he dictates
laws to nature and limits to divinity; and while he busies himself
with his vain systems and goes to endless efforts to arrange the
machine of the world, the
laborer,
who
sees the rain
and then
the sun in turn bring fruits to his field, admires, praises blesses the
hand from which he
attempting to understand the
Not them
all his
are
way
and
receives these graces without in
which they reach him."
opponents have the same ambitious views.
Some
of
mere children. Others when they are not publicity
seekers are guilty of having
shrunk the content of the debate
from a consideration of morality and goodness
to
one of fortune
One writer Rousseau holds up by name to public scorn: Melon, who was destined to be the first to justify a 10 "poisonous doctrine" about economic man and luxury. and grandeur.
With
d'Alembert, Rousseau
not been any
less critical
more
is
but Rousseau
cautious. calls
His views had
them important. For
d'Alembert had asked whether the difference in morals and customs to be noticed
among
different countries
was due not
only to the development of arts and sciences but also to the climate of the country, the temper of the people, the the government, the customs factors
This
and the
laws.
economy
Any one
of
of these
might have caused the decadence of morals. is
what d'Alembert had written
course of the
We might
first
volume
in the Preliminary Dis-
of the Encyclopedic:
perhaps
at this
point reject the strictures that an eloquent
writer has recently
aimed
at the Arts
corrupting morals.
It
at
the beginning of a
10
would be out work such
and Sciences, accusing them of
of place to agree with such views
as this;
and even the worthy writer
O.C. 111,41,76,95. [87]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU we have
in
mind, having supported with enthusiasm and success our
undertaking, seems to have given
him
accusing
it
undoubtedly reply that such abuse
we do
ask
him
its
we
are not
abuses (he would
inseparable from culture)
is
examine whether most
to
Indeed
his approval.
of having confused culture with
of the evils
he
but
:
attributes to
Arts and Sciences are not due to entirely different causes, which
would be both long and certainly helps to
prove that is
men
make
society
are better
more
from
laws be proscribed because they
we (something we
may make
to
and
are far
from doing), we
in addition
we would be
do not believe that
still
our vices would remain
it:
ignorant.
Rousseau could not disagree with tem. " His reply
tells
us that he
11
statement for
this
which these can hamper
and
to a discussion of the
The
political
which Rousseau
is
problem
now
is
the premises had been
view of
man
Then
will
made
accepted, then
be feasible
to
and
ways
part of a
trying to disen-
tangle the threads to explain the present condition of man.
it
"sys-
not ready yet at this point to
is
or facilitate the establishment of
morals in a given community. larger social problem, of
in-
it
own
to the specific questions of the political structure
of the institutional arrangements in
Finally,
human knowledge
cluded "great views" and was certainly a part of his
come down
this
possible the commission
admit the disadvantages of
anything would be gained by destroying us,
difficult to
whose authors would be punished among savages?
even were
with
would be
it
can be denied even to morals. Furthermore, must
a benefit that
of crimes
pleasant;
and virtue more common: but
it
it
enumerate here. Learning
indiscreet to
clear it
and the
will
Once
validity of his overall
be time
to consider politics.
"examine the hidden but no
less real
relationships which are to be found between the nature of govern-
ment and
the genius, the morals and the degree of instruction of
the citizens." But this
11
is
an ultimate objective only and one
"Discours preliminaire des editeurs," Encyclopedic, ou Dictionnaire
raisonne des sciences, des arts et [88]
d,es
metiers (Paris, 1751),
I,
xxxiii.
ROUSSEAU FACES THE ENLIGHTENMENT which Rousseau sidered, this
is
not prepared to pursue now: everything con-
is
a field of research
he might carry out in Geneva.
which
in different circumstances
12
Geneva, the symbol of the only modern virtuous people he has been able seau's
to find,
mind.
And
a "citizen of Inequality,
13
continues to be the ideal standard in Rous-
even before he was ready
Geneva" on the
he had called himself a
explanation given in frontispiece of the that of the sciences
seeing
fire for
the
Discourse:
torch of Prometheus
him and wants
time, rushes to
men who,
embrace
seduced by the brilliance
who
the citizen of
is
14
of
citizen
Geneva
soon be ready to redeem his
will
promise to d'Alembert and go to his native city
more
to
them: the Prometheus
and warns them of the danger they incur
The
is
animating the great geniuses; the Satyr who,
first
him, represents the vulgar
Geneva."
in the
decorating the
illustration
"The
of letters, indiscreetly rush to study
shouts
himself as
Geneva
citizen of
1752 of the
first
to identify
page of the Discourse on
title
to
undertake his
having beforehand told the
specific political research,
citi-
zens of that city of his intentions and of his general views on the organization of the political community.
15
For he
has to
still
proceed to define his views from the beginning, by clarifying an
argument which was getting
lost in
polemical confusion.
He
is
proud of what he has written and even more certain of the importance of what he has not yet illusions as to his
knows
that
men
said,
even though he has no
He
chances of success in reforming mankind.
"will be
no
less
eager to secure glory and
money
after I will
have convinced them that these two passions are at
the root of
all
the former
He 12 15
their miseries
and that men are rendered
and unhappy by the
will nevertheless continue
O.C. Ill, 43. Cf. infra, pp. 157
13 ff.
O.C.
Ill, 16
latter."
evil
on the path he has assigned 14
42.
O.C.
Ill,
by
16
O.C.
Ill,
1
to
02.
104. [89]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU himself, because of an inner urge to state
man
what
his understand-
He
happy
tells
him
is
back into the consciousness of
man
the Gospel
ing of the nature of
It is
not because of the
true.
to
bring to the soul the love of
the will to accomplish His precepts.
Never has
not be one,
its
Author and
virtue spoken
sweeter language; never the deepest wisdom has expressed
much
so
itself
a
with
energy and simplicity. 17
Rousseau was things."
and
to a Christian,
who might
even for somebody
all
needs only reflection
bring
admirable beauty has penetrated
its
This divine book, the only necessary
the most useful of
to
and sciences that the Gospel has spread
arts
throughout the universe and that all hearts.
is
18
convinced that he had "discovered great
also
His independence and
strength and he
now had
his solitude
had given him
the right to speak without reticence.
In this interlude between the two Discourses, Rousseau wanted
and sciences and the
to consider the relationship of
morals to
issue of their decline with the
growth of a philosophy which was
only the fruit of
human
too easily spread
pride.
That
arts
this
kind of culture should
not surprising, "for
is
it
is
less
painful to
distinguish oneself through idle babble than through good mor-
no longer necessary
als, as
soon as
one
an agreeable man."
is
But
earlier
were not
it is
man
there.
he
sees
which
and the
justice." 17
an
this
man
provided
is
when
the sources of corruption
trying to see through "the obscurity
rusticity of ancient peoples."
And what
the prevalence of "the severity of morals
all
infallible
Today
be a good
mark
of their purity, good faith, hospitality,
no longer true and polished peoples have
is
48-9. In the Fourth Letter from the Mountain Rousseau king of Poland, from which the above passage taken, as one of his writings which showed his love for the Gospel
was is
above
is
is
lived at a time
Rousseau
of ancient times
to
19
O.C.
(O.C. 18
[90]
Ill,
to call his reply to the
Ill,
O.C.
768, 1264). Ill,
103.
19
O.C.
Ill,
73.
ROUSSEAU FACES THE ENLIGHTENMENT become corrupted and widened the gulf between what they and what they appear
What a series zation! The fate
to be.
of religion
have come
Our
pride themselves in not having
with books on theology and casuists
are to be
found everywhere. In other times we had
casuists.
Science progresses and faith
wants
to teach to
filled
readily
with
we
critics
is
to
all
20
Our world
confuse erudition and wisdom.
is
and antiquarians: "Pamphlets become volumes, is
forgotten
:
this is
after clarifications contained in
the fate of literary polemics:
endless in-folio volumes one always ends
And
we have
to learn;
be Christians/'
books are multiplied but the original question
bearings."
and no
saints
destroyed. Everybody
do good but nobody wants
become doctors and we have ceased
How
what advan-
arts are shining;
Let us ask the question to the
who
libraries are filled
civili-
a striking example: "Sciences are
is
and the
to religion?
multitude of philosophers any.
by our advanced
of paradoxes are offered
flourishing today, literature tages
are
just as this "learning"
is
up by
praised so
losing one's
is
"ignorance"
condemned. But there are two kinds of ignorance.
One
is
"the criminal
ignorance which extends to the duties of humanity and multiplies vices,
men
which degrades reason, depresses the
similar to animals."
The
other
is
soul, renders
the reasonable ignorance,
"which
consists
faculties
one has received; a modest ignorance born of a
...
for virtue
a
pure person
to limit one's
a sweet
satisfied
within himself
.
.
.
curiosity
to
the extent of the real love
and precious ignorance, the possession of
with himself and
and does not need
who
finds his happiness
to seek a false
and vain
happiness in the opinion others might have of his lights."
But
it is
this
comprehend 20
O.C.
Ill,
21
kind of ignorance which the philosophers cannot
or accept. For they believe that
74,61,48.
21
O.C.
Ill,
all is
well simply
54.
[91]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU because
we have
given our vices
and corruption pleasant-
sounding names so that they need not embarrass us any longer.
The
man upon
retreat of
trying
hide
to
its
himself
is
not acceptable in a world
empty manners: "The
intentions behind
greater the internal corruption the greater the external tranquility: in this
way
the cultivation of letters generates
politeness. Taste
is
public approbation natural that those care ways with
which
also derived is
who
the
which
in the long
by
condition of literary works,
first
are
little
little
from the same source. As soon it
as is
engaged in them should consider with
to obtain
run form
it;
these are the considerations
style, refine taste
where graces and urbanity. These things may
and spread everybe,
one wants,
if
the supplement of virtue: but never will one be able to see that
they are virtue
itself
and
rarely they will go with
performance of a comedy of Moliere, Rousseau
"A
the delicacy of the audience:
slightly risky
sion merely vulgar rather than obscene,
chaste ears;
them
I
have no doubt
to the
see the issue in
its
to
wound
their
most corrupted among
22
proper perspective Rousseau goes back
This
is
the historical development of
by
led to admire
beginnings of history and to the nature of
original state of nature.
a
word, an expres-
enough
at all that the
are always the most scandalized."
To
is
is
At
it."
man
in the
a time well before that phase in
mankind which has been
selected
theorists as corresponding to the state of nature, a condition
which has nothing and
socialized
ical
man.
Going back
to
do with the already complicated
man who
as a rule
to the origins,
22
[92]
man O.C.
taken as the
Rousseau
views on the goodness of man, of a
is
or,
sees
more
norm
nothing
precisely,
to
civilized
of prepolit-
change
on the
his
qualities
incapable of doing evil because the setting was such
Ill,
73-4.
ROUSSEAU FACES THE ENLIGHTENMENT that there
was no incentive or motive
for
man
an
to act in
evil
way.
There scholars
savage.
historical evidence available in the records of
is
and
travelers, all of
But there
is
whom
also a logical
both
point to the goodness of the
approach which
is
even more
and
persuasive. In the absence of the scaffolding of institutions social
customs which have grown through the centuries and
which have made man what he could act as
if
those institutions
more important statements
the
is, it is
how man
difficult to see
and customs
one of
existed. In
of this period, in his Last Refly,
Rousseau writes: Before the invention of those shocking words, yours and mine; before the appearance of that breed of cruel masters,
and
of that other breed of
and brutal men who are called
men,
rascals
and
liars,
who
are
men abominable enough to men are dying of hunger;
called slaves; before the appearance of
dare to possess the superfluous while other
before the development of a mutual dependence has forced
become shrewd,
to
someone explain
to
jealous
and
me what
traitorous;
I
would
like
the
Golden Age.
now we have been
Why
is it
the chain of consequences
is
are
some
story
which Rousseau
human
remains always essentially the same. the
O.C.
told
now we
sees as the
condition.
There
variations over the years in the exact order of priorities
establishment
of
distinctions
property and the social isolation of
23
am
23
in the identification of the several links in the chain.
with
have
disabused of the chimera of
controlling factor in his analysis of the
and
I
not also said that for a long time
have been disabused of the chimera of virtue?
This
to
all
could have been those vices, those
crimes with which so emphatically one reproaches them. that for a long time
them
Ill,
But the
The beginning comes based
man which
on
results
claims
to
from those
80.
[93]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU
A
distinctions.
protective shell of rights leads to the aggressive
man
assertiveness of
against
man. In the ensuing
struggle, the
natural inequalities which distinguish the individual
the
human
tive
game
race
come
creating two classes of
and the
to the forefront
They
of competition.
What
slaves.
men
and are used
members
in a destruc-
succeed, in the long run, in
opposed
to
happens next
one another, the masters that as a result of the
is
both the masters and
dialectical process of reciprocal influence
the slaves deteriorate and each group begins to exhibit traits. It is all
of
mankind
spreads
tic conflict
its
that
of
worst
its
becomes corrupted
as a materialis-
among
the oppressors
poison impartially
and the oppressed.
A further consequence in the
human
And
society.
which leads
process poor,
the growing accumulation of wealth
is
hands of the masters
who
to the
again this
to a further
in order to survive,
disadvantage of the rest of
is
the result of a dialectical
debasing of the nature of the
and given the increasing mutual
dependence thrust upon men, are forced top and, with them,
to imitate those at the
become engaged
under the appearance of acceptable
in
antisocial
activities
social behavior.
Perhaps the Golden Age has never existed, Rousseau suggests at this point,
Golden Age
even though two years
as
phatically
is
he will refer
one necessary point of passage, however
the transition of
Golden Age
later
man from
vision
is
to the
brief, in
the origins to the present. But
what
rejected,
is
rejected even
the present possibility of a virtuous
In denying both the Golden
Age and
if
the
more em-
life.
the empire of virtue,
Rousseau's adversaries are refusing to consider the possibility that the
the
way
in
vanishing
opposite offered
—
that
which men of is,
virtue.
live
today has anything to do with
Rousseau
by commerce, the very
life,
institutions of
thing in sum, conspire to multiply [94]
convinced
is
that the conditions of
of
the
the temptations
government, every-
human
weaknesses.
The
ROUSSEAU FACES THE ENLIGHTENMENT hold of cupidity on strengthening life.
What
it
man
is
already great enough, and yet
everything that surrounds
by
we
are
in his daily
when we push him to the acquisition of most desirable of human goals, "to accumulate
will
riches as the
happen,
wealth regardless of the consequences?"
The
him
24
corrupting influence of the system
is
universal.
Rousseau
has already said that wealth destroys both the rich and the poor.
There '
calls
is
something inevitable about the process which Rousseau
"The
genealogical":
inequality wealth relative
is
first
source of evil
and wherever men
from
inequality;
will be equal there will
From wealth luxury and
poor.
is
born, for these words poor and rich are
be no rich or
idleness have come."
becomes both the end product of a degenerative process
Luxury as well
as the symbol, the most visible aspect, of present civilization.
Rousseau dismisses
as entirely worthless the
arguments of con-
temporary economists that luxury was performing a necessary function by keeping the poor employed and fed. For
social
without luxury there would be no poor:
Luxury feeds
hundred poor
a
hundred thousand of them
demand latter
and causes the death of
hands of the rich and of the
in the
lates
in our cities
in our countryside:
for superfluities
is lost
money which
artists
to
a
circu-
satisfy
their
for the subsistence of the laborer: the
goes without dress precisely because the former need gold
trimmings on
theirs.
nourishment of
man
The is
wastage of foodstuffs necessary to the
itself
enough
to
make luxury
hateful to
We need sauces in our kitchens, this why so many sick people have no soup. We need wine on our tables, this why the peasant drinks only water. We need powder for our wigs, this
mankind.
.
.
.
is
is
is
why
so
many
Nor can
poor have no bread.
the question of luxury be solved by proposing to limit
luxury, to admit the usefulness of
24
O.C.
Ill,
some luxury and
to say that
32.
[95]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU beyond
The
a certain threshold luxury will not be tolerated.
acceptable position
everything
that
is
no luxury
a source of evil
is
cally necessary.
at all
is
only
necessary and that
which goes beyond what
is
physi-
"Nature gives us already too many needs and
it is
very least highly imprudent to multiply them without
at the
necessity
and
dependent." It is
no
to
make
in this
way
the soul of
man
even more
25
less
wrong
defend luxury on the basis of
to
historical
evolution and of the gradual acquisition of needs which, because of the passage of time, are then
In
spread,
was
of evils.
It
no longer considered
as luxury.
Rousseau maintains, luxury, even though wide-
ages,
all
at least considered as the source of
was reserved
to
Melon
to
an
infinite variety
support for the
first
time the
doctrine of the economic necessity and of the historical cation of luxury: "I
am
not afraid at
all to fight,
maxims which only tend
century, these hateful
justifi-
alone in
to destroy
my and
debase virtue and to create both rich and miserable men, that
is
always bad men."
To
say this does not
mean
that history can be rewritten
what has happened can be removed and
that
ments made, suddenly, in the intention of "reducing sities,"
men
to
be
life
of
and
radical readjust-
men. Rousseau has no
satisfied
with the merest neces-
even though they might provide the substance of happi-
ness.
He
burn
libraries
has no wish to "upset present social arrangements, to
and
all
His only purpose
is
books, to destroy colleges and academies." that of determining as far as
'
he can the
causes of present discontents, because without a clear notion of
how we have become what we are, we shall never be able to change. And change there ought to be. The task of finding specific remedies Rousseau is almost willing at this point to leave to others more courageous or more
25
[96]
O.C.
Ill,
49-50, 74, 79, 95.
26
O.C.
Ill,
95, 104.
ROUSSEAU FACES THE ENLIGHTENMENT reckless than
he
But
is.
this
hold for very long, because soon
one concrete reference
to
Rousseau
a position
is
we
citizenship.
For the links between morals and customs and close, as are those
problems.
between culture,
The ways
in
unable to
more than
problems of war and duty, the needs of
and the hard requirements of
political life,
is
find in the replies
which
arts
and
political life are
sciences,
and
social
grow, defend themselves,
societies
survive or decline, are functions of the moral fiber of their
members. There
no escaping the
is
political repercussions of a
social
system in which goodness has been abandoned for luxury
and
hard
of
a
life
up
of sacrifice given
in favor of the conveniences
life.
The problem
of education
teaching young people the
them
useful to
point
is
for their
anyone
who
many
for
enough be drawn
and yet
is
the one
And what saries
in
which might be
are
this
to
way
life to
grown up. The
The
whatever tends
to derive
flatterer
egoistic
to
make
end
for others.
from
this
never overlooks a
his contribution to social life
who works
For
the performance
the citizen will grow with
accommodating, hoping
he works only with an
citizen
no point
starting point of the educational process.
attitude advantages for himself. to please
is
no bearing on the duties of citizenship
and agreeable. In
a tendency to be
chance
pleasant things
has been taught to prefer his
of his duty will soon his life easy
There
primordial.
amusement once they
that they have
which must be the
is
in view.
is
negative,
The
useful
27
does the community need most? Rousseau's adver-
lamented the dismal
possibility of a
sively of workers, soldiers, hunters,
world made up exclu-
and shepherds. But
to
Rous-
seau this would be "a spectacle infinitely more beautiful than that of
27
mankind made up
O.C.
Ill,
of cooks, poets, printers,
and musi-
63, 64, 74. [97]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU The
cians."
latter
would be pursuing
idle activities,
while out of
the former, hard-working communities capable of maintaining their
freedom would undoubtedly be born,
pared
to eliminate soldiering as a profession
a duty
and
to
invade the freedom of others.
the fatherland
mercenaries. "
The
:
only
'War
we is
are pre-
sometimes
not to be conceived as a profession. Everybody must
is
be a soldier for the defense of his freedom.
one
if
is
And
Nobody must become to die in the service of
too beautiful an occupation to be entrusted to
28
fact of the matter
must not only
that the ideal citizen
is
be far removed from the temptations of the amenities of
must be prepared
to die for his country.
He
of the harshness of the necessities of political
one would admire
that in
which the
citizen
a
homme
life. It is
would not be constrained
live in a state
de bien. But
Romans:
where each
is
life,
but
be aware
easy to say
one
state,
to the practice of
"It is certainly
more
exempted from being
we
the citizens of this state
if
also
powerful and well-governed
the "cruel" virtues of the early
convenient to
must
were by the unhappy turn of events forced either
a
are admiring
to give
up
their
virtue or to practice these cruel virtues, and supposing further
found the strength
that they
because of
Let
admire them
perform their duty, would
less?"
life
by the community
if
They
work
continuing participation in
to a
is necessary to its own many others, from hard the common tasks. But the
this
survival.
include undoubtedly
ultimate cruel virtue the citizen must exhibit
understand and support the decision which with
finality
with those
who
[98]
O.C.
Ill,
82.
29
O.C.
is
Ill,
88.
his capacity to
may be
are threatening to
action the coherence of the political
28
we
29
be clear that the cruel virtues include the taking of
it
human
this
to
taken to deal
weaken by
community. Rousseau,
their car-
ROUSSEAU FACES THE ENLIGHTENMENT away bv the
ried
short of
rhetoric of his argument,
is
unwilling to stop
most extreme point.
its
The taking of life seems to be justified both in the case of those who attempt to violate the established pattern of life in a given community and in the case of those who are trying to get away from the community
And
Africa
In the
first
Rousseau
instance,
right of self-defense of
manner tend
in order to escape
to consider inferior
need of our
been able
of
its
burdens.
sees the issue in terms of the
what Europeans
we know nothing but which we in
some
the testing ground.
is
to penetrate into the is
their supercilious
savage societies, about which
are tempted to consider as being
civilizing intervention:
we do not know what
in
"Because
we have
not
continent of Africa and because
taking place there,
we T
are
pushed
to
conclude that the African people exhibit innumerable vices, a conclusion which should rather be
drawn had we been
able to
export ours."
Against the cosmopolitanism of his century, Rousseau
de-
is
fending the irreplaceable and unique qualities of each separate culture, for
he believes that from the commingling of cultures
onlv further degeneration can come. Since
all societies
have not
reached the same stage of development, Rousseau, given his premises,
and the
is
bound
to say that the least
never existed and even less
continue
to
If this is true,
right to
This
is
them:
developed are the best
closest to that ideal state of nature if
we cannot
which even
return to
it,
has
if it
must neverthe-
be the standard of comparison and judgment. the so-called primitive societies of Africa have a
defend themselves against the intrusion of outsiders.
what Rousseau would do "If
I
declare that
on which
I
if
he were in charge of any of
were the head of any of the peoples of Africa, I
would
erect
on the
frontier of
would hang without
pity the
my
I
country a gibbet
first
European who [99]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU would dare leave
it."
to cross
it,
as well as the first citizen
There would thus be two separate
who would
try to
one
lines of gallows:
reserved for advancing Europeans, the other for fleeing Africans.
Rousseau
feels that
no further
justification
needed
is
for the
hanging of Europeans, but the hanging of escaping Africans gives
him pause and induces him
more general
to deal
community, by
right of the
all
is
which the
state
is
common good
pursue
Rousseau gives
who
evil rather
tries to
the exit of a citizen
who
case, the
corrupted."
he
is
If this is
he wants
life
this: better to see a
the answer
is
be opposed
"He
to pursue.
of the nation
nation dedicated to the virtues, of traditions
a full integration of
to develop:
he was opposing preservation
committed
to
man
Ecchtomy, of the defense of
human
the essence of the general will.
[100]
Ill,
90,90-1, 91.
of
The
In any
than
life
with his
They
it.
aspects of first,
of the
to the cosmopolis, a
beauty,
peace and restraint
other nations; the second, to be found
O.C.
to
hurts
man hanging
deprived of the freedom to abandon
Rousseau's thought that he was soon
30
the
someone who
must be considered, however, along with two other
humane view
in
30
These views imply such society that
And this why we should
and
by the bad example he gives and he hurts
law must prevent
him
is
never intends to come back:
himself because of the vicious
to see
run away
than good.
to the question of
the other citizens
inspire public action
never guilty of an unjust action.
then the citizen to
This can be
an ideal community in which, in principle,
is
only truth and the
wants
all its citizens.
by Rousseau only on the ground that the community he
talking about
case,
that of the
is
available means, to force the
presence and retain the allegiance of justified
with the problem in
terms. For the issue he has raised
of
cultural
vis-a-vis all
especially in the Political
and
justice that
was
to
be
ROUSSEAU FACES THE ENLIGHTENMENT Rousseau
is
forever caught
up
tween the awful dilemmas he
manner
is
in the tension
awaken
as possible in order to
he creates be-
setting forth in as shocking a his readers to a serious
consideration of the problem, and the infinitely happier, tere, vision
But the
of the days to come.
tide
must
aus-
if
be turned.
first
Rousseau's views of democratic'life find another concrete ex-
model among the republics of antiquity,
emplification in his
His
Sparta.
critics
example of Sparta Greece been
had asked in
had challenged Rousseau by drawing on the to
support their
like Sparta,
own
rhetorically. Since
it
Had
arguments.
what would be
of
all
us today? Bordes
left to
would have held
arts
and sciences
contempt no historians therefore would have been bred and
nurtured
to transmit its glory to posterity.
Rousseau, in his Last Refly, suggests that, had a Spartan been
persuaded of the validity of address his
countrymen
this
argument, he would have had
as follows:
Fellow citizens, open your eyes for you have been blinded.
pained
you are working only
to notice that
practice your courage
what
is
it
to
be good
Of what
men when nobody
matter in the centuries to
Thermopylae
amusing the
that of
the possible use of virtue
is
be bruited about throughout the world?
have been
to acquire
am
I
virtue,
to
and maintain your freedom. You are forgetting
your most important duty which generations. Tell me,
to
come
for the salvation of the
idle of future
not to
if it is
possible use will
will talk of
you?
What
you should have died
that
Athenians
if
it
will at
you do not leave
behind, as they did, philosophical systems, poetry, comedies, sculpture?
Hurry then
to
abandon laws which are useful only
how to make people talk here. And never forget that if
happy and think only you
will
be no longer
not be commemorated,
The
condition of
statesmanship
is
of
it
would be
human
whether
useless to be
happiness
is
this condition
Rousseau has doubts about
Pericles, not
make you
great
men
could
one of them.
good laws.
is
to
about you once
satisfied.
as a city
The This
test of is
why
planner but as a [101]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU and
magistrate. His magnificence
we
ever,
taste
is
"How-
not disputed:
do not know whether Pericles has been a good
still
magistrate because in the
management
of states the problem
is
not that of raising statues but that of the good governance of
men." Well-governed men
men
will also
living without splendor
men. There
human
is
become good men. And good
and without wealth
be happy
will
no shorter and more secure way of creating
happiness.
31
But often the commonwealths of antiquity have offered us venerable images in which "I see
men
tions to the highest degree of greatness
human wisdom." This institutions in
proves
how
raised
by sublime
institu-
and virtue attainable by
great can be the role of
shaping the fortune of men. History displays
before us the long series of stages of development of mankind.
After
man
successive
has abandoned the state of nature, he meets with
and different conditions of organized
In each,
life.
In the state of nature
institutions exert their influence.
enjoys natural freedom. In varying forms of associated enjoys varying degrees of constitutions form ate steps
are "derived
It
man man
freedom. "The different political
between these two terms
which begin with the excesses of
those of tyranny."
of
civil
life
as
many
license
and end with
soon will become obvious that
more from the constitution
intermedi-
disorders
all
of society than
from that
man."
What
is
to
be done today
will,
political institutions of a country.
then, concern primarily the
But Rousseau
is
not yet ready
to face that task. In those years of diatribes, Rousseau's energies
were concentrated on the negative task of thought was wrong with the times.
The
criticism of
O.C. 111,84-5, 85.
[102]
is
only
exists.
The
ultimate ideal
barely visible in the turmoil of his fight against
sl
what he
what
ROUSSEAU FACES THE ENLIGHTENMENT sophisms of the reasoners must they do
For
The damage
set aside.
immense.
is
we
if
be
first
think seriously about the problems of social
human
we
bound
man and
give
up
"all
these great words of society, justice, laws, mutual defense,
the prejudices of
vanity,
are
to see that
assistance to the weak, philosophy, progress of reason, are tricks
invented by skillful politicians, 32
the simple-minded. "
coward
all
flatterers, to
sweep of the
First a clean
dominate
rhetoric;
then
some thoughts for the future. In his parting polemical shot, the Preface to a Second Letter to Bordes, Rousseau gives us to understand that he has a great deal
more on
mind than he has
his
conveys the feeling that Rousseau grounds. his
He
is
This short fragment
so far said. is
completely confident of his
no longer overly concerned with the arguments of
opponents: he seems to have gone beyond that stage and to
have become the carrier of what, four times, he Precisely
what the system
and great system, the of
man, of
fruit of a sincere
his faculties
Rousseau, even though not,
he does not
is
and it
say,
only that
we must tutes
What
examination of the nature
"humiliates" him. But
matters
is
is
dear to
what matters
man which
is
cannot
not to hesitate to lower man, since
avoid making a fundamental mistake as to what consti-
man's veritable greatness. By trying
the stars
33
a "sad
it is
of his destiny." This system
because of vain pride, to make claims for
be sustained.
calls his system.
we
rather fear
are preparing is
him
32
Fragments politiques, O.C.
33
As the
we Ill,
will
man toward What we must
push
for his downfall.
that "by persisting in
ourselves above our nature
to
our attempts to elevate
end by
falling
below
it,"
or
538, 540, 478, 475.
editors of the Confessions,
Gagnebin and Raymond,
write:
"As the polemical debate unfolds, one sees Rousseau's thought, in two or
and strengthen
three years, develop fashion.
Under
itself
in
an altogether surprising
the pressure of the adversary, he
is
going to anchor
himself to his ideas and take possession of what he will call his "sad and great system"
(O.C.
I,
1435-6). [103]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU that
we may end up by
rather than poor It is a
of truth
and miserable,
preferring to be "vicious
and uncivilized."
"system" which Rousseau will defend because
and virtue and we
"The majority
of
suffer because
we
men, having degenerated from
which crush them."
It is a
which he could not have revealed true intentions
continue at
under a
them and the
all at
once.
He
had
veil of casualness in order to
hide his
to
be able to
34
all.
clear that Rousseau, in speaking of his "system,"
the complex of ideas,
many
of
them grim
ones,
accumulating in his mind and which he was in the Discourse is
it.
"true but painful system"
In spite of some obscurity and ambiguity of language
he
that
their primitive
goodness, have fallen into the errors which blind miseries
it is
have abandoned
on Inequality. More than
"system," leading to the present.
seems
referring to
which had been
to set forth in full
to the present as such,
referring to the concatenation of events 35
is
it
which he
Rousseau
is
sees as a
aware of the
scandal caused by his Discourse on Arts and Sciences. After 1750, he implies that he could not reveal
which would have caused
a far greater
all at
once a system
commotion.
tion of the gradual unfolding of his views
The
was necessary
precauso that
But by 1753 one of his more worthy opponents had become aware that what Rousseau was he would be heard
to the end.
34
O.C. Ill, 103-7. This interpretation differs in emphasis from that offered by Francois Bouchardy, the editor of the First Discourse and of the replies, who writes that "these somber epithets relate to present facts which he denounces, and not to the conclusion he reaches and, in spite of everything, he 35
hopes will come true" QO.C. Ill, 1284). But Gagnebin and Raymond, speaking of Book VIII of the Confessions, suggest a direct link between the "system"
and the Second Discourse:
"It is astonishing that
such a
small place be reserved to 'ideas/ in years which must have been devoted to
very wide readings and to the meditation of the 'sad and great system'
whose
first
1425). [104]
account will be given in the Discourse on Inequality" (O.C.
I,
ROUSSEAU FACES THE ENLIGHTENMENT offering
was "a decided system. "
the question of the origins
men, and
this
was about
There
was
to reveal to the world.
is
no open appeal
present corruption of man. the only remedy, but
foresee
time had come to answer
be the heart of the revolutionary system he
to
might
we
heal. It
is
But a
to revolution in the replies. itself
tion will certainly be necessary
it
The
and foundations of inequality among
revolutionary will manifests
which
36
A
if
in almost every line, a revolu-
an end
is
be sought
to
future "great revolution''
should fear
it
almost as
both wrong to wish
it
much
to the
may be
as the
ills
and impossible
to
it.
Narcisse Before proceeding to the "system," to Narcisse.
37
The
us consider the preface
let
play had failed after two performances at the
end of 1752. But Rousseau would publish
so that
it
he could
address himself to the yet unfinished task of replying to his adversaries.
that
This could be done by adding a preface, a document
Grimm found
better than the play
worthy of Montesquieu," called "one of
the author
man and
my
38
and
good pieces."
39
From
38
learn
much
that Rousseau wants to
about
of politics,
should those
who
him from
widen and
his "adversaries."
oppose him not be called adversaries?
prevailing reluctance of writers with different opinions
to clarify their respective positions 36
we
and about some of the major problems
About the author we learn
The
it
later
society, property, wealth, the state.
not to narrow the gap which separates
Why
with "some pages
itself,
Rousseau himself
that
Cf., infra, p.
no,
n. 45.
37
is
O.C.
typical of a century in II,
959-74.
Cited by Jacques Scherer, the editor of Narcisse, O.C.
II,
1
861-2.
See the whole of Scherer's interesting note (1858-65) on the long history (going back to 39
Confessions, O.C.
1729) of the play and on I,
its
interpretation.
388.
[105]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU which nothing
by
called
is
its
word can be found Rousseau meantime, he intends
proper name.
If
an alternative
be happy
to
use
will
"continue to
to
call
adversaries because in spite of the politeness as
rough
There
as the is
Macedonians
I
have upheld. " But the
do not believe one word
that
test is
he believes in what he
is
is
not
seriously
one
simple: "It
whenever a man speaks
permissible to ignore that
must think
In the
my adversaries my of my century, I am
of Philip."
a general conviction that "I
of the truths
it.
saying, unless his
actions or his speech should contradict him." Rousseau could
believe
by 1753 that
way
his
of
He
life.
intended to give incontrovertible public
evidence of that in case there were
For the
and
care
and
his thoughts corresponded to his actions
moment he
still
any doubters.
challenges the doubters to watch
and
to study his principles
him with
his personal behavior before
they accuse him of contradiction and inconsequence: If,
however, they were to note that
the public or that
I
pretty songs or that
comedies, petitors I
am
that
or
...
tried
I
or that
beginning
I
with the work of
fame makes me publicly,
books.
and
I
if
membership
women
fashionable
powerful
my
contempt the profession towards wealth,
solicit
the suffrage of
damage the glory
to
aspire to
to court
skies the stupidities of live
begin to
I
am becoming vain because I have written some I am ashamed because I have written some bad
I
men
or that
hands, or
if
I
or that
I
of
my
com-
in academies or that I
no longer
were
to
have chosen and were
praise to the
am
trying to
begin to hold in to start to
move
they were ever to notice in one word that love of
forget that of virtue,
promise that
I
will
I
beg them
burn
at
once
to let
my
me know,
even
writings and
my
40
In the meantime, Rousseau will continue to write books, verses
and music,
if
he can do
openly about the world of 40
O.C.
[106]
II,
960, 961,973-4.
it,
and he
letters. If in
will continue to write
the future someone will
ROUSSEAU FACES THE ENLIGHTENMENT say that this declared
enemy
But the
writes
still
talk will be "a very bitter satire
pieces for the theatre, such
not at myself but at
and sciences
of arts
aimed
my century."
issues matter
more than
his person. Rousseau's critics
have accused him of opposing the sciences
bad and by themselves the cause of
all
our
as
being intrinsically
vices,
and of wanting
to proscribe them, to burn the libraries, to close the universities,
and
to
plunge us back into the barbarism of early centuries.
Rousseau considers for arts
way
in
and sciences
this a travesty of his position.
in principle, but
which culture
in general has
One may be
be concerned
still
at the
been used and developed
to
cause the corruption of morals. This corruption which affecting
morals extends to is
all
aspects of
too visible to be denied.
obvious symbol of
human
While
arts
life,
individual and social,
and sciences
are the most
there are a thousand other sources of
it,
corruption which have contributed to our lamentable condition. History, since the collapse of the
has been a carrier of
human
commonwealths
tragedy.
The
of antiquity,
ruin of the
Roman
Empire, the invasion of Europe, the Crusades, the discovery of
commerce and
the Indies, "disorder."
"Whatever
navigation, have increased
facilitates
human
communications between
dif-
ferent nations brings to each not the virtues of the others but their crimes
and
alters for all the
are proper to their climate
and
morals and the customs which
to the constitution of their gov-
ernment."
Of
course, our historians are hiding the realities of history
the increasing corruption of history
is
written. For
them
and
man. They do not know why or how history seems to be
made up
of such
important matters as "the births, the weddings, the deaths of a
few princes; pleasures
41
O.C.
their hunts, their loves, their boring feasts, their sad
and the poverty of
II,
their peoples."
964; Fragments politiques, O.C.
Ill,
41
Perhaps the true
544.
t.o 7 ]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU historian should ject
remove himself
when the submen and not
to earlier times
when
matter of history was different and
real
mere semblances of men were the protagonists of from that vantage point
try to
and
history,
understand better the course of
events.
While whose
and sciences have become
arts
responsibility
is
a
kind of generic culprit
that of giving "to our vices an agreeable
honest air which stops us from being horrified by
color, a certain
them," there are more immediate targets Rousseau intends to First of
all,
that part of the educational system
relate the individual to the society in
has become purely
which he
Worse, "we learn
literary.
which
lives.
fails to
Education
the rules of
all
grammar before we even have heard anything about the of
man."
We
provided
worry
we
as to
word about what we must do: no one
are capable of eloquent statements,
whether we know how
to act or
how to
This empty and formal education, better suited
and
citizen,
to provide for
make him
to vanity. In the ideal state this
him
would not happen:
and these
tasks are too important
own
"in a
allotted tasks to
and dear
him
to
to leave
the leisure to engage in frivolous speculations. In a well-
organized state
all citizens
being equal no one can be preferred
over others as the most learned, not even as the most at
most
as the best."
Directing the tant a
human
but
skillful,
42
state,
Rousseau seems
activity to
be
left to
to
be saying,
is
the philosophers.
too impor-
How
little
does the eighteenth century realize what are the tasks that
ahead in the management of 42
a
the result of overrefinement and leads to idleness
is
well-organized state each citizen has his fulfill
will
think."
the survival of a student in a drawing room than to
good
duties
been accom-
are taught in detail of all that has
plished until today, "but not a
hit.
O.C.
[108]
II,
966, 965.
human
affairs
and how much
lie
less
ROUSSEAU FACES THE ENLIGHTENMENT optimistic
face
trie
and easygoing an
one has
attitude
responsibility of keeping
to take in order to
on an even
political societies
keel.
how much modern
frightening to see
It is
phers,
from Hobbes
tried to distinguish
political philoso-
Mandeville and a "thousand others," have
to
themselves with their dangerous doctrines of
contempt for the duties of
man and
of the citizen.
ing century" has accepted
them
too readily.
in the relaxation of
men est
all
customs and laws.
Contempt
"Our
The danger "The
morality of the people."
small-
advantageous from a certain point
if
Customs
are the
these conditions
become
of view, always brings prejudice to morals. 43
lies
for the duties of
breeds contempt for established political ways.
change in customs, even
reason-
Laws under
may sometimes
merely negative barriers which
succeed in pre-
venting the worst but can never create the good society.
The most dangerous
thing those
who have
taken charge of our
culture have succeeded in bringing about, Rousseau suggests,
the
weakening "of
linking cast
men
all
the
to society."
ties
of
mutual regard and benevolence
Those who have
fallen
under the
by our writers see themselves above everybody
indifference for
mankind grows
same proportion
as his love for himself.
become
him words empty
for
parent, citizen or
But there
work
is
is
man, he
more
a process
to
bound
of those intended
by
is
is
else.
spell
The
in the afflicted person in the
"The
family, his country,
he
of significance:
is
no longer
a philosopher."
Rousseau's criticism. to lead to results
a philosophy based
What he
which on
sees at
are the opposite
interest
and
utility.
"All our writers consider as the masterpiece of the politics of our
century a system of arts and sciences, luxury and commerce, laws
and other relationships, which, by strengthening among ties
43
men
of society through appeal to personal interest, places
O.C.
II,
the
all
of
971. [109]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU them
in a condition of
common
needs and
mutual dependence, gives them reciprocal
and compels each
interests
them
of
tribute to the happiness of others in order to achieve
its
to con-
own."
Rousseau suggests the simultaneous development of two con-
Having
tradictory forces.
said that philosophy
based on mutual regard, he strengthen social
ment does
ties
is
it
social ties
attempts to
One
develop-
in effect lead to the other, "for one cannot indeed ties
without weakening the other."
44
theory maintaining that a strong society can be built
primarily
upon individual
relationships of interest leads to the
opposite result by weakening the
ties
alone can keep that society strong. interest
instead
weakens
saying that
based on personal interest.
strengthen one of these
Any
now
is is
mutual
foundation of personal
not enough to create a community.
solidarity
What
a potential state of civil war, a condition in
cannot continue
to live together
tual destruction. "It
seen for what
we
which
of
A
is
created
which men
without cheating, treason, mu-
becomes necessary never
really are: for every
two
to let ourselves
men whose
be
interests
can be reconciled there are a hundred thousand others opposed to
them."
45
This
utilitarian
philosophy
the tragic source of
is
44
O.C. II, 967, 968 and note. During 1752—3, Charles Bordes had been busy preparing his own last reply to Rousseau's Last Reply. As the writing dragged on, Narcisse, with its preface, had appeared in print. Thus Bordes had the happy chance of answering two of his enemy's tracts. His Second Discours sur les wantages des sciences et des arts, of 1753 (to be found in Bordes, Oeuvres diver ses [Lyon, 1783], II, 361-468), is interesting not only because it has the standing of an "official" reply by the academic world of France, but because it shows a rather quick mind that has become convinced that what was being spread by Rousseau was "a decided system" (361). He has easily seized upon two of the most important points in the preface, and tries to disprove both of them. It is wrong to say that for every two men whose interests coincide 100,000 have opposing 45
interests, for the opposite is true
(465).
And
a well-organized state all citizens are equal is
true
[no]
is
that wealth
is
Rousseau's statement that in also
and luxury are harmless;
wrong (463-4). What remedy their few evil
to
ROUSSEAU FACES THE ENLIGHTENMENT "the violence sarily
and
required by
treason, the perfidies a state of affairs in
and
all
the horrors neces-
which every person, while
appearing to work for the welfare or the reputation of his fellow
men, and
is
in effect only concerned with increasing his
expense
at the
This
is
of,
everybody
above,
else's."
the constitution which our philosophers praise as the
culmination of a century-long flowering of the
"A
own
and sciences
arts
strange and calamitous constitution under
which accumu-
lated wealth always paves the way for the accumulation of even
under which any accumulation
greater wealth but
is
out of the
question for the poverty-stricken; a constitution in which the
honest
man
cannot
lift
himself above his misery; in which the
worst rascals receive the most honors/'
Rousseau
is
well aware that this has been said a hundred
times, but purely in a rhetorical
way. While others
may have
pointed to these evils Rousseau claims to have discovered their causes. For
because he to
man
as
all is
is
an optimist
trying to prove that "all these vices are not attached
such but
consequences,
when
the pessimism of his overview, he
we
to
man
badly governed. "
should not try
to
go back
to
46
the rusticity of early times,
and where war was meant fewer wars and greater happiness (422-3) and wealth has become a source of innumerable moral goods, first among them a love of peace (424-5, 433). As for the poor, they are much better off today than in the past. One should not describe as unhappy "men whose work and industry are exercised freely and to their profit; who, born in truth poor, are at least not deprived of the hope of wealth and are maintained by the law in the possession of their freedom, the dearest of all our goods, and of a kind of equality even with the wealthy and the powerful" (426). Bordes had prefaced his essay with an agreeable letter he had received from Rousseau in May 1753: "I have learned of your last reply from M. Duclos who has read it and thinks highly of it" equality did not exist in any case (416—20),
the rule. Progress has
C359 _ 6o). Perhaps Bordes thought that his former friend could still be over. In any case, the flattery of Rousseau could not yet do any harm
won
in the provinces. 46
O.C.
II,
968-9.
[in]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU The not
best proof of this decisive statement,
making
for the first time,
and primitive
civilized
which Rousseau was
words, between Euro-
societies, or, in his
societies.
they are both alike and one true philosopher
is
bound
is
between
in a comparison
The pseudophilosopher European is a man and the savage
pean and savage that since the
lies
is
is
likely to say also a
man,
not better than the other. But the
to say:
In Europe, the government, the laws, the customs, the interests,
everything forces the individuals to constant mutual treachery: everything makes a vice a duty; their there
no
is
expense.
greater folly than to
Among
the savages personal interest speaks as loudly as
among
us,
society
and the care
but the message
bind them.
wisdom consists in being bad for make a rascal happy at one's own
it
common
of their
The word
carries
property
.
is
a different one: the love of
defense are the only
.
.
which
ties
has practically no meaning
among them: they do not have divisive interests and nothing brings them to cheat one another. ... It is quite possible that a savage be guilty of to
an
evil action
do so out of habit,
but
with regret: the good
man
anybody, and the savage
Even
is
not possible that he should continue
it is
for this
would not help him is
the one
that
man. 47
who
at all.
...
I
say
it
does not have to cheat
in societies closer to us in time, not every institution has
been contrived interest,
to
maximize, by the legal sanctioning of private
a constant antagonism
those remote times in
between
their
members: "In
which a barely born and weak
right of
property was not yet established by laws, wealth was seen only as
usurpation and it,
to take
when
is
the reasons 47
48
was
away what did not
considered theft."
What
it
to
possible to deprive in effect belong to
possessors of
them was hardly
4S
be done? Should the discovery of the "system," of
why mankind had
degenerated, justify the plunge
O.C. II, 969-70 note. Parallele entre Sparte et Rome, Fragments
[112]
its
politiques,
O.C.
Ill,
543.
ROUSSEAU FACES THE ENLIGHTENMENT into chaos, the violent overturn of present institutions, the burn-
ing of books and the closing of universities?
The answer
is
no.
Rousseau reluctantly concludes that the semblance of order covering the horrible confusion, the simulacrum of civility hiding savagery, are better than total upheaval.
A
certain sweetness of
custom, the mask of virtue acquired by crime,
open crime and slaughter. better than to live
among
To
live
brigands.
is
preferable to
among rascals is perhaps Time should be gained to
think more carefully on a possible course of action.
[113]
V The Roots The Recovery of the
of the Trouble
Time, and the Study
Past, the Passage of
Man
of
IN
the eighth book of the Confessions Rousseau gives an ac-
count of his
trip to the forest of St.
Germain, where he hoped
find in the wilderness the inspiration
new theme proposed by among men. was November 1753 and
with the
he was seeking
Academy
the
to
of Dijon
to
cope
on the
origin of inequality It
the
weather was beautiful.
Therese, with a friend, relieved him of
and Rousseau appeared only Throughout the
traced;
I
seized
buried in the
rest of the day,
and found, the image
of the
first
upon the small
times,
lies
nature, follow the progress of time disfigured
it,
them, for
all
miseries.
My
and comparing the man his
all
cares
of
men,
and of
forest, I
whose I
of the events
man
1
O.C.
[114]
I,
I
proudly
dared lay bare their
which have
with natural man, show
vaunted improvement, the veritable source of
soul exalted
his
by these sublime contemplations, ... fools,
I
you who
complain about nature, know that you are responsible for
your misfortunes. 1
all
was searching,
history
proclaimed with a feeble voice they could not hear: ceaselessly
and expenses,
for the meals.
388-9-
THE ROOTS OF THE TROUBLE In this way, born.
2
we
are told, the Discourse
on Inequality was
Lost in the forest, Rousseau found the image of the
beginning of time and the outlines of the history of man.
Whether
that history
was
he wrote in the Confessions, or
real, as
imaginary as he said in the Discourse, did not really matter.
Perhaps the imaginary history was better. For
By
heart of his quest.
he could unveil man's
centuries,
the passage of time
it
him
led
to the
tearing aside the accumulated lies of
and
real
nature and follow through
history the changes
which have
altered
it.
When
Rousseau wrote the Discourse on the Origins of Ine-
quality in
1
753-1 754
his
from what he describes
purpose had not indeed been different
much
later in the Confessions. It
had
already been that of finding beneath the successive layers of civilization the original
make-up
of
man and
from
to trace
changes which had caused the present inequalities.
no doubt,
certain, as a
as his previous
the
it
He
was
work had already shown, that
consequence of the passage of time there had been a
loss of
was good, of much of the natural freedom and equal-
much
that
ity of
man. But he was much
less certain of
how
this loss
could
be established, or that the task of showing the difference be-
tween I'homme de I'homme and I'homme naturel was
at all
feasible.
The
knew
the
origins,
and
recovery of the past was imperative and he
influence of time was great. But to retrace time to
its
from that point follow the evolution of mankind, appeared
him an overwhelmingly arduous and did not yet have
He
2
He
was
fully
aware of
it
the certainties of 1762.
envisaged an unmeasurable gulf separating the past from
the present, the state.
all
task.
to
first
natural state of
man from
the present civil
"In thus discovering and following the forgotten and
Discours sur Vorigine
hommes, O.C.
Ill,
et
les
fondemens de Vinegalite farmi
lost les
109-223.
["5]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU routes that
must have led man from the natural
state to the civil
state
every attentive reader cannot
be struck by the
.
.
.
immense span was
that separates these
convinced that
it
two
fail to
states."
Furthermore, he
was only through an awareness of the slow
succession of things that a solution could be found to a multitude of moral
and
problems which philosophers could not
political
3
solve.
But Rousseau did not claim that he could provide the foundation for their solution.
origin of time
He was
and of the
trying
first
man.
He
life of
with the original condition of
man
of all to go
back
was attempting
—with
to the
to deal
that state of nature
about which every philosopher had written with careless ease, by the simple device of transposing to that time the views and needs
and
own
aspirations of his
while
at the
time. Rousseau refused to do this,
same time underlining the
reconstructing a state of
man on
obstacles to be faced in
a basis other than our
own
And yet the fundamental man before the onset of
prejudices or our present condition.
problem remains: that of understanding civilization
mined
and of the
his behavior.
institutions
which had
This was the root of the
so largely deter-
issue: the contrast
anything was to be done
between the past and the present.
If
about the current plight of man,
was necessary
it
to
understand
how he had got where he was. The difficulties were great, for our ignorance was complete. The Europeans had been writing about man as they traveled around the world
for the past three or four
apart from the fact that filling their
many
of
hundred
them seemed
years,
but
interested in
purses rather than their heads, they had mostly been
writing about themselves. Rousseau laments that the story of
man 3
has not begun.
4
When
the "tourbe philosophesque"
°
tells
O.C. Ill, 191-2. His program of field expeditions is not a modest one: "All of Africa and its numerous inhabitants, as distinctive in character as in color, are 4
[n6]
THE ROOTS OF THE TROUBLE us that
"men
are everywhere the same,"
only to hide the differences
it
uses a short-cut, useful
among men and
the transformations
caused by varying economic and political systems. This equality
among men perhaps
did exist a long time ago, but today has been
canceled by national variations due to the
have organized in different manners-their If
the study of
new world would
man
own
with which
still
its
all its variety.
We could see mankind
evolution, even today.
only the names
—
And from
we
a
could learn
about the moral and political problems
are struggling.
6
be examined; the whole earth
to
know
we
which men
affairs.
contemplation and comparison of the findings essential information
in
could be undertaken on a wide scale, a
appear in
in different stages of
way
yet
we
is
covered by nations of which
dabble in judging the
human
race!
we
Let us
suppose a Montesquieu, Buffon, Diderot, Duclos, d'Alembert, Condillac, or
men
of that
stamp traveling in order to inform their compatriots, know how, Turkey, Egypt, Barbary, the
observing and describing, as they
empire of Morocco, Guinea, the land of the Bantus, the interior of Africa
and its eastern coasts, the Malabars, Mogul, the banks of the Ganges, the kingdoms of Siam, Pegu, and Ava, China, Tartary, and especially Japan; then, in the other hemisphere, Mexico, Peru, Chile, the straits of Magellan, not forgetting the Patagonias true or false, Tucuman, Paraguay if possible, Brazil; finally the Caribbean islands, Florida, and all the savage countries: the most important voyage of all and the one that must be undertaken with the greatest care. Let us suppose that these new Hercules, back from these memorable expeditions, then at leisure wrote the natural, moral, and political history of what they would have seen; we ourselves would see a new world come from their pens, and we would thus learn to 5
O.C.
6
To
III,
know our own" CO.C.
Ill,
213—4).
212.
say that Rousseau was the founder of the science of
exaggeration.
He
sponsored research project to carry out the necessary
admires the lavishness of some curious people
made have
who
difficulty
is
not an
and conceiving how,
of ruins there
to
field
work. "One
have, at great expense,
or arranged voyages to the Orient with learned
draw pictures
man
even suggested the modern technique of a foundation-
men and
painters, to
decipher or copy inscriptions. But
I
in a century taking pride in splendid
["7]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU If direct observation
to the
had
to wait, Rousseau's only recourse
powers of imagination and of speculative
search for natural man, the
known
were of
little
and imagination had to be used to remove from
man
layers of habits
and
interests
facts
was
insight. In the
relevance,
many
the
superimposed by time. Rousseau
re-
fused to be deprived of the speculative tools which had enabled
He
the scientists to inquire about the origins of the world.
fused to black out the ideas suggested to
He might in
ing from what
what we
way establish
this
we were
him by
his imagination.
the pattern of change which,
in the youth of
start-
mankind, has made us
are today. This, he tells us, has led
him
to discover
follow paths of inquiry which proved revealing and fruitful. his
mind, what usually appeared
of the encounters
and
'civilized
and
as the
were no longer such,
in America,
of
man
essential clues
To
between "savage man"
but were like flashes of lightning illuminating the
man. They were the
and
absurd or comical aspects
of the relationships
man," in Africa,
re-
needed
real history of
to reveal the
nature
in his infancy.
Natural Man, Natural Law, the Original State of Nature
and
Its
End
Unlike other
political philosophers before
him, Rousseau faces
man in the state of nature by starting from the man in the state of nature was a radically different
the problems of
premise that
being from civilized man, and that the main knowledge, there are not in
money and
immortality
to
effort
be found two closely united
must be
men
—
to get
rich,
one
the other in genius, both loving glory and aspiring to
—one
of
whom would
sacrifice
wealth and the other ten years of his
twenty thousand crowns of his
life to a
celebrated voyage around
the world, in order to study, not always stones and plants, but for once
men and
morals, and who, examine the house, should its
inhabitants" (O.C.
[118]
Ill,
many centuries used to measure and make up their minds to want to know
after so finally
213).
THE ROOTS OF THE TROUBLE behind the
artificial,
the new, in order to find the natural, the
man.
original, characteristics of
man
belief that, since
and since the possible the
result
way
in
is is
largely
7
There
what
no wavering in the
is
have made him,
institutions
bad, only by reconstructing as
much
as
which the change has occurred and thus
identifying the multiple causes of the transformation of
man, can
any hope be nourished for a redress in the present intolerable state of affairs.
Rousseau's most worthy opponent
is
Hobbes, a philosopher
whose
whose genius and power Rousseau recognized, analysis of the harsh
and competitive world
which modern
in
man moved Rousseau made his own, but whose man Rousseau sharply rejected.
relentless
vision of natural
For Hobbes was the typical, as well as the most important,
when
representative of those schools which,
man
in the state of nature,
advanced
man
already
and needs which
complex
societies,
which assume the
and
fight; this
thing to fight about. nasty, short,
What
they gave us was a
endowed with
a multitude of pas-
man endowed full
to
also
with
exercise of reason,
man and
would be
Nor
and brutish
is
life.
natural
The
man
I,
at
peace and whose body
Montesquieu had come
were some-
miserable, leading a
is
man
something
concept of unhappiness pre-
whose heart
natural
and
of his innate inclination to
logical only if there
unknown
is
traits
Rousseau.
supposes distress or painful deprivation,
7
an
Rousseau cannot accept Hobbes' view of the
aggressiveness of natural attack
in
and which presuppose the existence of an
which appeared impossible Specifically,
man
are actually the result of conditions of
elaborate system of laws; a desires
describing natural
in effect describing
state of social relationships.
pseudoprimitive sions
were
to a free
being
healthy.
close to Rousseau's position
either speculative or rational powers.
Cf
.
by denying
to
Esprit des Lois, Bk.
ch. 2.
[119]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU Nor,
finally, is
Hobbes
fails to
draw the
Hobbes
(amour de
oneself
which
essential distinction
at the root of all that
is
between love of
soi)> a natural pillar of self-preservation,
(amour froyre),
pride or vanity
man.
right in ascribing pride to natural
and
a fictitious, social sentiment
evil in civilization:
is
Vanity and love of oneself, two passions very different in their nature
and
their effects,
must not be confused. Love
of oneself
sentiment which inclines every animal to watch over vation,
and which, directed
in
man by
and born
in society,
which
harm they do
to
is
is
only a relative sentiment,
else, inspires in
man
inevitable consequence.
its
becomes a necessity
The
men
tangled
of an advanced
which makes war the normal condition of man, and tion
have
the true source of honor.
a picture of
the contradictions and difficulties
all
is
anyone
one another, and
Thus, what Hobbes gives us
preser-
inclines each individual to
a greater esteem for himself than for
the
a natural
is
own
reason and modified by pity,
produces humanity and virtue. Vanity artificial
its
all 8
up
society,
in
one
his destruc-
imposition of government
to stop that war. Rousseau's
disagreement
is
complete, for he reverses the historical vision of Hobbes and places
war
course of history force
The
at the end, not at the beginning, of history. is
not from war to a peace maintained through
by the Leviathan, but rather from
relative
peace to increas-
ingly bitter social tensions and finally to a condition of latent civil
war which can only be stopped from breaking out
war by the removal
of the causes
into
open
which have brought
that
condition about.
Hobbes views the establishment happy development costs, for there is
dissolute
for
O.C.
[120]
government
mankind and one
no condition worse than
to
Ill,
sociability,
153-4, 152, 219.
as
a most
be maintained at
that of masterless
man. Rousseau views government
admirable fruit of man's 8
of
as
all
and
the potentially
but considers the beginnings
THE ROOTS OF THE TROUBLE of
governments such
certain forces
and
they exist today as the consolidation of
as
course
unhampered, would be
dom
man.
of
What that, to
then
which,
institutions
allowed to run their happiness and free-
fatal to the
Rousseau's picture of natural
is
man? He
tells
us
reach his conclusions, he had to destroy a multitude of
and prejudices, and that he had
errors
if
things to prove his
main contention
down
to dig
to the roots of
that natural inequality
is
far
from having had the importance and influence usually attributed to
He had
it.
to discard all
by which natural
man
utility, it
He
books which only show us
become and not
By tion
common
to accept for their cohabitation."
"scientific
were nothing
lived, for these principles
but "rules which, for the
men
bookish descriptions of the principles
would be proper
for
push aside
all
had
men
to
such
as they
9
as they were."
retreating to the superior vantage point offered
on the
first
could begin to discern what appeared to
Two
are
by "medita-
and simplest operations of the human
characteristics of natural
internal, not external, pressure:
and
him
"rules
which reason
pity.
dations
man,
is
And
to reason," the fruit of
love of it is
self,
or the spirit of
from these two
that
its
principles,
If self-preservation
9
it is
O.C.
a
Ill,
no
less
125, 160.
is
is
a later
the rules of natural law flow:
on other foun-
successive developments
ceeded in suffocating nature."
though
all
later forced to re-establish
when, through
he
be the true
to
without the concurrence of that of sociability which historical attribute of
soul,"
man.
fundamental and "anterior
self-preservation,
have
it
has suc-
10
readily admitted, pity
universal
is
less
so,
even
and spontaneous quality of man.
Throughout
his
life,
Rousseau will warn about
blind reliance on book wisdom. 10
O.C.
Ill,
125-6. Cf. the
skillful
comments
of Starobinski, ibid.,
1299.
[121]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU But, Rousseau adds, even that most outrageous detractor of man,
Mandeville, has acknowledged that pity
men would have been monsters. quality of man we still find in abundance
that without
This
a
is
developed
and
it
societies, or
among
the
humbler people.
which the modern philosopher, troubled and torn from
his
But savage
man
in the less
to the
whole
of
does not possess the cosmic
and he always thoughtlessly
of the philosopher,
a virtue
It is
in his tranquil sleep
bed only by vast dangers
society, does not feel.
wisdom
a natural virtue
is
yields to
the sentiments of humanity: "In street fights the populace gathers,
the prudent
the fighters.
To
.
.
man ."
runs away.
find natural law, then,
boundaries of
It is
the canaille' that separates
u
human
we must move
within the premoral
behavior and refuse sternly to identify
it
common utility of an organized The presumed permanent beliefs of mankind Rousseau
with the accepted maxims of society.
finds to be nothing but the prevailing beliefs of civilized
collection of rules
aimed
to settle the
busy in the pursuit of their at those
who have made
interests.
primitive
complicated
Rousseau's irony
—man —
man
without commerce, without property
men,
affairs of is
a
men
directed
without language,
the possessor of a sophis-
ticated metaphysical system capable of developing alone sublime
on abstract reason. In what today we
truth based
law,
we must
thought
which
to
see
no more than the assemblage
be helpful
to the
call natural
of those rules
maintenance of order in society and
certainly do not reflect the essence of "law" in the state of
nature.
12
In the original state of nature, then,
man
first
of all
wanted
to
In the second place, he was controlled by the law of
keep
alive.
pity,
based not on sociability but on a repugnance not linked to
reason, to see sufferings in similar beings. Furthermore,
"O.C. [122]
Ill,
154, 156.
12
O.C.
Ill,
145-6.
he had
THE ROOTS OF THE TROUBLE which might be part of
to achieve
none of that frenzied drive
calvinist ethics but not of the nonexistent ethics of original
What he had was a wish his fellow men as much
be free
sum
This was the
man had
—
social
is,
to
be
alone by
left
Natural freedom meant
commitments. law and
total of natural
it
was only
after
what we today mistakenly
the state of nature that
left
that
as possible.
and the avoidance of
isolation
call
to
man.
natural law was invented; by then nature was dead.
Within
this context,
Rousseau has
his
famous vision of natural
man.
He
is
being roaming the face of
easily the best, the cleverest
the earth. All available evidence
The power and
skill
and speed
even in historical times.
How
qualities of the savage tribes
is
incontrovertible on this point.
of natural
man
has been proved
can one doubt that these were the
who
over the centuries have in-
vaded Europe and Asia and easily overturned advanced tion, all
well
doubt the travelers
endowed with customs,
many
from
all
and
laws,
civiliza-
Who
can
eyewitness accounts brought back by modern the continents and
all
recounting the speed of
the Ottentots, the strength of the Indians, superior ability of all the savages
come
codes.
with
whom
and
in general the
the Europeans have
in contact.
These superior physical
characteristics
went with
other qualities such as those of foresight
fundamental reason was that natural
a lack of
and planning. The
man had no
needs that he
could not easily satisfy: the abundance of nature was within easy reach and he lived a daily routine
which did not require any
thought for tomorrow.
Nor can one that
say that the limited nature of his desires
meant
he was miserable and poor. By the same token he was
neither
happy nor unhappy. These
are sentiments requiring
comparisons and standards, moral relationships and identified duties.
Natural
man was
neither good nor bad, and had neither [123]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU vices nor virtues.
abandon
to
13
The even
tenor of his
life
made him
reluctant
one cannot speak of happiness in modern terms,
If
it.
one can speak of a
that satisfied man's essential requirements.
life
Rousseau writes that he has never heard of a savage lamenting
wanting
his plight or
travelers
all
is
to kill himself,
overwhelming
and again the evidence
showing the lack of
in
savages for the refinements of European
ment
to their
savages
The
who
own way
of
life,
their
life,
interest of
deep attach-
and the eagerness with which
seemingly had been Europeanized went back
physical strength of natural
man
has as
its
contradictory to say that
is
it
dependent.
Man
is
weak when he
state of nature, the strength of
omy. The mobility of man, shelter,
do not lead
which these terms 13
14
is
man
is
to
14
state of
both strong and
dependent. In the original
each leads
to
freedom and auton-
and
his ability to find sustenance
to aggression
all it.
main conse-
quence the capacity of being independent. For in the nature
of
and oppression
are understood in society.
O.C.
Ill,
"It is
an extremely remarkable thing, for
By
in the sense in
those terms
we
152.
have been tormenting themselves in the world to their
way
of
life,
to
all
the years that Europeans
bring the savages of various countries
that they have not yet been able to
win
over a single one, not even with the aid of Christianity; for our missionar-
sometimes make Christians of them, but never civilized men. Nothing can overcome the invincible repugnance they have against adopting our morals and living in our way. If these poor savages are as unhappy as it is
ies
claimed they
are,
by what inconceivable depravity of judgment do they
constantly refuse to civilize themselves by imitating us or to learn to live
happily
among
men and
us;
whereas one reads in a thousand places that French-
other Europeans have voluntarily taken refuge
among
these
no longer able to leave such a strange way of life; and whereas one sees even sensible missionaries touchingly regret the calm and innocent days they have spent among such greatly scorned peoples? If one answers that they do not have enough intellect to judge soundly about their state and ours, I shall reply that the nations, spent their entire lives there,
estimation of happiness
(O.C. [124]
Ill,
220-1).
is less
the concern of reason than of sentiment"
THE ROOTS OF THE TROUBLE mean
a set of relationships
set of institutions
The
strong.
loose
from which the weak cannot escape, a
which give sanction and
to the greater
free condition of primitive
over the possession of the a
with each
which the
The
man
his life
state of
once resolved,
nature gave him.
15
make is that there was no among natural men. This is true about natural man we cannot say that
or exchange of goods
we
if
talk
was characterized by the
Hence, without thine, or
trade,
any idea of
maintain in
arts,
sufficient
artificial
of today.
activities
without pride, or any idea of mine and
justice, his casual relationships
full his
were such
autonomy and freedom.
summing up
Rousseau's
ble of
at
provided
retreating into the unlimited area of freedom
by definition, for
out
were
tree,
other assumption one must
commerce
as to
conflicts
in
acts of hostility
same animal or the same
framework within which these
of the
man roaming
and
the forest, while not preventing encounters
power
is
well-known natural :
man was
with-
without language, without war, without a family,
and
making
discoveries,
but he could not communicate them:
"The invention died with the or progress,
self-
His intelligence was there, and he was capa-
free.
inventor.
There was no education
and generations succeeded one another
uselessly;
and each one moving out from the same point, centuries were going by with already old, but If this
all
the grossness of the
man remained
was the
first
times, the race
always a child."
original state of nature,
a Christian gentleman described
it
was
16
was not the world of
by so many philosophers.
It
was
not the world of justice and injustice, of legal systems, of belief in ideas
which could only be born
in society.
according to Rousseau, that while everybody has
The
felt
truth
the need of
reaching the state of nature no one has arrived there: talked about savage
15
O.C.
Ill,
man
154, 156.
"They 1T
but were describing civilized man." 16
O.C.
Ill,
159-60.
17
is,
O.C.
Ill,
132.
[125]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU The in
has set
might rather be described
original state of nature
which time stands in, or, if
there
still, is
as
one
one in which no cycle of development
one within the
human
cycle of every
life
being, growth and change are limited to a time span no longer
than that of a
human
and always
life,
point with each generation. revolution or upheaval
is
It
back
fall
a state,
is
to their starting
then, in
which no
likely to take place, a state defined
by
the rough conditions of equality which nature has placed in
man, one
in
which natural
brief confrontations
of
inequalities are quickly resolved
which do not
alter the essential pattern.
mutual dependence and of slavery are only the
by
Ties
result of
conditions which do not exist in the original state of nature,
where, each being free of any constraint, the autonomy of primi-
man is possible. The key lesson in
tive
all
of this, according to Rousseau, wholly
apart from any empirical findings,
the original state of nature has an ple.
Even
if
we
say that
probably will never notion It is,
"if
we want
it
exist,"
is
that a proper conception of
immense
significance of princi-
has 'perhaps never existed, that
it is still
necessary to have of
to appraise correctly
it
it
a just
our present condition."
18
then, as a standard of measure, as a model, as a term a quo,
that Rousseau wants to
come
to grips
with what he clearly
conceives as a most hazardous, but most essential preliminary question.
The
state of nature
to justify the present:
Once
this point
it is
is
not a conceptual tool to be used
a tool
we need
to
understand
has been established, Rousseau
tries to
the boundary line of the original state of nature; that line
is,
beyond which man cannot move without entering
different
from the original one. As
has faith in the potential of
will
human
become progress.
clear,
it.
look at at the
a state
Rousseau
Thus, having
defined the original state of nature as one in which time stands
18
O.C.
[126]
Ill,
123.
THE ROOTS OF THE TROUBLE he
still,
is
aware of the
fact that time did not always stand
still,
and that sometime, somewhere, movement got under way. After a
man
while the frontiers of the state of nature were reached and
abandoned
There
it.
are three
main such boundaries language,
agriculture,
:
and property. The development of language
is
linked by Rous-
seau to the establishment of a more settled family influence the child, in need of help
had on the parents,
and trying
life,
to the
to express himself,
as well as to the further relationships be-
tween family groups and the necessity of a more complex system
communication
of
to express greater
nity with a language state of nature,
far
it
may
a
a
new phase
be from a
still
community which has
which has already
and has entered
it,
is
A
mutual needs. left
commu-
the original
a great deal of history
of development
behind
no matter how
social state.
In his Essay on the Origin of Languages,
Discourse on Inequality,
20
19
which
is
part of the
Rousseau contends that while on the
one hand physical needs can be conveyed by signs, on the other
hand
passions, moral needs, the unfolding of reason,
ually give rise to languages.
Languages grow with
with the increasing complexities of their needs; they the language of poetry
and song, which
is
must grad-
societies
move from
the language of the
earliest societies, to that of the alphabet, a characteristic of
ples already organized in political
19
ed., 20
Essai sur Vorigine des langues, I,
communities.
Oeuvres de
and
].-).
peo-
21
Rousseau, Hachette
370-408.
The
decisive evidence
is
given by Rousseau himself who, around
it was nothing but a fragment on Inequality which he cut off as too long and out of place (Pierre Masson, "Questions de chronologic rousseauiste," Annates, IX [1913], 45-49).
1763, in referring to the Essay, writes that
of the Discourse
21
On
music and language,
seau/' Studies
1964), 319
on
cf.
Voltaire, ed.
Gossman, "Time and History in RousTheodore Besterman, XXX (Geneva,
ff.
[127]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU Agriculture became another of the paths leading away from the state of nature. Earlier,
men were
scattered over the face of
the earth, with the family the only society, the laws of nature the
only laws. Rousseau
calls these
times "those of the dispersion of
men. Since Rousseau recognizes that the family was part of the
man human
of
at this time, life
life
he does not have in mind the beginning of
but a subsequent
complete freedom but
state, still of
one in which a basic nucleus had been organized around the family. This he calls the "golden century" or the "age of happi-
This was so not because
ness."
men were
united but because
they were separated: "Each considered himself the master of all.
.
men
.
.
His needs
separated
state of
far
from bringing him
closer to his fellow
him from them." The paradox
war seemed
that while a
whole earth was
to prevail, "the
We know why this was so.
is
Needs could
easily
be
at peace."
satisfied in a
noncompetitive world, amidst the abundance of the fruit of the earth. Casual encounters did not lead to
Movement and cattle-raising
flexibility
were the
permanent
conflict.
Hunting and nomadic
were the principal occupations. There was no fixed
cultivation of the land, since there
no establishment
of property rights
requires foresight.
man
rule.
Man
had been no :
division of
"Agriculture
is
an
art
it
and
which
in society tries to extend himself, isolated
to limit himself."
Therefore, the turning point, on which everything else depends, was agriculture:
"it
brings property, government, laws and
by stages poverty and crimes." agriculture
would have been
And
even the development of
different without the decisive inter-
vention of climates and of great natural events. "Suppose the existence of a perpetual springtime on earth and everywhere the
presence of water, cattle and pastures; suppose
men coming from
the hands of nature and scattered in the midst of [128]
all
this,
I
THE ROOTS OF THE TROUBLE cannot imagine them ever renouncing their primitive freedom
and abandoning
their isolated
and
pastoral
life,
one so well
adapted to their natural indolence, in order to impose needlessly
upon themselves the
slavery, the toil
inseparable from the social state."
and the miseries which are
22
Undoubtedly then, great natural commotions, such quakes, floods, volcanic eruptions, and great forest
men
fires,
as earth-
brought
together in order to defend themselves and repair the
dam-
warm countries of brought men together in a
ages they had suffered. Also the necessity in
using scarce resources, such as water,
way which, initial
ment
over a long period of time, facilitated not only the
strengthening of the family but gradually the developof those other ties
which underlie
Before the hardening of
hours, nothing compelled
forgot
its
imposed by an organized
development, "where nothing marked the
its
man
to
keep time, time having no
amusement and boredom. Under
other measurement than trees,
life
became unavoidable, mankind went through the
agriculture
happiest stage in
oak
human
larger communities.
old
the conquerors of time, an ardent youth gradually ferocity.
.
.
There the
.
first festivals
took place
.
.
.
the solicitous gesture was no longer adequate, voice accompanied it
with impassioned accents; pleasure and desire, merged into one,
made themselves cradle of peoples; fires
of love
23
less
the same time:
and of the pure
were born."
Something 22
felt at
That was the
veritable
crystal of fountains the first
23
noble than love was gradually born too. Culti-
Essai, 384, 385, 388, 392. Essai, 392.
tiation
which
is
Are these
festivals fulfilling a role of individual differen-
the opposite of the collectivistic role of the civic festival
of the Letter to d'Alembert? (Cf. Starobinski's affirmative answer,
O.C. 1344-5.) hi the Essai Rousseau was describing the evolution from festivals to civil societies. In the Letter, he was trying to recover the lost
Ill,
conditions of
community
life.
[129]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU vation began and with crops by those
had been destroyed.
With
24
the allotment of lands and the claims to
it
who had
raised them.
By then
the state of nature
Because property had been born.
settlements followed by accumulation, a process leading
among men,
to increasing differences
demands on goods
fixed
were made by those possessing those goods. These claims gave
became had
to
Where
the idea of property.
rise to
a necessity, vast forests
be watered by the sweat of
property appeared, "work
became smiling
men and
which
fields
which quite soon,
in
one saw slavery and poverty grow together with the harvest."
The
''
complexity, indeed the mystery, of this prolonged process
did not escape Rousseau.
He
dealt with
it
by envisaging a succes-
sion of states of nature, from the beginning of time
moment when
certain
the evolution
may be
down
to a
considered closed.
After this terminal point Rousseau does not deny the reality of
continuous change. But loss of
freedom
is
it is
a
change of
a different kind.
For the
what happens
later, in
already complete, and
the dazzling display of lights of our civilization, fling of the chains
What we
man
has fastened around himself.
see of savage life today
is
not a representation of the
original state of nature, but quite certainly the historical unfolding.
only a shuf-
is
Somewhere
in
end
of a long
between, Rousseau imagined
he had caught a brief vision of an age of innocence, of the golden age of Utopia, a state in which with
human
faculties
"keeping a just balance between the indolence of man's primi-
and the petulant
tive state
activity of
our pride,"
26
man had
enjoyed the longest era of happiness, one which represented the veritable youth of
How
far
reach the
24
O.C.
[130]
mankind and might have
we have come from
last of society,
Ill,
145.
25
those
lasted forever.
happy
days.
How
did
we
"where nothing can be changed any
O.C.
Ill,
171.
26
Ibid.
THE ROOTS OF THE TROUBLE money and since one has nothing people except 'give money/ one says it with
longer except with guns and
anymore
to tell the
manifestos posted at the street corners or with soldiers in the
To
houses?" Language has become useless.
orders, orators or popular assemblies are
the contrary, the
first
it is
rule of
which
is
politics."
concludes: "Therefore,
say that any language
I
a servile language. It
is
impossible that a people
is
could remain free and talk such a language." looks ahead, Rousseau
of nature to be
found tomorrow
is
drawn
at the
closing of the cycle of man's evolution.
obscurity of prophecy.
mankind
in
The
in
its
all
we have
His thought here has the
he seems
to
be saying
is
that with
and oppression under
state of nature, "different
at
from the one
because one was the state of nature
started,
is
the fruit of total corruption."
which Rousseau is
28
believes a revolution
attained there
lies
the
forward social development of man. Progress must be
Progress
for.
and Inequality
language,
Essai, 408.
and property have had such
agriculture,
reaching consequences,
27
at the
notions of good and justice are dissolved
purity, while this last
accounted
If
end of history and
be unavoidable. But before that point
entire
to consider a final state
state of inequality
new
This must be the point to
27
only law becomes that of the strongest and every-
thing goes back to a
with which
What
an extreme
the rule of a master, entirely.
is
incapable of making oneself understood to the assem-
bled people
As he
government
necessary to keep the subjects scattered. This
modern
And Rousseau
carry out
no longer needed: "On
28
it is
O.C.
because
Ill,
man had
far-
the capacity to use
191.
[131]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU them tial
unique fashion. For he had within himself the poten-
in a
29
of "perfectibility"
which distinguished him from
other
all
animals on earth. It is
be forced
for us to
nearly unlimited faculty that
this faculty
it is
him away from tranquil
Yet
drama
in this potential that Rousseau sees the
would be sad
is
is
admit that
the origin of
all
of
man
:
that original condition in
of man's misfortunes;
which he would spend
30
what happened. Writing
Rousseau pre-
in 1754,
mankind
sents a picture of the progress of
all
the
more
for being written before the industrial revolution.
He
startling
struck
is
with awe by the immense material progress of mankind, inventiveness and power.
and
Man
to
is
man
role of
that
The
conclusion must be
pursuing his downfall in trying to secure what the
is
protecting
The
is
an astonishing lack of proportion between these material
achievements and the happiness of man. that
huge
raise
buildings and cover the sea with vessels. But the truth there
its
has been able to raise mountains
and dry marshes,
valleys, to dig lakes
fill
"It
and
this distinctive
which, over the course of time, has pulled
and innocent days."
this
to
hand
of nature
had
tried to
possibility of perfection
hide from him.
31
limited or heightened by the
is
What
chance and hazard in the progress of mankind.
has happened, might not have happened. points in the history of
man were
in part
How many due
to the fortuitous
presence of events which might never have happened at
we have seen,
nature plays a contradictory
that great natural catastrophes
—have forced men
—
role,
turning
because
all.
it is
As
likely
floods, volcanic eruptions,
and
come together
for their protec-
Hence, the unresolved ambiguity of nature's
role in forcing
earthquakes
to
tion.
29
A
neologism, making
its first
appearance around 1750. Cf. O.C.
13 1 7-8. 30
O.C.
[132]
Ill,
142.
31
O.C.
Ill,
202.
Ill,
THE ROOTS OF THE TROUBLE progress
on man. Rousseau
is
hinting at
many
things at the
same
time: progress should never have taken place, progress might
never have taken place, progress was inevitable given the nature of man. The latter appears to be The problem then was that of how
Rousseau's overriding belief. to reconcile progress
with the
freedom of man.
The
long forward trek beyorid the state of nature begins.
Man, endowed by nature with starts
the potential of perfectibility,
on a long journey which
is
to
end
for him.
tragically
man
Stimulated by necessity, driven by interest,
begins to de-
velop the social drives which during an unmeasured period of
time had lain dormant.
Once on
the move, he could not halt to
enjoy the balanced happiness which the very settlements gave him. ity,
the joy of family
Man may then life,
the disadvantages of civil bigger,
more organized
organized
first
have had a sense of
solidar-
a greater feeling of security, without life
and the
loss of
social structures.
The
freedom of
later,
process of change
was, however, a continuous one, and Rousseau does not suggest
anything about the duration or the real character of
this inter-
vening and best age of man. For there life
is
no going back, once the
have been abandoned.
ually
man
Common
static
conditions of early
interests multiply
acquires certain ideas about mutual
the advantages to himself in fulfilling them.
and grad-
commitments and
He
learns to distin-
guish between actions to be carried out alone and actions requiring the help of others. his well-being
become
He
begins to
depends on others for
part of fixed family groups
the basis of relationships existing
experience that
his realization.
and determines
among
family has become a self-sufficient,
group of families leads
know from
if
also has
his actions
separate families.
small, society,
on
Each
and each
to the gradual transformation of a variety
of qualities
and sentiments which natural man had
Love tends
to
become
He
jealousy, strength
in himself.
becomes vanity,
skill
[i33l
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU
A
becomes competition.
which causes
dialectical process begins
profound transformation in
human
coming communal, change
their nature.
a
behavior. Activities, by be-
Singing and dancing
move from innocence to the stimulation of prideful feelings and a desire to show off to better advantage. The inequalities which nature has placed in
man become more
keenly
and
felt
and
seen,
therefore tend to increase.
But these are not the only causes of inequality which receives an extraordinary impulse from the development of the
which man provides
for his increasing needs
and
skills
by
new
for his
needs, or exploits the inventions which time and chance, and his
imagination as well, have placed
at his disposal.
Agriculture and ironmongering were the two
duced
this great revolution, "civilized
The American fits
Indians, Rousseau
of agriculture
men and
tells us,
to
Regardless of the
our
own
way
in
which
pro-
mankind."
32
were spared the bene-
and ironmongering, and
remained "savages"
arts
lost
for this reason
have
day.
which these two
discoveries
were
made, certain consequences followed inevitably. For both techniques were based on the possibility of greater rewards for greater tasks
—
on the need
skills,
in brief, they
Rousseau
made
for organization
and the
possible the rule of
man
division of
over man.
produced by the com-
stresses the multiplier effect
ing together of natural inequalities with the inequalities of "combination."
By
that
is
meant the technical
inequalities
which
are
favored by the processes of production and exchange, once goods are produced in different different purposes. inequalities,
amounts by
It is at this
different
men and
point that the balance of natural
which might have been maintained
in the original
freedom of nature without the enslavement of the weaker bers of the
32
O.C.
[134]
human
Ill,
171.
race,
is
for
lost in
organized society and
mem-
is lost in a
THE ROOTS OF THE TROUBLE way which makes
for a
widening gulf among
men
placed in
different circumstances.
The widening and of
archies
which
living,
gulf can be seen in the development of hier-
make
unknown
they are
simplicities.
which
civil society,
in the state of nature with
its
whilst
uniformities and
to hierarchies, hierarchies lead to institu-
are the final stage in the sanctioning of inequality.
backed by laws, which are the voice of
Institutions
freeze, for a
image the
appearance in
their
33
As techniques lead tions
and of standards of
orders, of types of education all
time at
men. By
make them what they actions, they give
They mold
least, a fluid process.
activities of
them
are.
telling
them what
By providing
civil justice,
to their
to do,
they
a guidepost for their
their beliefs of right
and wrong.
With the appearance of institutions, government is founded, and man has realized his potential for sociability. Man has become
man and
Savage hearts of
But what
a citizen.
civilized
a price
man
he has paid:
differ so
much
in the
bottom of their
and inclinations that what constitutes the supreme happiness
one would reduce the other
to despair.
repose and freedom; he wants only to live
The
former breathes only idle;
and even
the perfect quietude of the Stoic does not approach his
profound
indifference for
all
other objects.
active, sweats, agitates himself,
On
and remain
the contrary, the citizen, always
torments himself incessantly in order
to seek still
more laborious occupations; he works
rushes to
in order to get in condition to live, or renounces life in
it
order to acquire immortality. hates,
and
to the rich
whom
He
he
to death,
pays court to the great
scorns.
He
he even
whom
spares nothing in order
he to
obtain the honor of serving them; he proudly boasts of his baseness
and
their protection;
of those
who do
difficult
and envied
33
O.C.
Ill,
and proud
of his slavery,
he speaks with disdain
not have the honor of sharing
174,
1
labors of a
it.
European minister
What
a sight the
are for a Carib!
60-1. [135]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU How many cruel
deaths would that indolent savage not prefer to the
horror of such a
which often
life,
not even sweetened by the
is
pleasure of doing good.
Man
no longer knows
He
others.
security,
and
in effect
he
is
a slave of
has reached a condition of inequality which defies
any comparison with any natural inequality. Indeed, the inequality of
mankind has
roots
its
and draws
the development and progress of the
power of growth from
its
human
In the end,
spirit.
it
has become fixed and has been legitimized by the rights of property and by the systems of laws.
How
can anyone doubt that
Rousseau understands
man,
that
it,
it
the hungry multitude
What
is
itself
man
with superfluities, while
deprived of the essentials of life?"
an incredible contrast faces us
men" with
ings,
as
we compare
the other hand, he
is
no longer
a multitude of
fellow men, even
when he
needs their work;
if
the middle, he
God
he
still
treachery, jealousy,
is
is
new
free
needs, he
their master. If
poor, he needs their
cannot act alone.
become
and independent.
35
is
he
moved only by
[136]
192-4.
to his
wealthy, he
money;
part of man's daily
if
he
is
in
life.
Society be-
interests
who
a latent desire to destroy one another at the
opportunity. In the society of
Ill,
bound
is
Harshness, ambition,
comes a forced cohabitation of men of conflicting
O.C.
is
has implanted in
reason, the mind.
Having acquired
34
man
other animals. All his faculties have ripened:
memory, imagination,
are
"the
has developed his capacity for perfectibility, he
him alone among
first
34
"natural man." After untold centuries of suffer-
reaping the fruits of the qualities which
On
as
an imbecile should lead a wise man, and that a
handful of people should fatten
of
against natural law,
is
"that a child should rule over an old
35
O.C.
Ill,
man 175.
brought
to flower in the
THE ROOTS OF THE TROUBLE seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, everything property and competition.
The mask
who may
hides an ever-present urge to destroy those
way
reduced to
is
mutual benevolence
of
stand in the
The mul-
of the further acquisition of personal advantages.
tiplication of private
needs does not lead to an increase of public
were saying, but rather
benefits, as the economists of the time
the multiplication of
wounds
inflicted
on private men,
to
to a rise in
the tensions of society, to a weakening of the chances of peace
and happiness. In the Discourse on Inequality, Rousseau delivers himself of
some of
his
most celebrated utterances. Social
bad because he
way which
man
is
is
is
man
is
bad.
He
is
forced by the institutional setting to act in a
contrary to the interests of other men. Thinking
a depraved animal. Natural
man
is
a child of intuition
and passion. The development of man's rational
faculties has
taken place within a progressively worsening framework:
The extreme
inequality of our
way
of
life;
excess of idleness in some,
excess of labor in others; the ease of stimulating appetites
and our
which nourish them with binding indigestion; the
satisfying our
and overwhelm them with
juices
bad food of the poor, which they do not even have
most of the time, so that their want inclines them
when
stomachs greedily
to
overburden their
the occasion permits; late nights, excesses of
kinds, immoderate ecstasies
all
and
sensuality; the overly refined foods of the rich,
of all
the passions,
fatigues
and
exhaustion of mind; numberless sorrows and afflictions which are felt in all
conditions and by which souls are perpetually tormented:
these are the fatal proofs that most of our that
we would have
simple, uniform, If
and
avoided almost solitary
way
nature destined us to be healthy,
of reflection
meditates 36
O.C.
is
Ill,
is
all
ills
of
own
of life prescribed to us I
work, and
by nature.
almost dare affirm that the state
a state contrary to nature
a depraved animal.
are our
them by preserving the
and that the man who
36
138.
[i37]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU The contrast between natural man and civilized man is clear when we consider the consequences of their actions. They are limited for the former,
and cumulative
for the latter.
seau has often said, a clash in the state of nature
knit
men
web
are not only
man and
fluous
more frequent because of the
more
of existing relationships, they are
aftermath. There
pushes
quickly
is
no permanent harm behind. Clashes among
resolved and leaves civilized
As Rous-
is
closely
vicious in their
the driving force of gain and greed, which
to look first for necessities
and then
for the super-
later still for useless riches acquired at the
expense of
others.
Forces are at work which support the reaching for limitless
power and wealth. There
is
a nightmarish vision
summoned up
by Rousseau in which the strongest and most successful all
the wealth of
else, rules
alone over the
earth has finally succeeded in getting hold of
the world, and having killed everybody universe.
man on
37
Long before this awful state is ever reached, hypocrisy has come to characterize civil life. Rousseau again uses, as he had done in the Discourse on Arts and Sciences, the notion of moral dissembling to explain the
way
in
which men
the inequalities by which they are afflicted. the qualities and the
needed
man, affect
it
skills,
one does not have
If
and approval of one's fellow
then becomes important to appear to
and
the wealth and the power, that are
to acquire the consideration
them, and
live in society
parade before others
as
to
have them or
something that one
to is
"Being and appearing became two altogether different
not.
things,
and from
tricky treachery,
this distinction
and
Life becomes a
all
have come the showing
accompanying
vices."
off,
the
38
game with an empty facade
of philosophy, of
humanitarianism and polite manners, behind which hides a 37
O.C.
[138]
Ill,
203.
38
O.C.
Ill,
174.
THE ROOTS OF THE TROUBLE
We
quite different reality. virtue, of reason
triumph of honor without
see the
without wisdom, of pleasure without happiness.
This was certainly not the original condition of man. with
changed our natural
inequalities has
its
If society
inclinations, the
men
purpose of political philosophers should be that of teaching
how
to try to rediscover
and practice them. But the
state stands
in the way.
The
First State, Property,
As man was nearing the end first
was born. Society had
state
certain practical arrangements
had become tutional in
its
of his evolution to civility, the to
become
made
predominant purpose.
to allow
The
with
political society, it
what
to fulfill
absence of some
insti-
agreement could no longer be endured. Rousseau leaves
no doubt the reason why: the
men
not possible that
It is
Man
and Economic
rich could
no longer
tolerate
it.
should not at least have reflected upon
such a miserable situation and upon the calamities overwhelming them.
The
them was in
rich above all
a perpetual
which the
was
must have soon
war
risk of life
in
felt
how
disadvantageous to
which they alone paid
was common
to all
the costs, and
all
while the
risk to
goods
Moreover, whatever pretext they might give for
theirs alone.
their usurpations, they
were well aware that these were established
only on a precarious and abusive right, and that having been ac-
quired only by force, force could take them
away without
having grounds for complaint. Even those enriched by their alone could hardly base their property
At
much
first sight,
in the
answer they give
The
meaning. For Locke
O.C.
Ill,
better
titles.
Locke and Rousseau do not appear
to secure property.
39
upon
it
to the origin of
difference
means the
lies
efforts
39
to differ very
government:
in their
their
it
was
judgment of
its
translation into a constitutional
176.
[139]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU on natural law. For Rous-
right of a fully validated right based
seau, the translation into tyrannical a usurpation
by the few
at the
and temporary
For Rousseau maintains that what the rich had gains based on force
defend were
to
and on precarious and abusive
who had
that even those
institutions of
expense of the many.
and
titles,
own
acquired wealth through their
individual labors could not claim
more acceptable
All were
titles.
exposed to the harassment of the propertyless, the vengeance of the poor.
It
was
at this point that
what Rousseau with
bitter
irony calls "the most thoughtful project ever conceived by the
mind
of
man" was put forward by
the hard-pressed rich
who
to use in his favor the very forces of those
make
them other
"It
was
them with
his defenders out of his adversaries, inspire
other maxims, and give
:
attacked him, to
institutions
which were
as
40
him as natural right was against him." By appearing to guarantee equality under law, order, and the peaceful enjoyment of individual possessions, they managed to favorable to
subdue and ferent.
to
persuade those whose interests were quite
Everybody rushed
to
be put in irons thinking
it
was
dif-
their
freedom they were defending. This
and
of
class.
is
a
view which explains the
law purely on the basis of the
interests of the possessing
origin of society
and of laws."
No
matter
camouflaged their public announcements were, hiding be-
hind them was the determination of the rich in a better condition to defend
to place themselves
what they had. The
arrangement "which gave new
fetters
to
the
tablished forever the law of property
and
clever usurpation into an irrevocable right,
O.C.
[140]
Ill,
177.
result
all
inequality,
and
was an
weak and new
forces to the rich, destroyed natural freedom for
40
government
origins of
Regardless of specific historical evidence, "such was, or
must have been, the
how
first
time, es-
changed a
for the profit of a
THE ROOTS OF THE TROUBLE few ambitious men henceforth subjected the whole human race to
41
work, servitude, and misery."
Rousseau
aware that
is
would be challenged. the
He
this
view of the origin of government
therefore
lists
two alternative
the second, government as the union of the weak.
Rousseau
feels that the right of military
any
birth to
legal
government, since
it is
possible there
is
no
body
real
for the second,
As
for the
first,
conquest cannot give
based on an act of war
which can have no lawful consequences. Until
As
theories:
the establishment of government by right of conquest;
first,
a free choice
is
politic.
Rousseau finds the words "strong" and
"weak" equivocal and prefers "rich" and "poor." This being the case,
why
should the poor, "with nothing to lose but their free-
dom," be eager
to seize the initiative to give
ing good, to gain nothing in exchange?
hand, being exposed on injury, could with
all sides
much
up
The
one remain-
their
on the other
rich,
and vulnerable
to attack
and
greater justification initiate steps in-
tended to protect them. Rousseau concludes by saying that
"it is
reasonable to believe that something has been invented by those to
whom
it is
useful, rather than
by those
to
whom
it is
damag-
mg.
A government growth, as
ment
it
thus born could not have an easy and constant
was weighted down by an
original sin:
its
commit-
to the defense of property and hence of inequality had
irremediably harmed
its
chances of future development.
From
time to time a wise philosopher could detect the root of the trouble, but little could be
done about
changing the patchwork of started
it.
institutions,
One
kept repairing and
while one should have
by uprooting everything that existed in order
to build
anew.
But 41
this revolutionary clearing of the
0.C.
Ill,
1
78.
42
O.C.
Ill,
1
ground has never been
79-80. [141]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU and the resulting gradual evolution of government has
possible,
been
for the worse.
The
property-right laws were followed
initial
by the creation of public
officials
to enforce
them, while
ulti-
mately institutions which in the beginning had the appearance
became the source
of legitimacy
of arbitrary power.
If we follow the progress of inequality in these different we shall find that the establishment of the law and of
property was the
first
stage, the institution of the magistracy the
second, and the third and into arbitrary power.
ized by the
by the
to
was the changing
and
third that of master
and the
inequality
new
last
So that the
status of rich
epoch, that of powerful and
first
revolutions,
the right of
weak by the
which
slave,
which
limit to
of legitimate
is
second, and
the last degree of
the others finally lead, until
all
revolutions dissolve the government altogether or bring
its
legitimate institution.
Human
it
history, then, given lines.
its
starting point,
This
is
must proceed
so because "the vices that
necessary social institutions are the same ones that
their abuse inevitable."
must be
a
"new
closer
43
along certain unavoidable
make
power
and poor was author-
And
make
the terminal point of this process
revolution," a phrase Rousseau
is
using to signify
human freedom lost by the private appropriation common wealth. One can again go back to the parallel between Locke and Rousseau. With the securing of private property rights, individthe recovery of of the
ual liberties were also secured, according to Locke, for the two
could not be separated. By contrast, the securing of the former lost
the
was
latter,
lost,
it
according to Rousseau. But
if
individual liberty
could never be alienated, because one can never
alienate one's
own freedom
as
one can one's own property.
New
generations as they are born cannot admit that their forebears
have
lost
for
them what belongs
natural right. 43
O.C.
[142]
Ill,
187.
to
them
absolutely
and by
THE ROOTS OF THE TROUBLE This then
the real state of the civilized world in which arts
is
and sciences
one in which laws sanction injustice
flourish,
stead of creating justice. It
is
one which tends
and
distance between whatever qualities
the reality of the daily
could be.
It
man had and
virtues
and goods
gives a higher place to material values
than they should have in a well-ordered society.
nomic man the dominant
web
tangled
lengthen the
make man worse than he
tends to
life. It
to
enmesh man
figure
in
human
on the
of wealth, profits,
It
Rousseau
is
the
is
eco-
there to great
first
man
thinker to focus his thoughts on the condition of
been shaped by the uncontrolled
makes
landscape. All the
and power
trade,
a hopeless way.
in-
conflict of private
as
it
has
economic
interests.
The drama is
drama
the
man
of the transformation of natural into civilized
of the poor versus the rich, of the propertyless
versus the property owner.
The
ever-present
theme
in the age-
long history, or ideal history, that Rousseau gives us to explain the origin of political inequality certain
men found
it
the use of economic riches.
founding of organized first
government
was
a
'
is
We
have seen
political society
institutions,
and
contractual" founding,
in
which
power through
how
in the initial
in the shaping of the
wealth played a decisive
This
role.
which had no relationship
"social contract" of Rousseau's later it
way
that of the
possible to acquire decisive
to the
democratic community. For
was a "contract" between those who had and those who had
not,
imposed on one of the contracting parties by the other.
The at that
turning point had, of course, come
moment, ominous
much
for the future of
earlier. It
came
mankind, when
first
someone, in the words of Rousseau, "having built a fence around a piece of land,
thought of saying,
simpleminded enough original state of
to
this
is
believe him."
man came
to
individual control over goods
men
mine, and found
At
an end, and
that all
moment
the
the claims to
made from then on belong
to a
[i43l
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU period of
human
end
which no longer can be confused with
history
the state of nature. of the process.
The founding of government represents the The much longer intervening period is one in
which men of wealth gathered strength and devised the ments
to consolidate
As Rousseau contemplates the contemporary world and means, he
tion
is
rich. The common man, in
is
between the poor and the
man
is
to
be found in the
where natural sentiments can, from time
people,
through. In the higher, that
sentiments "are totally there
of civiliza-
with contempt and anger.
filled
decisive contrast
strength of
instru-
it.
is
The real
the
to time, pierce
wealthier, ranks of society, those
and under the mask of sentiment
stifled,
nothing but interest or vanity."
is
therefore not surprising that Rousseau should analyze
It is
man
civilized
in terms of the scope
quences of his economic
and
dismal,
activities.
and influence and conse-
The
picture he draws
the more striking because, in spite of
all
pates so
many
of the issues
and
having
its
been drawn in the middle of the eighteenth century,
is
it
antici-
come. Rousseau
difficulties to
man in terms of the problems he is creating for own domestic political society, and for the rela-
looks at economic himself, for his
tions of that society to other national
economic
man
societies.
in terms of the practices of a
He
looks at
money economy
based on competition, trade, profits and profiteering, and luxury.
He sums up conditions of
life
Where man has given
one of the ugliest overviews of the
his reflections in
of
modern man.
himself
rise to a
is
concerned, the utilitarian view of
devouring ambition, and has pushed
seek advantages which benefit others,
and
to
tween what he
A [144]
deepen the break really
political society
utilitarianism
him not
wants
to
so
much
do and what he
in
man
to
they damage
in the personality of asserts
based on the acceptance of
must be one
as
life
he
man is
be-
doing.
this individual
which an accelerated trend towards
THE ROOTS OF THE TROUBLE inequality
Such
inevitable.
is
a society soon
becomes unjust
because the inequalities that are increasingly written into the
law are not those that could derive from the small natural ine-
found among men. Those alone could find legitimate
qualities
and generally applicable norms,
recognition, in equitable tive
in posi-
law: "Inequality, being almost null in the state of nature,
draws
its
force
and growth from the development of our
and the progress of the
human mind, and
faculties
becomes
finally
stable
and legitimate by the establishment of property and laws. follows, further, that moral inequality, authorized right alone,
is
contrary to natural right whenever
bined in the same
How soon
this
trend
is
its
become wealth, even
if
actually realized
Wealth
the one to
is
is the final
power
which they
saying,
is
can easily be used to buy everything
then any political revolution aiming
man must
to
com-
wealth
else."
45
If
bring society
be one willing
to
problem of the regulation of wealth.
But wealth has not only damaged man and the in
are
determinant not only of
relationships within the
closer to the conditions of natural
face the
important than
less
munity. In the ultimate analysis, Rousseau
is so,
44
In a society whose basis has
source.
inequality, but of all other
this
not com-
it is
in the beginning of time personal traits
determined inequalities, "wealth reduced in the end/'
is
It
positive
proportion with physical inequality."
the identification of
rules because "it
by
which he
lives, it is also
different nations
political society
responsible for the wars in
have engaged. For
it
was only when
national societies were organized that wars began,
witnessed horrors
unknown
a characteristic of
in the state of nature.
mankind
in
46
which
different
and mankind
War,
then,
later stages of evolution.
its
is
It
tends to increase in intensity with the greater and greater organization
and interdependence of man.
"O.C.
Ill,
193-4.
45
O.C.
Ill,
Man
189.
has been moving away 4G
O.C.
Ill,
178-9. [145]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU from the peace and harmless
conflicts of
early days largely
its
because of the usurpations which destroyed his original inno-
cence and goodness.
The
of the contemporary world, Rousseau
crisis
be fully explained only
and complicated ways
How
being used. tive
if
in
far are
we
his field?
which wealth and economic power
first
Ours has become
signs representative of wealth have
are
the relatively harmless primi-
man a
to put up an money economy
been invented
which Locke considered an invaluable device processes of economic accumulation (gold
which Rousseau envisages
deteriorate) but
many new
take into account the
we from
greed that prompted the
around
can
tells us,
—
in
which
those signs
for the orderly
and
as
4T
enclosure
did not
silver
damaging
tools in
economic
activity
worsening equalities among men. For
man
could
now plunge
into a frenzy of
such as was not possible before, and engage in trading and
producing
—
roles in
which competition,
violence to the welfare of the
profits,
many became
and downright the guidelines.
Hence, the deepening of the gap between appearance and
real-
the appearance of a busy world in which interdependence
ity,
keeps everybody in line and working for the happiness of others
and from which flows reality.
Under
his
own
happiness, and the far different
the mantle of universal benevolence, there
is
concealed the increasing hate with which each individual operator
views the
activities of his competitors.
a desire to inflict as
many
Commerce
based on
on
others. Traders
rivals' ships, just as
individuals long
losses as possible
wish for the sinking of their
is
for the death of their rich relatives.
The
profit
motive leads
tional calamities,
on the
to profiteering
sick
by speculators on na-
and the wounded
in wartime.
Wars
themselves become the source of great wealth. In the end there 47
O.C.
[146]
Ill,
175.
is
THE ROOTS OF THE TROUBLE man
no doubt that
profits
more economically by doing
by doing good, and
that this
which
based.
his society
is
evil
than
favored by the institutions on
is
How
can one avoid the conclusion,
Rousseau writes, that that system
bad which
is
dictates rules of
action "directly contrary to those that public reason preaches to
the social body?"
The ury.
final
corruption of developed societies
is
caused by lux-
Rousseau might agree that luxury was impossible
where men were tion
48
after their
and approval of
others.
own convenience and But
let
to
the considera-
no doubt that what
there be
luxury achieved was to bring to a head the sickness of a ian society
and
that far
from enabling the poor
impoverishing the entire community. could befall a
evils that
of lackeys
state, large or
and miserable people
ruins the farmer
and the
It
was the worst
small
:
utilitar-
to survive,
"To feed
has created,
it
prevent
it
of
it
was
all
the
the crowds
crushes and
burning winds in the
citizen, like those
south which, covering the grass and greenery with devouring insects, take subsistence
famine and death
away from useful animals, and bring
to every place
where they make themselves
49
felt."
The
economic reason on which Rousseau based
specific
his
stand against luxury was essentially the belief in the superiority of agriculture over industry. Agriculture
the most important activity of
man
was
for
as well as the least profitable.
The two went
together in his judgment:
tant because
provided the food without which
survive;
it
mankind,
it
was the it
had
the poorest of
to
of
man from
that of the superfluous
48
O.C.
Ill,
at prices
202-3.
O.C.
man
could not
given the poverty of
therefore,
for
by
which drew
the production of the essentials to
would lead 49
was the most impor-
which could be paid
man. Any economic system,
away the energy
it
least lucrative because,
produce
Rousseau both
Ill,
to the decline,
both economic
206. [147]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU and moral,
With
of the state.
the countryside
the growth of arts and industries
emptied and the peasants look for bread in
is
while they should bring
cities,
to
it
them.
The more we
struck with admiration by the splendor of the great capital
the
more we must
realize that this
is
happening
at the
are
cities,
expense of
an abandoned countryside.
Happy
is
the state which has
known how
tive influence of luxury. In the
to avoid the destruc-
Dedication to the Republic of
Geneva which opens the Discourse on
Inequality,
imagines that Geneva has succeeded in doing
that.
Rousseau
He
is
glad to
think that the so-called gentlemen of taste will have to look
elsewhere for "grandiose buildings, beautiful carriages, superb furniture, the
pomp
of theaters,
and
and luxury." In Geneva they
ness
community morally strong because degradation of civilization.
all
the refinements of soft-
will only find it
a
has avoided the extreme
itself,
of
how
long community
under the conditions which seemed
to
present in the more advanced societies. In these the
life
an era
of civilized
to
mankind
man, Rousseau
is
life
comments on
describing a world to come,
For
if it is
true that he
was polemizing with
a society
and sciences in which modern industry had made
appearance, this was
still
Even
his description applies to a full-fledged industrial society
the
mass
more remarkable
societies of the
its
an industrial system based on limited
production, in which quality and not quantity counted.
all
was
be universally
be born of an industrial revolution that was just beyond
his horizon.
of arts
else
phase of development which posed the question of
the end of civilization possible
a
50
But Geneva was the exception, and everywhere
had reached
men and
as
it
anticipates the life of
middle of our
own
man
and
so, is
in the
century.
Industrial workers are forced into unhealthy jobs, in mining,
50
O.C.
[148]
Ill,
120.
THE ROOTS OF THE TROUBLE in metalwork, in metallurgy,
great cities
man
is
which shorten
more and more forced
He
tures of improperly kept foodstuffs.
mislabeled drugs and
them
their lives. In the
monstrous mix-
to eat
has to heal himself with
who
to suffer the thievery of those
as well as the errors of those
who
sell
The
administer them.
large metropolitan centers with their poisoned air multiply epi-
demic
diseases,
while the natural strength of
by the conditions under which he can see
how
high a price nature
the contempt in
One
is
lives.
man
Adding
exacting from
weakened
is
all this
man
we
up,
because of
which he now holds nature's teachings.
51
has only to think of what representative philosophers of
the Enlightenment, from Voltaire to Condorcet, were saying on the benefits of progress, to measure the distance
which separates
Rousseau from his culture. At a time when belief in the marvels
was leading
of science
which the coordinated and planned
politics in
51
"If
to the first attempts to build a doctrine of activities of the
you consider the mental anguish that consumes
us, the violent
passions that exhaust and desolate us, the excessive labors with
poor are overburdened, the
still
more dangerous
softness to
which the which the rich their needs and
abandon themselves, and which cause the former to die of the latter of their excesses; if you think of the monstrous mixtures of foods, their pernicious seasonings, corrupted foodstuffs, falsified drugs,
the knavery of those
who
sell
them, the errors of those
who
them, the poison of the containers in which they are prepared; attention to the epidemic illnesses engendered
men gathered together, our way of life, by the
multitudes of delicacy of interior of
our houses into the fresh
taken off with too
little
by the bad
to the illnesses
alternating
air,
precaution, and
air
administer if
you pay
among
the
occasioned by the
movements from the
the use of garments put on or all
the cares that our excessive
sensuality has turned into necessary habits, the neglect or privation of
which then costs us our life or our health; if you take into account fires and earthquakes which, burning or upsetting whole cities, cause their inhabitants to die by the thousands; in a word, if you unite the dangers that
all
these causes continually gather over our heads, you will sense
dearly nature
(O.C.
Ill,
makes us pay
for the scorn
we have shown
how
for its lessons'*
203-5). [149]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU scientists
would be harnessed
able rate the inventions societies
produce
to
and
at a regular
and new techniques needed
to
foresee-
push
civil
toward dazzling peaks of perfection and happiness,
Rousseau was describing an age of anguish and violent passions,
an age of revolution in which the machine, urban
man on
increasing dependence of
far
artifacts,
the
life,
from being
sources of strength and welfare, were creating moral, political,
and economic problems whose very existence everyone had
as yet
refused to admit.
To have
anticipated the crisis of the industrial revolution
before that revolution had occurred, and on the basis alone of a speculative image of the nature of
man
to
have offered a criticism
of the premises of utilitarian individualism
—these
are
why we
Rousseau's greatest achievements and a main reason read
him
The
"Dedication" and the Ideal State
today.
Emile learns manual work, because "we are approaching of
crisis,
two of
and the century of revolutions/' The
a state
crisis will arise
out of the disorders and conflicts of our civilization, which under a peaceful sion,
outward appearance conceals the germs of cruel
divi-
with different classes harboring for each other suspicions
and mutual hatred because of the opposition of
The extreme
their interests.
inequality of conditions will give an opportunity
to political chiefs "to stir
up
by dividing them." Society
all
will
that can
weaken men
in society
be atomized by an exploitation of
the deep uneasiness created by social injustice, and leaders will arise capable of
using for their ends the resulting conditions. As
society disintegrates a revolutionary phase will begin.
Out itself
of these revolutions a despotism will be born to establish
over the ruins of the republic and
would precede [150]
this last
its
laws.
"The
times that
change would be times of troubles and
THE ROOTS OF THE TROUBLE but in the end everything would be engulfed by the
calamities,
monster, and peoples would no longer have chiefs or laws but
only tyrants.
From
that
cease to be in question/'
In this
human
total
moment
also morals
despotism there would be a dissolution of the
personality
could cling. This
is
state of nature, in
and of any rule or
institution to
what Rousseau means by
which
Faced by
live in a state
and innocence
this fearful picture of a totalitarian future,
"Must we demolish
societies, destroy
between mine and thine, and go back the bears?" This conclusion seau,
and he
drawing
But the
states
it
of the
would
to live in the forests
suit his enemies, writes
with
Rous-
53
to social life
acquisitions,
is
only two. For the few
and who can cut
who
are not
their bonds, a retreat
the best solution. "You can leave your fatal
your worried minds, your corrupt hearts, and your
unbridled desires in the midst of you, your ancient sight
is
himself rather than leave them "the shame
real alternatives are
committed
what
the distinctions
it."
into the wilderness
and
first
cities;
reclaim, since
it is
up
to
innocence; go into the woods to lose
and memory of the crimes of your contemporaries, and
have no fear of debasing your species in renouncing
enment But self,
it
state of nature.
there to do?
of
which
a return to a second
men would
totally isolated
of corruption quite unlike that of goodness first
and virtue would
52
in order to renounce
its
enlight-
vices."
for the great majority of
men, including Rousseau him-
"whose passions have forever destroyed
plicity,
its
their original sim-
and who cannot any longer nourish themselves on
and nuts, nor do without laws and
rulers," this easy
way
grass
out
is
impossible. It
52
may O.C.
also
Ill,
1
be impossible because 90-1.
53
O.C.
Ill,
men have been
persuaded
207.
[151]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU humankind to develop its communal living (what Rousseau
that a divine voice has called all faculties is
and
to participate in
actually saying
man was
more obscure and imprecise: while
rather
becoming one, and he may
potential of gift
is
not born a political animal, he had in himself the
from a divine power). They must,
ground and
They
fight against the
will respect the sacred
members; they
will love their
surrounding
bonds of the
and
are their authors
and wise princes who
multitude of abuses and
therefore, hold their
which they are
honor above
evils
all
men who
obey the laws, and the
know how
the good
all
to prevent, cure, or palliate that
always ready to crush us; they will
animate the zeal of these worthy
and
this
evils.
societies of
ministers; they will will
he received
fellowmen and will serve them with
their power; they will scrupulously
fear
feel that
chiefs,
by showing them without
and the
flattery the greatness of their task
rigor of their
duty. But they will nonetheless scorn a constitution that can be
maintained only with the help of so are desired
their care, always arise tages.
many
more often than obtained
more
citizen
who
days of the extreme
will
crisis
all
than apparent advan-
real calamities
undertake
which has
carry out his activity gladly,
and
These state of
is
his
first
unthinkable.
we cannot go back totally corrupt
intolerable.
he must O.C.
to
it.
The
condition of
fight for Ill,
The
it is
in the tragic
his society will still
be to the
unworkable and
will
more harm than good. to the original
man has followed canmemory of a lost age, but
road
acceptance of an ultimate and
and despotic second
The
all this
upon
duty will
yield
still
We must cultivate the
not be retraced.
do
dilemmas of Rousseau; a return
are the
nature
change
to
fallen
constitution, in spite of his belief that in the absence of drastic
[152]
—who
despite
54
The good
54
respectable people
—and from which,
state of
modern man
is
nature
a tragic
is
equally
one because
improvements and reforms he knows are inca-
207-8.
THE ROOTS OF THE TROUBLE pable of achieving the desired results. As he concludes the Discourse on Inequality, Rousseau cannot indicate a
dilemma. But
same
at the
he
time,
is
way out
of the
anxious to see whether
something can be done.
Much
thinking back upon these years of the mid-i75o
later,
he wrote "I saw that everything depended in a radical :
politics/'
55
This
not an expression of despair.
is
such a
way
as to
human
affairs
s,
way upon
If politics
occupy
bound
to
and might be influenced
in
the foreground of the social structure, then they are play a primary role in
,
produce the desired
results. If politics express
themselves in institutions, then institutions can be changed and
shaped to
suit the interests of the
despair of
man, unable
to
community. Thus the hopeless
go back
nature and
to the first state of
powerless to avoid the coming of the second, might give before the decisive role of politics true that
no people would ever be
ment made might lead
it,
Rousseau had in
some
man
he was certain
institutions
better than
what
recovery of
effect
if it
its
was
govern-
government
wisdom and freedom.
been expressing
this
thought repeat-
time. In the preface to Narcisse
he had said
he was lamenting were not so much part of
that the social vices
the nature of
belief that,
a reshaping of the institutions of
to the partial
edly and for
that
and the
way
as the
consequence of bad government, and
that, in the
long run, people were what their
had made them.
In the Discourse on Inequality he thought he had on balance
strengthened the argument of the opportunities open to social
man
to
improve his
55
Confessions, bk.
56
Lettre de
].
J.
lot.
In an important Letter to Philopolis,
ix, O.C. I, 404. Rousseau a M. Philoyolis, O.C.
Ill,
56
230-36. The
was not published until 1782. It was addressed to Charles Bonnet, a Genevan scientist who had published in the Mercure de France of October 1755 a criticism of the Discourse on Inequality (its text will be found in O.C. Ill, 1383-6). letter,
written in the
fall
of 1755,
[153]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU written shortly after the Discourse, Rousseau had, from a parallel
between the aging of
drawn
dom
the shift from nature to society,
certain very significant conclusions, vindicating the free-
of
man
mankind
difference,
namely
and
as old
age
is
you
as
say,
but only, as
at least
may be is still
from the nature of
as
a key
man
from the nature of mankind, not have shown, with the aid
I
which might
of certain external circumstances,
have happened, or
society
to individuals, there
that "old age flows
that society flows
immediately
Even though
to act politically.
natural to
alone,
man and
or
might not
might have happened either sooner or
later."
What
matters
is
accelerate or slow
to
be quite clear that
down
feasible for
upon the
will of
man."
in our power, then, to influence the course of history
the initiative in order to do
what
is
wrong means
perfect quietism
to
so.
man
to
and that many of the circum-
progress
stances that affect us "depend
it is
To
give
up the
We have and
it
to seize
struggle to correct
oppose any action whatever: "The most
would be the only
virtue left to
man." This
is
not possible, and Rousseau was convinced that the Discourse had
man to how little
offered very strong reasons against a withdrawal of
a life
in the forest: "I feel too strongly within myself
I
do without men
as corrupt as I
am, and the wise man,
if
can
there
is
one, will not today seek his happiness in the midst of a desert.
When
possible,
country, to love
Given
man
this
to act
one must it
on
it,
On
one's
to serve it."
primacy of
course of history.
undone.
and
fix
there
political intervention,
was then nothing
What man had
the foundations of a
more virtuous
life for
own abode
man
in one's
and the duty of
inevitable about the
done, or tolerated, could be
new
constitution, a happier
could be built.
Once
O.C.
[154]
Ill,
232, 234, 235.
and
the possibility
was admitted that the welfare of man could be linked 57
own
5T
to this
THE ROOTS OF THE TROUBLE political task, the
ideal state.
question was that of outlining the frame of this
What was
the nature of a government capable of
achieving these results? to
the law?
Which government would keep
And what was
the content of the law?
Rousseau made up his mind
to
dedicate the Discourse on
Inequality to the Republic of Geneva.
Confessions that
dom
closest
He was
to write in the
he thought Geneva's notions of law and
free-
not just enough or clear enough to suit him, in spite of the
praise
he publicly lavished on them.
search for a
way
out,
and the
homeland, combined
to
The moral
imperative of the
practical opportunity of helping his
push Rousseau
to try his
hand now
the drafting of the requirements of the ideal state. If politics
at
was
all,
then he should outline the conditions under which
life
could produce the results he wanted. In the Dedication this
is
what he
political
did.
During most of the two centuries since the publication
of the
Discourse on Arts and Sciences and the Discourse on Inequality, the so-called individualism of the two Discourses tivism of the Social Contract
From the very beginning, the
and the
collec-
have been frequently contrasted. early
Rousseau was portrayed
as
favoring a return to the state of nature, as opposed to civilization
and culture, and, therefore, opposed
to all
forms of social
life.
In
the twentieth century, one of the most distinguished of Rousseau
C. E. Vaughan,
scholars,
felt that
the second Discourse
landmark of the greatest importance, both for ideas
and
for
its
practical consequences.
For
"it
its
was a
speculative
suggested more
extreme forms of individualism than any previous writer had ventured ing,
was
to set forth,"
"to
and
the French Revolution." If 58
its
chief significance, politically speak-
be found in the vast influence which
it
yielded
upon
58
such views be true,
Cf. C. E. Vaughan, ed., Rousseau (Cambridge, 191 5),
it
would be an impossible
The I,
Political
task to
Writings of Jean Jacques
119.
[155]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU reconcile the Rousseau of the Discourses with the Rousseau of
the Social Contract. But the point
that
no
direct
comparison as
between the Discourses and the Social Contract.
such
is
The
purpose of any
possible
is
critical analysis
must be that
of identifying
the successive frames of reference with which an author devel-
The
ops his thoughts.
Discourses are in essence keyed to a
review of the consequences of certain historical and cultural
phenomena. The Social Contract presents of
what ought
liberty
a rational discussion
be the principles of a society in which both
and authority
The sets
to
are to be found.
Discourses are polemical documents in which Rousseau
about to
criticize the position of his adversaries,
ian, materialistic, godless philosophers
the utilitar-
he saw in the forefront of
the Enlightenment. In the First Discourse Rousseau
is
defend-
ing the concept of nature as the revelation of divine goodness against the soulless nature of the Enlightenment.
advocacy of any return
to nature,
takes a stand against
no
Second Discourse Rousseau
Locke and the defenders of theories of the
based on a view of property rights deriving from the state of
nature.
As
a result,
ments and
he gives a striking analysis of the maladjust-
social troubles of a political
legal sanction of
tional arrangements. It
Rousseau
because
rests
is
upon
all
is
on the revolu-
existing institu-
against "civilization" to the extent that
equating civilization with the materialistic paroxysm
is
of his age.
system that
economic inequality. His argument
tionary because of the frontal attack
It
this
does not deal with the nature of the ideal state
was not Rousseau's
object.
manifestation of the jansenistic spirit with its
is
but a clear affirmation of the
superiority of nature over art. In the
state
There
dissatisfaction
The its
Discourses are a
rigorous moralism,
with the probabilism and compromises of an
age which, politically speaking, could readily be satisfied with the despotism of enlightened princes.
In any study of the development of Rousseau's political [156]
THE ROOTS OF THE TROUBLE thought, the two Discourses must be seen as descriptions of what
Rousseau did not want
way
accept as a
to
of
life,
descriptions of the ideal organization of society
They
are the latter only
of discourse: one,
and
of the state.
by indirection.
Rousseau was keeping els
rather than as
alive simultaneously
more open and
the world around him; the other,
still
exciting,
two different
lev-
an attack against
hidden before 1754 by his
polemical offensive, a vision of the nature of political society and the role of the citizen in
The
"contrast"
tract is that
Rousseau
between analysis and prescription. In the former, us what
tells
is
wrong with the world
give us the criteria
tries to
In the
it.
between the Discourses and the Social Con-
latter,
as
it
exists
and
by which we can evaluate ourselves.
he provides the norms that ought
to
be followed in
a free democratic state.
What
is
no
even
less interesting,
within the text
itself
if
only seldom noticed,
is
of the Discourse on Inequality, the
that
same
tension exists between the denunciation of the evils of present social life
and the outline of the
ideal state. It
is
the tension
between the Discourse and the Dedication of the Discourse. this
the
is
And
time Rousseau gives us an opportunity to look at
first
the two aspects of his thought.
The
Dedication
Geneva
in
May
is
1754.
linked to Rousseau's decision to return to
The
return to the native city of which he
proclaimed himself to be a citizen, was to prove to his friends and
enemies that he had accepted in practice for himself the admonition given in the Discourse to all but a in political life.
But effect
since
just to
few
Rousseau was going back
to participate actively
to the city.
go back was not enough: Rousseau had also in
committed himself
to
provide a schema of the ideal
he believed that everything flowed from
politics
state,
and that
make better men. The best way of embody it within the Discourse on
the right kind of politics could
providing this schema was to
[157]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU members
Inequality with a dedication to the citizens of Geneva,
of the General Council. Written early in 1754, the Dedication
is
the most complete outline of Rousseau's theory of the state
before the Social Contract. In the Discourse he had retraced the steps that
had
men and
led to the downfall of
equality and freedom. In the Dedication he
of the ideals of
would give
his views
both of what was needed to recover those ideals and of what
were the basic principles
The
be adopted by a democratic
to
the Discourse
glitter of
itself
which was intended by Rousseau
background a
political analysis
to restore his
purposes to a proper perspective.
hoped that
his friends
The
would then be limited
institutions First of
to political life.
most
all,
He
must have
Dedication no one could doubt his
after reading the
commitment
state.
has helped to push into the
only remaining difference with to the
kind of
political life
and
produce free and moral men.
likely to
the ideal state was one to be grounded in history,
with well-defined historical characteristics attached to
it.
Against
the Enlightenment, Rousseau considers a nation's historical heritage
an essential part of
its
strength. Against the generic
uprooted citizen of the world, he outlines the of the community, one of
whose chief
virtues
traits is
patriotism.
This meant the choice (as Rousseau begins
community
qualities of the
born) of "a small
in
society, that
its
laws
...
I
to list the ideal
which he would have is
One, furthermore, not "of recent
one built
to the
institutions,
should have sought out for
and
of the citizen
liked to be
human
scale."
however excellent
my
country some
peaceful and happy republic, whose ancient heritage would be lost in
to
the night of time; and whose vicissitudes had been such as
show and strengthen the courage and
jects;
and whose
citizens,
ence, were not only
This was
to
free,
its
sub-
long accustomed to a wise independ-
but worthy
be
to
be a community isolated
the contentions of national wars. His [158]
patriotism of
as
so."
much
ideal state
as possible
from
was not only to
THE ROOTS OF THE TROUBLE be free of any "fiery love of conquests/'
it
was
also to
be
immune
from the danger of conquest by other nations through a happy balancing of mutual interests.
This community of historically minded patriots could not, however, be one in which rigid class divisions and privileges
tended to perpetuate themselves in the seau saw the danger of appeals
to history
a chief agent of prescription
if
The main
unchanging
right,
itself
history as
meant the
is
institutions, or of
advantage to be derived from history
was rather that of the continuity of the
The community
of history. Rous-
and of using
by prescription
justification of class positions, of
property rights.
name
had
to
legal
and
political system.
be founded not on prescriptive
but upon an identity of interests between the people and
the carriers of sovereign power. This identity, according to Rousseau, could never be obtained in
any
society except a democratic
one.
As we proceed, we
find in the Dedication the principles of the
Social Contract, those ideals
which the
reality of the quite dif-
ferent contract of submission so vividly described in the Dis-
course on Inequality
had rendered vain: the democratic
ideal of
governed by law, the ideal of the identity between the
a society
people and the sovereign, the ideal of a community which does not delegate any of
its
but clearly outlined,
essential,
legislative
powers, and the ideal of not accepting that rupture and antago-
nism between the inevitable I
citizen
and the
state
which was assumed
to
be
by the dominant utilitarian philosophy of his time.
should have wished to be born in a country in which the interest of
the Sovereign
and that
of the people
must be one and the same;
common
to
the end that
all efforts
And
could not be the case, unless the Sovereign and the
as this
might tend always
people were one and the same person,
wished
to
be
born
under
a
it
to the
follows that
democratic
I
happiness.
should have
government,
wisely
tempered. [159]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU I
should have wished to
the laws that neither their
live
and die
nor anybody
I,
free: that
else,
is,
so far subject to
should be able
to cast off
honorable yoke: the sweet and salutary yoke suffered by the
men
proudest of
any
suffer
with the docility which comes from their inability to
other.
should have sought a country in which the right of legislation
I
was vested
in all the citizens; for
who
can judge better than they of
the conditions under which they had best dwell together in the same
Not
society?
among
that I should have approved of plebiscita, like those
Romans; when the
the
preservation,
interested in
its
upon which
often rested
its
rulers in the State,
and those most
were excluded from the deliberations security;
and in which, by the most
absurd inconsistency, the magistrates were deprived of rights which the citizens enjoyed.
Rousseau was aware of the revolutionary implications of such a sweeping grant of legislative powers to the people.
have been interpreted
and continuous change of advancement of
the right of legislation
might
ill-directed,
institutions, to a reckless acceptance of
attempts to manipulate political of the
an irresponsible,
as leading to
It
life in
the
name
of progress
and
science. Therefore, having just said that is
vested in
all
the citizens
—
for they are
the best judges of the conditions under which they must live
together
mon
—Rousseau
defines that right with prudence.
which was
will
emerge from the people's
to
deliberations could not be
of course
assumed
to
be established
and without deliberate care and
This was
to
remain throughout his
question of the
common,
The comlegislative
as a matter
effort.
approach
life his
or the general, will:
its
to the
key
discovery was a
difficult
undertaking, one possible only
when
was
from pressure and had
to deliberate at length,
free
and when
all
of
its
chance
members had succeeded
selves of their egoistic traits this
a
community
purging them-
and preoccupations. Only then, and
meant seldom, could the general
[160]
in
the
will
be expressed.
THE ROOTS OF THE TROUBLE In the Dedication, writing not in theoretical but in constitutional terms,
common good
Rousseau sees the
which, by taking into account the
still
reflected in laws
valid historical traditions,
and by interpreting correctly the present needs of the commucan be accepted as the authentic expression of the people's
nity, will.
This
is
how Rousseau
in a key passage establishes the terms of
the problem I
should have desired that, in order to prevent self-interested and
ill-conceived projects
and
all
such dangerous innovations
as finally
caused the downfall of the Athenians, each citizen should not have the
power
this right
magistrates should use for their part
—
that,
laws, according to his fancy; but that
to the magistrates alone;
it
much
with so
and that even the
circumspection; the people
be so reserved in giving their consent
the promulgation of ty;
new
of proposing
should belong
them
to
such laws, and
carried out only with such great solemni-
before the constitution could be upset by them, there
might be time enough for great antiquity of laws
all to
be convinced that
it is
above
all
which makes them sacred and venerable,
the people soon learn to despise laws
and that by getting accustomed
which they
the that
see daily altered,
to the neglect of
ancient customs
under the pretext of improving them, one often introduced greater evils
than those whose correction
is
sought.
Apart from the unusually strong reiteration of Rousseau's belief in the value of custom, legal
and apart from
his preference for a
system with as few laws as possible, the two points of
exclusive legislative initiative in the hands of the magistrate,
and
of constitutional democracy, deserve attention.
The
issue of legislative initiative involved
difficult task of reconciling
the people with the need of restraint that power.
The
difficulty
Rousseau in the
the exercise of direct sovereignty by
and care
in the actual use of
could be solved, Rousseau thought, by
splitting the legislative process into
two
parts,
one of
initiation
[161]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU
We see in the Dedication an
and one of discussion and approval. anticipation of the
theme ten years
much more
detailed development of the
same
from the Mountain,
time
later in the Letters
at a
when Rousseau had broken with the Republic he was now praising. The issue remained throughout the same, the need of the proper and careful formulation of new legislation proposals, and of placing the right of initiation of new laws in the hands of magistrates. The risk of popular legislation pushed through perhaps under the spur of accidents was too great
would
way
certainly prove the shortest
general will.
The
to take, for
from the
to a deviation
right to discuss, to approve,
and
it
promulgate
to
according to proper procedures legislation which had initially
been shaped elsewhere
—
this
Rousseau reserved
right
arrangement was
citizen. If this distributive
surrender by the assembly of the citizens,
which had
to
be
made
it
to
be viewed
to
the as a
was a surrender
in the interests of stability as well as in
that of the well-informed exercise of the nation's will.
The
second point, likely
to strike those
accustomed
of Rousseau as the propounder of an unlimited
democracy,
is
the stress on rules of procedure; that
to thinking
and unruly on those
is,
devices, long identified with constitutional democracy,
more emphasis on the ways
place
than on their substance. interest of
Now,
nomic problems, economic
which
rich
to his
justice,
the relationships of classes
and the poor. These are
constitutional systems have
in their belief that,
laws, the rest
if
specifically the
[162]
problem
been accused of overlooking
and procedures, and
only every citizen were treated alike by the
would take
Rousseau refused
after
continuing concern with eco-
in their exclusive preoccupation with forms
less,
are taken
impossible to discount the
Rousseau in substantive matters, certainly not
one has paid due attention
and of the
which decisions
in
it is
which
care of
itself.
to let the rest take care of itself.
he was equally unwilling
to
Neverthe-
assume that a society could
THE ROOTS OF THE TROUBLE survive without strict adherence to rules of conduct, even
general will
had provided
wealth, and hence of freedom. seau's
dure
How
emphasis on the solemnity
—surrounding
if
the
an authentic balance of power and
for
—
else
can one interpret Rous-
that
the complex proce-
is,
new
the promulgation of
laws? This was
intended to allow time to everybody to register objections, so that in the
end
all
would be convinced, and the consent given
to
new
laws would have been truly founded on a reconciliation of different viewpoints.
Valid legislation must both be the expression of the general will
and conform
lation,
because
it
mental principles.
to constitutional rules. It
must It
rest
on
must be
a
common
cannot be
class legis-
acceptance of funda-
constitutional legislation derived in
equal measure from the historical customs of the past and the legal
framework of the present.
The
Dedication makes yet another important statement. Rous-
seau was opposed to any delegation of power by the sovereign
people to an elected legislative assembly, because of the danger that
it
could commit the community to a course of action of
which the people might not approve. But, legislative initiatives,
he was
the case of
as in
also against the idea of a leaderless
mass democracy, one which, in the exercise of the
totality of its
powers, could claim the right to do without executive leadership and, even more, refuse to recognize the importance of the actual
design of the administrative structure
itself.
Rousseau, whose views on man, property, and the purposes of
government were revolutionary enough, could face the much simpler problems of the practical necessities of government with-
out fear of damaging his ultimate goals. writers could well say that tions
was the excess of
majority of political
what was wrong with
structures
obsolete administrative bodies, ress, a
A
and of
and
great simplification of the
political institu-
rigid hierarchies
that, if there
was
to
and of
be prog-
machinery of government had [163]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU be achieved and change
to
itself
made
given to matters of administration,
it
They
easy.
and
progress with the absence of authority,
if
was only
could equate
any thought was
to
decry the fetters
that restricted men's unlimited capacity to achieve perfection.
But Rousseau had no democracy would authority,
invite
stronger.
by reliance on precarious and weak
He
and undifferentiated organs of government.
the purposes
lifted
hesitation in stressing the dangers that
The
of
tools of
political
had
and made them much
life
government had
to
be stronger
alleged prophet of the return to primitive life
is
too.
The
found here
preaching the necessity of social discipline and the needs of carefully structured authority in a democracy. I
should have particularly avoided as necessarily ill-governed a
re-
public where the people believing to be in a position to do without magistrates or to leave
them with only
a precarious authority
would
imprudently have kept for themselves the administration of affairs
and the execution of
their
own
laws.
civil
Such must have been the
rude constitutions of primitive governments directly emerging from the state of nature.
Having thus condemned
ment which might
at
as
unimaginable a system of govern-
most have
groupings which modern
satisfied the earliest of social
man had
forever left behind, Rousseau
proceeds to outline his views on the needs of today. I
should have chosen a community in which the individuals,
satisfied
with sanctioning their laws, and with deciding the most important public affairs in general assembly and ers,
—had established honored
among
upon
a report of their lead-
had
carefully distinguished
tribunals,
the several administrative departments, electing year after
year some of the most capable and upright of their fellow citizens to
administer justice and govern the
states; a
community
in short in
which, the virtue of the magistrates thus bearing witness to the
wisdom another. [164I
of the people,
both rulers and ruled would honor one
THE ROOTS OF THE TROUBLE This then was the outline of the ideal contrasted with the
was
state
which Rousseau
on what the common
sensible
men who,
man
could do ("those educated and
and populace,
called in other nations workers
viewed with contempt and under such a
are
Through civic
on the
a state to be built
of the people, the foundation of Rousseau's faith in the
wisdom future,
real one. It
their participation in political life,
light").
false
one could create that
climate which alone might replace the irrevocably lost
natural goodness of
This then
is
man.
59
where Rousseau stood on June
12,
1754.
purpose of most of what he had written had been
man, not
to liberate
for a return to a nonsocial state, but to facilitate his
entry into a
new
community, and even while he was
political
actively demolishing the foundations of the
Rousseau was giving thought
to the
democracy. His writings show a
contemporary world,
major premises of the
fairly
new
continuous preoccupation
with the task of reconstruction and the blueprint of 1754 detailed
The
is
more
and complete than has been commonly recognized.
Rousseau's conflict with his times flows from a rational appraisal of the foundations of society
men
The
to live together.
society of individuals
and of the motives which prompt
him
choice for
with the
state
is
between
a utilitarian
on the outside acting
as a
policeman, and a society of equals trying by dedicated work to achieve together the all
good.
The
choice he makes
is
clear
along.
We a
common
find in Rousseau's writings of this period the essentials of
modern democratic
shunted
aside.
faith.
Economic
Economic complexities
conflicts
and
concern Rousseau from the very beginning. Voltaire the cynic, as he
59
O.C.
Ill,
1 1
is
opposed
are
not
their injustices deeply
He
to Voltaire the
is
opposed
man
to
of great
1-20. [165]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU affairs,
who
refused to the state the right of intervention to
soften the asperities resulting from the extremes of poverty of wealth.
It
is
awareness of the of the will,
a
modern democratic
faith because
difficulties of reconciling liberty
and
it
and
shows
authority,
need of responsible organs of execution of the popular
of the care with
which popular deliberations
are to be
many and delicate. No assumptions of simplicity can be made. The optimism concerning the essentially sound nature of man is tempered by the emphasis on the taken.
The
tasks at
hand
are
indispensable role of leadership.
must seek is
the
[166]
What
the separate individuals
to achieve in their deliberate search for
common
good.
what
is
right,
VI The The Problem
SOON
after
Ideal State
of the Origin of the State
completing the Discourse on Inequality and
its
Dedication, Rousseau was asked to prepare the article on politi-
economy
cal
compendium
for the great
thought, the Encyclopedie.
1
of eighteenth-century
From an overview
of the develop-
ment of mankind and of the tragedies that have accompanied Rousseau would move toward the the issues of the government of
the well-regulated political
and deal with
social contract
man
in
an ideal system. His
was that of defining the conditions
task
it,
new
maintenance of
for the
community with much
greater detail
than in the Dedication.
The
novelty of the Political
tion occupied
Economy
lies in
by the concept of the general
the central posi-
will.
The argument
develops through an analysis of the origins of the state.
1
Discours sur Veconomie 'politique, O.C.
Ill,
2
239—78. As a
rule, the
English translation used here will be that of G. D. H. Cole, in the Every-
man edition of the Social Contract and Discourses (London, 19 13). 2 The content of the Political Economy leaves little doubt as to the date of its composition. One is bound to agree with the majority of commentators
(from Hendel, ]ean-]acques Rousseau, Moralist,
O.C.
Ill,
lxxiii-lxxiv)
and
to
disagree
with
I, 98 ff., to Derathe, Hubert (Rousseau et
[167]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU Beyond the
we
stand
it,
human
family, at a different level of
community. In order
find the political
the justification for the political
organization,
and under-
it
community must be
set
and most of the common explanations
forth in theoretical terms,
must be rejected
to find
Not only
as useless.
the model of the family,
but also the agreement (alleged or real) between rich and poor, the right of conquest or
As Rousseau There
this
prescription are
to unite
them.
work only with
a
found inadequate.
summing up:
ways of bringing together men, there
are a thousand
one way
mere
writes in a striking
It is for this
method
reason that
am
is
only
concerned in
for the formation of political societies,
even though in the multitude of aggregations
name
I
be found today
to
under
this
in the
same manner and not one which has been formed according
the
am
method
But
I set forth.
not arguing about
The is
there are not perhaps two
contrast
facts.
I
am
which have been formed
looking for right and reason and
The
political authority
is
specific agreements.
community
political
authority of the family
is
natural, while
conventional, the result of quite different
The
fact that
both organizations have an
apparently similar purpose, that of making jected to
I
3
between the family and the
a radical one.
to
them happy,
is
human
beings sub-
not enough to blur the distinctive line
VEncyclopedie, 58ff.) and say that the Political
Economy
follows the
Discourse on Inequality and was written around 1754— 1755. 3
O.C.
Ill,
297. This quotation
is
from chapter v of Book
I
of the
first
du lien generate du genre
version of the Social Contract. This chapter ("Fausses Notions social") and chapter ii, also in Book I ("De la Societe humain") are considered, by common agreement of Rousseau
be among the very
scholars, to
earliest parts of the first version of the Social Contract,
whose writing was stretched over a number of years. In style and relevance of argument they belong to the years of the Discourse on Inequality and the Political Economy QO.C. Ill, 141 6— 7). Therefore, for the purposes of our discussion, these two chapters are considered to be part of the Political Economy and are discussed with it. a version
[168]
THE IDEAL STATE which separates them. Filmer, Rousseau adds,
is
to
be blamed for
having stressed the contrary view in the "hateful system" he attempted to
set
up
in the Patriarchal
The
parallels
drawn from
relationships leading to the authority of the father, the subordi-
nate position of the mother, the duty and obedience of children, are invalid, since these relationships are absent in political society.
Equally unacceptable
the notion of rights accruing to the
is
rich because of their greater
nomic power may be a
"How
economic power. Such greater eco-
but
fact
it
can never give
rise to a right:
can an individual seize an immense territory and deprive
mankind
of
its
use except as a result of a usurpation to be
punished: for such action deprives the rest of mankind of the land and the food which nature has given them in common."
Mere
possession
not enough to establish property rights. There
is
are clear conditions to be satisfied before
of
first
occupancy
In the
first
to
one can recognize rights
anyone:
place, the land should not yet
have been
settled
by
anybody. In the second place, the surface occupied should not go
beyond
one's
own
must be made
work and
subsistence needs. In the third place, possession
effective not
through a formal gesture but through
cultivation, the only property signs
spected by others. Since the rights of a single state
which must be
man
cannot go beyond this point, and since everything else
violence and usurpation against the laws of nature, a foundation of social rights.
If,
as a result of
not yet
re-
before the social
it
is
only
cannot serve as
5
an ideal chance, the
moved away from an among
distribution of the land
political
community has
earlier condition
in
which the
individuals has taken place on
the basis of the principles oudined by Rousseau, everything that
happens *
O.C.
later in the political
Ill,
244.
5
O.C.
Ill,
community
is
predicated on the
301-2. [169]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU fullest
adherence
to the principle of
even distribution of the land
according to needs. Usurpation has been rejected as creating an acceptable state of affairs in the transition from the state of
nature to
To
civil state.
wealth in the
civil state
prevent the accumulation of excessive
becomes the task of the sovereign and of
the magistrates. Usurpation has no justification in nature and
cannot form the basis of
from
arising in a society
right;
accumulation must be prevented
governed by the general
will.
Both right of war and prescription are equally invalid reasons for establishing the social
and cannot precede to the ble, it.
tie.
War,
if
it
is
a conflict
among
presupposes the existence of the political community
societies,
If it is a private conflict it
it.
problem under discussion. Usurpation
is,
has no relation
of course, possi-
but the passage of time cannot give prescriptive sanction to
There
no lack of authority
is
lacks the support of reason.
6
for this belief, which, however,
No
consent can validate
tacit
tyr-
anny.
The
only acceptable explanation for the founding of
societies
must be the common
derive from
it.
"Hence,
how
from mobs kept together by tion of the object or the
form of
is
if it
illegitimate."
7
if
powers are established
to
common
be solved
is
Derathe (O.C.
Grotius. 7
O.C.
[170]
Ill,
304-5.
Ill,
good,
or of the latter? If the it
follows the spirit of
satisfy the interests of its chiefs,
it
all political
who
are
of course justified in fact, but the
one of principle.
False parallels are as dangerous 6
not through the considera-
Grotius points out that not
is
will
distinguish legitimate states
to favor the interests of those
governed by them, he
problem
force, if
aims only to
And
we
end of the former
society tends to the
founding,
its
which the members
utility
can
civil
and confusing
14 19) suggests that Rousseau
as false explais
thinking of
THE IDEAL STATE nations. For in dealing with the
body
we
politic,
are dealing with
something unique and for which ready-made parallels are
One
often mistakenly used. the
body
a
is
Citizens
is
that of
too
all
comparing
temptation, he was to say
War, must be
moral being with a
may
The
with an organism.
politic
a year later in the State of politic
such parallel
resisted, since the
body
will:
well call themselves
members
They
of the state.
will
never be able to join themselves to the state as real members are
human
is
impossible to avoid a separate and
individual existence for each of
them and through which alone he
joined to the
can
own
suffice to his
body;
conservation.
in the aggregation of the
sum
total of
it
body
.
Let us consider
.
.
politic public force
how much
individual forces,
of strength in the operation of the entire
there
is,
is
how much
inferior to the
so to speak, of loss
machine and we
will
conclude that proportionately speaking the weakest
to
greater force available for his state for its
in the Political
attraction for Rousseau.
by other writers and he state
have has
conservation than the strongest
own. 8
But already little
own
man
is
Economy
He
is
the organic parallel has
aware that
being made
it is
anxious to counteract any theory of the
which surrenders before the automatic operation of
a
whole
which the individual moral being ends up by contributing
in
nothing. Therefore, in spite of the help which at a vulgar level of discourse the organic parallel
might
functioning of the political body, there
is
a difference in kind
it is
offer in
an "inexact"
calls a
parallel, for
which must be grasped. This
ence stems from the fact that the body politic
Rousseau
understanding the
is
differ-
moved by what
general will, described as a will which, "since
it
aims always to preservation and well-being of the whole and of every part, and
8
Que
is
the source of the laws, constitutes for
VEtat de guerre nait de Vetat social, O.C.
Ill,
all
the
606. [171]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU members
and
of the state, in their relations to one another
what
the rule of
is
just
and unjust."
to
it,
9
Rousseau and Diderot
At the beginning
of the discussion of the general will, the
problem of the respective in
roles
played by Rousseau and Diderot
formulation must be mentioned.
its
different
It is
an
issue that looks
from the ones usually met in the history of
Rousseau
himself appears to yield before Diderot.
ideas.
For
Having given
us his definition, he then adds that the source of this "great and
be found in an
luminous principle"
is
same volume
Encychfedie
Economy This
is
of the
to
earlier article in the
entitled Right.
merely a development of
is
Political
it.
a remarkable statement and, given the central impor-
is
tance of the general will in Rousseau's thought, try to
His
10
determine
Diderot. In
its
it,
meaning.
The
it is
necessary to
author of the article on Right
the author assumes that the single individual
has been deprived of the right of deciding by himself what
Who
and what
is
answer
mankind. Particular
is,
good or
evil,
unjust.
it
is
always good;
it
O.C.
Ill,
limits, even, of life
man,
citizen, subject,
and death. "You
will acquire
10
is
not
Vaughan had tended to stress the organic characEconomy. But Derathe cannot agree with him QO.C.
244, 245.
ter of the Political Ill,
can be
has never
the most sacred of natural right to everything which
9
The
to the general will that the individ-
ual can discover the limits of his actions as
— the
right?
just
ever deceive us."
by addressing himself
father, son
this
wills are suspect, they
"but the general will
deceived us nor will It is
then can exercise
is
1393), and a careful reading of Rousseau bears him out. O.C. Ill, 245. Hubert, Rousseau et I'Encyclopedie, 51—3, advances
the hypothesis that Rousseau's reference was to an as yet unwritten article.
[172]
This
is
quite possible, but the question of substance remains.
THE IDEAL STATE Mankind
denied to you by the whole of mankind.
will enlighten
you on the nature of your thoughts and of your desires. Everything you will conceive, everything you will meditate, will be good, great, elevated, sublime,
There
interest.
is
you demand in theirs."
and
I
Man
no quality all
if it is
in the general
man
essential to
your fellow
men
for
must therefore repeat often
and common
apart from the one
your happiness and
to himself, "I
am
a
man
have no other truly inalienable natural rights than those of
humanity/' For Diderot, then, the issue sal
natural rights
that of determining the univer-
is
of man, transcending time and
ing inalienability as another characteristic.
becomes the depository of these
race
eral will.
But how do we know how
general will be consulted?
The
everywhere: "in
of the enemies of
mankind."
phases of
a general will its
which
development, which
is
common
is
to
to
tacit
all
the
conventions
mankind
in all
be found in the actions of
peoples that are called savage and yet are already to "social," as well as in written
can the
organized nations; in the social
all
and barbarous peoples, in the
is
human
by the gen-
Where
proceed?
actions of savage
This
and hav-
entire
rights, verified
to
The answer is,
written principles of law of
space,
some extent
codes of law which presumably
only the most advanced societies will possess. Further, this
is
a general will that appears to float
benevolently
men can find for themselves. man can find in the general fellow man and what his fellow
above mankind and which rational
Having silenced will
all
passions, rational
what he can expect from
man
can expect from him.
for the
conduct of
society of
which he
man is
a
his
The
general will becomes the guide
toward other men, of
member, and
man
other societies. Since of the two wills, the general ular,
only the general will never makes mistakes,
for the happiness of
mankind
toward the
of that society toward the
legislative
and the it is
partic-
clear that
power should be capable [i73]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU and that we should view with
of expressing the general will,
veneration the august mortals whose particular wills bring
to-
gether both the authority and the infallibility of the general will.
11
The
relevance to Rousseau's thought of this notion of the
general will
is
hardly
clear.
For Diderot's universalism cannot be
the source of Rousseau's idea of the general will, and this in spite of Rousseau's formal acknowledgment.
The
provided by Rousseau himself, who, in chapter first
best evidence ii
of
Book
I
is
of the
version of the Social Contract, sets out to destroy Diderot's
argument on the general
society of
have been written immediately
mankind. This chapter must
after the
appearance in the Ency-
clopedic of Diderot's article on natural right.
It
was not ad-
dressed to the idea of natural right as such but rather to Diderot's
argument concerning the general of man's rights.
11
society of
mankind
as a source
12
Diderot, "Droit naturel," in Oeuvres folitiques, Verniere, ed. (Paris,
1963), 32-412
From Vaughan
to
Derathe, there has been a persistent debate as to
the meaning of this chapter and the reasons the final version of the Social Contract.
eliminated this chapter, "not because fatally relevant,
to
his argument;
it
why
Vaughan was
it
was not included
in
suggests that Rousseau
irrelevant,
but because
it
was
because he became aware that, in
refuting the idea of natural law, he
had unwittingly made a deadly
breach in the binding force of the Contract; and because, having no other principle to put in place of the Contract as the foundation of civil society,
he
felt that his
incautiously
and
only course was to silence the battery which he had
unmasked
against
it:
in
one word,
to strike
out the refuta-
Contract stand" (Political Writings,
I, 441-2). But in saying so, Vaughan fails to see the necessary distinctions which must be made in Rousseau's treatment of the problem of natural law. According to Rousseau, there are several kinds of natural law: from the "virtual" one, to be found in man not yet engaged in multiple social relationships, to the more fully developed rational one of a later phase in man's development, and containing many elements of social life. One may, in this connection, point to the distinctions made in the first version
tion,
[174]
to let the Social
THE IDEAL STATE There There
no general society of mankind, Rousseau maintains.
is
no natural
is
society
among men. 13 What
there
is
is
a
gradual evolution such as Rousseau has described in the Discourse on Inequality and out of institutions
man
Having gone beyond
born.
is
which the
necessity of political
his primitive condition,
has acquired increasing needs, and reciprocal help becomes
necessary.
"From
this
new
order of things a multitude of rela-
born without measure, without
tions are
rule,
ency, altered and changed continuously by
busy
to destroy
Mankind
them, against one working to consolidate them."
has left the original state of nature and has entered
into a phase of turmoil fleetingly
where peace and happiness appear only
on the landscape: "Nothing
misery which results from
This misery, evil, is
without consist-
men, one hundred
all
is
permanent except the
these vicissitudes."
this inability to distinguish
14
between good and
the result of the increasing sociability of
man and
of his
having developed needs which require for their satisfaction the of the Social Contract clearly
on
where the
distinguished from
"rules of reasoned natural law" are
"natural law strictly speaking, based only
true but very vague sentiment"
(O.C. Ill, 329). Derathe can, burden of Rousseau's argument is only against Locke's views of natural law and not against natural law itself, and that a
therefore, suggest that the
Rousseau's reasons for the subsequent elimination of this chapter in-
cluded a wish to avoid unnecessary polemics with Diderot and useless repetition
of topics
Inequality QO.C. 13
Any
The
Ill,
he had already dealt with in the Discourse on lxxxv-lxxxviii).
original title of this chapter
was That There
Is
among Men. This was later replaced by General Society of Mankind QO.C. Ill, 14 10). 14
Society
O.C.
Ill,
282. This state of misery
appears to Derathe (O.C.
where
Ill,
is
perhaps
14 12), because this
is
Not Naturally title
The
less surprising
than
the
not the misery of the
it could not exist as Rousseau had on Inequality. By now man has advanced far beyond that stage and finds himself in an intermediate state of nature, preceding the creation of a political society, and itself the source of conflict and usurpation.
state of nature,
in principle
said in the Discourse
[175]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU about a general society of should realize that
it
We
man.
assistance of his fellow
man
may perhaps
at this point,
begin to talk
but
if
we
we
do,
performs none of the tasks which should be
attached to the concept of society:
"The general
society such as
our mutual needs might generate does not therefore offer an efficacious assistance to
most
much
man who now
added strength
gives
it
while the weak,
lost,
has become unhappy, or at
to that
man who
already has too
suffocated and crushed in the multi-
tude, does not find any shelter nor refuge, nor any support to his
weakness and dies in the end
from which he had expected
union
a victim of this deceitful
his happiness."
15
In the midst of misery and the further weakening of the weak, the emerging general society of mankind, already far removed
from the original
state of nature, develops conflicts
The error of Hobbes was not "to have found a among independent men who already had become to
have imagined
have given
it
war natural
to
which
war
sociable,
but
mankind and it
is
to
rather the
16
consequence.
The
this state of
as the cause of vices of
and wars.
state of
question
is
whether
this stage in the
development of
man
can produce anything that can properly be called a general society of
Man
mankind.
has
now
lost
the guidance of the sweet
voice of nature and no longer considers the maintenance of the
independence nature had given him: "Peace and innocence have forever eluded us before
we
could ever taste their delights. "
The
golden age has remained foreign to mankind, either because
was not recognized when mankind could have enjoyed because it.
To
it
talk
was
lost
it,
it
or
by the time mankind could have understood
about a general society of mankind
at a point
when
our original innocence has vanished and a possible golden age has been allowed to 15
O.C.
[176]
Ill,
282.
slip
16
away, but before
O.C.
Ill,
288.
we have been
able to
THE IDEAL STATE create the
union and the discipline which the new conditions
require,
not acceptable.
is
Without communication, without morality and ciety
can be said
to exist.
Even
being which
members.
we would be
so-
would require
a general society
would be
certain precise distinguishing characteristics. It
no
virtue,
moral
a
able to identify as distinct from
its
general society existed anywhere except in the
If the
systems of philosophers, "there would be a universal language
which nature would teach
common
ence of the
men and which would
be the
instrument of their mutual communication. There would be
first
a
to all
all
sum
tion,
but
understanding which would serve
to the correspond-
the parts; the public good or evil would not be merely
of the particular goods or evils as in a simple aggrega-
would be found
it
be greater than
this
in the tie
sum and
which binds them;
public happiness far from being
based on the happiness of individuals, would be If
the general society of
would
it
mankind does not
its
17
source."
exist,
even
can
less
one say that a general tribunal of mankind can function.
The
existence of a tribunal implies an understanding of the rea-
sons
why
man's personal
which
for generalizing ideas
the latest exercises of
he should sub-
interests require that
mit himself to the general
will. is
human
This presupposes a capacity
"one of the most understanding."
difficult
and of
How
can he
18
consult, as Diderot has suggested, "principles of written law, the social actions of all the peoples, the tacit
conventions even of the
enemies of mankind?" 17
O.C.
18
Adam
Ill,
284.
able to
Smith knew Rousseau well enough by the end of 1 762 say that this was one of the problems he had faced:
explain
how
general
thought and what according to his capable of" J.
is
way
(Adam
names were
first
to
be
"To
formed, as they require abstract
called generalization, before they can be formed,
of thinking:
which he thinks men
at first
hardly
Smith, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, ed.
M. Lothian [London,
1963], 3rd Lecture, 22
November 1762,
8).
U77]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU Rousseau "it is
is
driven back to his primary position which
only from the social order established
draw the
ideas of the
one
we
among
us that
We
are imagining.
that
is
we can
conceive the
general society after our particular societies, the establishment of
we do
our small republics leads us to dream of the great, and properly begin to become
men
until after
we have been
These considerations show what we must think cosmopolites for
who
A
citizens.
of these alleged
through their love
justify their love of country
mankind, boast of loving the entire world
right not to love anybody."
not
so as to
have the
19
general will established on the basis of a belief in the
general society of
mankind has no
substance.
principle acknowledged in the Political
thought in terms of the concrete ular societies of
Rousseau
human
which men must
invites us to
engage in
Economy must be
first
become
general society to the particular society of there
is
"luminous" re-
experience of the partic-
this task of the
no natural and general society
The
And
citizens.
reduction of the
man: "Even though
among men, even though
men become bad and unhappy in becoming sociable, even though the laws of justice and equality count for nothing for those who live at the
same time
in the independence of the state of nature
while subject to the needs of the
social
condition,
far
from
thinking that virtue and unhappiness are not for us and that the
heavens have abandoned us without resource of the race;
—
let
remedy which must cure repair
19
this
it:
through
art" repair the
O.C. Ill, 287. Fragments politiques, O.C. fragment as belonging
Ill,
new
associations let us
damage caused
479.
to chapter
Social Contract Qbid., 1518).
[178]
degradation
the intrinsic vices of the general society."
through "perfected
20
to the
us attempt to draw from our misfortune the
ii,
The Book
editor, I,
to
:
D
Let
us,
nature by
Derathe, considers
of the
first
draft of the
THE IDEAL STATE 21
"beginning
Once more Rousseau
art."
is
saying: let us control
the arts to get closer to nature.
The
task
was
that of providing the principles of a political
human scale and not on the generalities of And a will serving the needs of a specific
society built to the
the philosophers.
community could not be the
all-purpose universal will described
by Diderot.
The General Will and
the Architect
Rousseau's general will was
found only within organized
first
to regulate their internal life. It rights,
it
of
all
a political concept to
political societies,
was not merely the source of
was, chiefly, the source of duties. It
among
the relations of nations
be
and was intended
could not apply to
themselves, each nation in
its
dealing with others being considered as expressing an individual will.
nity
The and
it
deserved no special veneration.
And
the general will.
ceed in doing that. will
power was made up of the
legislative
Its task
was
commu-
to express
not always did the legislative power suc-
could
It
was not properly
entire
fail,
and then the expression
called the general will. It
had
of
its
better simply
be called "a public deliberation. Rousseau, then,
starts
from a point which
is
at the opposite
pole of the cosmic vision of Diderot. Indeed, a general will might first
be traced
of a political
to the
body
subordinate societies in which the
will organize themselves:
particular societies has always
the association particular will/'
it is 22
two
O.C.
Ill,
288.
members
a general will, for the great society
The
of
is
a
general will of these particular societies
is
members and
modify the general public will of the body 21
will of these
relations: for the
the expression of the interests of their to
"The
members
22
O.C.
Ill,
it
it
will seek
politic.
These
246. [179]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU particular general wills are likely to differ
from the general
will
in direct proportion to the narrowness of the interests of the
association of
which they are the
mirror. Often,
under a sem-
blance of propriety, vicious purposes are discovered.
The same
interpretation applies to the issue of the general will
in larger political entities entities.
A
made up
was engaged
and fusion of
absolutism
—
'
his
of national
polysynodie," the federaliza-
political authority, the rationalization of royal
—could not by themselves To
general will.
greatest
facilitate the finding of the
imagine that the greatest good of the
would depend from the
The
number
in a criticism of the writings of Saint-Pierre. All of
the Abbe's complicated plans tion
of a
year after writing the Political Economy, Rousseau
greatest
good of the
good of each of
state, to
its
parts
state
is false.
be established only through
the general will, cannot depend just on the satisfaction of the
needs of
its
members. For in dealing with a body
dealing with a structured complex and
it is
politic
we
are
most probable that
individual or partial interests will have to be sacrificed to the interest of the whole.
the architect of a palace
The
making plans
it is
parallel
is
that of
"To draw up the plans
not enough to dispose each room conveniently.
One must in addition consider The most comfortable passages, easiest
Rousseau proposes
for a palace:
the relationships of the whole.
the most
commodious
order, the
communications, the most perfect ensemble and the most
regular symmetry. These general objectives are so important that
the skillful architect, for the sake of the whole, sacrifices a
thousand particular advantages which he might have maintained in a less perfect
Hence, the (that
is,
and
less
simple ordering."
task of the statesman in charge of the
the agent
who
will provide the
government
needed guidance in both
determining and carrying out in practice the general will of the people) cannot focus his attention on separate problems of finance, of war, or of trade: [180]
"He
will relate all these particular
THE IDEAL STATE issues to a
common
and from the proportions which
object
best suit them, there will flow the general plans sions can vary in a
The problem to
thousand ways according
who have shaped
views of those
is
will
whose dimen-
to the ideas
and the
them."
that of putting together particular plans so as
have a general plan.
the particular plans
is
It is
not an.easy thing to decide which of
be preferred. There
to
each unit of government can maintain
its
is
own
no doubt that
if
plan there will be
only contradictions in public affairs and embarrassment in their general
management: "But the general plan cannot be the plan
of this or the other
the
man
government and
be related the
:
it is
in the polysynodie to this great
common
Rousseau
is
For a federal
and with
some
must
and the
23
of the difficulties the general
in the large state with a federal structure.
a strong role assigned to
them together
its
many
parts, will find that
into an ultimate
common
will
not an easy one.
There to
that of necessity
organized of necessity on a pluralistic basis,
state
the task of bringing is
member."
outlining here
may encounter
can only be that of
deliberations of each council
particular activity of each
will
model
it
is,
then, a task
overcome the
common
to the small
community, trying
divisive will of partial associations,
and
to the
large federal aggregate, trying to reconcile the scattered wills of its
component
architect.
units.
For both,
it is
The more one moves
in the direction of the higher
general will, the more probable will
what
is
just
and
right.
The
uals
and
become the establishment
only authentic general will
which expresses the view of the lifted itself
a task similar to that of the
entire
is
of
the will
community once
it
has
above the smaller and conflicting interests of individ-
of particular groups.
Rousseau
is
not expressing himself
against the right of association, nor against the possibilities of
23
Jugement sur
la
polysynodie, O.C.
Ill,
641. [.8.]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU federalism. interests
He
is
merely pointing out the
which subordinate groups
are
reality of the selfish
bound
and the
to follow
need of placing the general will of the community above such subordinate wills. Beyond the general will of the body there
is
politic,
nothing.
In the second place, the idea of the general will can help us in classifying political societies, for
some
of
them
have recog-
will
nized the role of the general will, while others will not have done so.
Far from being a universal characteristic, the general will
the distinguishing
mark
is
of well-governed societies. States will
have popular or tyrannical structures. "The former will belong every state in which there
is
between the people and the
to
rulers
unity of interest and of will; the latter will of necessity be found
wherever the government and the people have different
and consequently opposing Hence, the chief the sovereign
interests
wills.
characteristics of legitimate states will
power
is
organized in such a
way
as to
be that
be capable
of expressing itself through the general will, while the chief duty of governments, that
of the
is
power entrusted with the
enforcing the general will, will be that of abiding by as the
that
it
government
acts
only for the public good,
should attack liberty, because
it
it:
impossible
it is
only executing the
is
general will and no one can say he can be enslaved
obeys nothing but his will."
There should be no
distinction
to distinguish
most
To know what it
carefully
difficult to achieve.
And
task.
24
O.C.
[182]
yet
Ill,
it
An
of one's
own
must be accomplished
with which the
the general will
from particular
is
one
—
absorbed naturally
personal will in a political
247, and Fragments folitiques,
is,
wills
understanding of the
general will neither comes from heaven nor
by man. The surrender
when he
24
illusions as to the ease
general will can be found.
must begin
task of
"As long
ibid.,
484.
is
a painful
community
THE IDEAL STATE worthy of
name.
this
will
It
men
be accomplished once
under-
stand the miraculous beauty of the law, that "most sublime of
human
institutions,"
ual will
is
liberty.
It
which makes man
restrained. "It
to
is
which
voice
dictates
public reason and teaches
own judgment and
if
him
to
his individ-
and
justice
all
among men.
establishes in right the natural equality celestial
even
men owe
organ of the will of
this salutary
is
free
law alone that
all
which
re-
this
It is
each citizen the precepts of according to the rules of his
to act
not to be in contradiction with himself/'
;
Governments, the instruments of the sovereign power which has,
through law, expressed the general will of the community,
should, therefore, always act under the law and never above
Governors are never exempted from obedience
duty
also their
to
be always aware of the
is
by the
text of the
itself.
in
If the spirit of the law
not enough to guide governments, then recourse must be had
to the
general will; that
which alone can
to
is,
establish
all,
there
be unable place, the It is
that this
the only proper solution
is
he has serious doubts about is
to
its
use in practice. First
the possibility that even the assembled people
do what they are supposed
method
is
then perhaps better
China, where
to do. In the
may
second
impractical in the case of a large country. to try to establish the general wall of the
community by accepting as in
an assembly of the entire citizenry
it.
While Rousseau contends in principle,
of
law
is
the law in case
which have not been foreseen
decisions have to be taken precise detail
to the law. It
spirit of
it.
as a rule the justice of
"it is
the constant
popular demands,
maxim
of the prince to
decide against his officers in every dispute that arises between
them and the people." 25
26
O.C. "Is
Ill,
248.
bread expensive in a province?
rioting in another? to
26
The
governor
be the best procedure (O.C.
is
Ill,
The
fired."
intendant
is
jailed; is there
In the long run this has proved
251). [183]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU If this is
thought
Rousseau (the bly,
and the
be a weakening of two arguments dear
to
role of the citizens acting rationally
and
to
in assem-
role of the magistrates administering wisely the
long-term interests of the sovereign people),
let it
he was perhaps expressing in another way
was the voice
voice of the people
of
be added that
his belief that the
God, and that
should be
it
heard without captious delays.
These views have tion of
ment
also to
be balanced against Rousseau's inten-
widening the scope and increasing the strength of govern-
action. It
is
dangerous for "the sovereign
functions of the magistracy as those of sovereignty."
27
it is
usurp the
to
for the magistrate to
But Rousseau
usurp
convinced that modern
is
governments have been far too timid in defining the range of their activities. "It
is
said that all peoples
run what government makes them:
when
it
so pleases; or merely populace
chooses to to
make them
show contempt
become
warriors,
in the long
and rabble
Governments have had
so."
for their subjects
and not
men when it
citizens,
a
tendency
to realize the strength
inherent in them. If a government wants to rule over it
must make men
ments appeared
to
first.
This was
understand.
It
a task
was then that there arose "the
many sumptuary laws, the many regulations many public rules of conduct." 28
A
society governed
men
which ancient govern-
by the general
of morals
and the
will must, therefore, also
consider the proper place of a government capable of using that
general will for the purpose of building a better society. general will, mysterious in tion, represents for
effort
its
origin, difficult in
its
The
determina-
Rousseau only the beginning of a prolonged
which must be sustained by
a continuous
commitment on
the part of the magistrates to create daily the conditions leading to responsible citizenship.
27
Rousseau
Fragments politiques, O.C.
[184]
Ill,
488.
is
unhappy 28
O.C.
to realize that
Ill,
251-2.
THE IDEAL STATE modern governments, "believing they have done everything
when
they have raised money/' do not even conceive that the
kind of intervention such as the past had already
level or the
might be necessary or
seen,
must be ended,
the citizen
from
its
possible. Just as the degradation of
so
of Virtue
Rousseau has of an active
just
sounded a keynote, on the needed presence
government interested not only
mercantilistic state was, but also in
lem was how
to achieve this end.
support of political virtue in the Political will
Economy
—
that
calls
is,
in monopolies, as the
good citizenship.
The answer of a quality
The
prob-
through the
is,
which Rousseau
the "conformity of the particular
with the general will," and elsewhere compares to beauty:
"Just as
we can
we
say that beauty
say that virtue
is
is
the
sum
the
sum
of the
of the
commonest
most general
Hence, the task of any government ready to
government
retreat of
be halted.
real responsibilities
The Support
must the
to
traits,
wills."
become
29
active
is
bring the citizens to see the necessity of defining their individ-
ual purposes in relation to the
They will
common good
community.
of the
thus be "virtuous" and achieve the general will.
In proceeding to this end, the government has dual responsibilities.
The
first is
that of creating the conditions within
which
The
the desire to achieve the general will flourishes naturally.
second
is
that of guaranteeing all citizens against
ence or pressure that would diminish or contribution
which each
the general will.
To
of
instill
make
them must make
any
interfer-
impossible the
to the
attainment of
the love of country and to assure the
proper education of the people belong to the former; to protect the essential personal rights of freedom cally 29
balanced society belong to the
Economie
politique,
O.C.
Ill,
and
to create
an economi-
latter.
252; Fragments folitiques,
ibid.,
483.
[185]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU Virtue ought to become a quality of
the citizens
all
if
possible.
Certainly the effort of the government must be in that direction.
when
Virtue develops as a quality of the mind, nal beauties and values society
become apparent, and
which had adjusted
ing equally
all its
is
where he can
aware of
The
it
now
can
it
what he
an education,
and does not have
to
inculcation of patriotism
man
virtuous
is
when
guaranteed his energies
whom we
favorably
them,
love." Patriotism
readily
to will
what
is
many
is
is
to consider
by our own attachment finding and supporting I
have given of
of necessity because
we
willed by those
Rousseau's patriotism
First of
it
what
so that in our desire to help
may end up by
country realizes
will
the development
is
the general will: "According to the definition virtue, love of
of
in all things
which brings us
their purposes, stimulated
we more
is
and we gladly
what our neighbors want
them achieve
way
have said already,
I
his particular will
of a feeling of national solidarity
ter to
is
all
the most efficacious
is
to the general will,
willed by those
happy
can, once he
to survive.
conformable
for
up
use
teaching the citizens to be good: "For, as
every
for the first time
the person placed in a
and make of
his country, has received
his rights of freedom,
merely
find
be lived through the
to
is
man who
realize his strength. Virtue resides in
position
commu-
need and the task of welcom-
to the
members. Virtue
personal experience of a
certain
as the fruit of a
we
are
love."
an elusive concept which runs coun-
traditional views.
all,
patriotism
is
different
humanity. "The love of humanity
from
a
mere concern
the source of
is
many
as sweetness, equity, moderation, charity, tolerance,
not inspire courage or firmness,
etc.
:
it
but
for
virtues, it
does
does not give them that
energy which they receive from the love of country through
which they can
While [186]
attain heroism."
the thrust of his argument
is
not in favor of national
THE IDEAL STATE egoism, or of an exacerbated nationalism which sets
itself
above
and against the similar feelings of neighboring communities, Rousseau
opposed
is
creating and
valuable in
abandoned
in favor of a
that the feeling of
extending virtuous try
—
them
we must
The and
its
appears
"It
humanity evaporates and grows feeble by
we wish
to
make
peoples
and governed by laws, capable of disposing
most heroic actions in citizens
its
defense and concerned
happy and good.
patriotism Rousseau has in
spiritual,
tions,
vague humanitarian feeling:
be
to
spirit
begin by inducing them to love their coun-
a country free
with making
community
fortifving
the entire globe." If
itself to
to the
sentiments which are too
to the dilution of
kindled by a
way
mind
of life
and from which the principles
is
something intimate
and by
political institu-
as well as the practice of
freedom cannot be removed: "What one loves in one's country,
what one can
rightfully call the Fatherland, has
our appetites or the habits which flow from them,
no reference it is
the place, not simply the things; the object of this love
to
not simply is
closer to
us.
The
real love of
country flows, then, from the possibility the
citizen has of securing
what he needs
for the fullest realization of
himself: "If the citizens will derive from her
value in their existence sary sustenance,
peoples
—
will not
of
be
any
and the estimation of other
fired for
any veritable
that has
laws, simple customs, the neces-
peace, freedom
their zeal will
know
—wise
all
life
such a tender mother.
Thev
other than that which they
obtain from her, no real happiness other than that of using their lives in
her sendee."
30
This object of love must be a country in which education will have formed the education to
30
O.C.
Ill,
citizens.
kill all
It
passions in
is
not the purpose of a public
man. The magistrate should not
254, 535-6. [187]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU make
the mistake of assuming that a
be a good
citizen.
of education
is
The
contrary
man
without passion would
Hence, while the purpose
true.
is
not that of drilling into men's minds what would
make them obedient to the commands of their masters, it must be directed to make them consider their existence as bound up with community:
that of the
"If they
were early accustomed never
consider their individuality except in the state and not to perceive their
might
of that body, they
some measure with
this greater
and
bers of their country
which every
isolated
man
own
to identify
whole,
to love
it
us that
tells
because there
is
if
themselves in
themselves
to feel
has only for himself."
own
that kind of education
no concern
for the
is
times, Rous-
unavailable,
molding of
citizens
because once the force of habit has been added to the inclinations of
"How
man
can love of country
other passions which suffocate
it?
And what
and vanity?"
moment
If
anything
rights of citizenship, at that
needed
is
to
left for
is
and
selfish
many
the duties
between greed, a mis-
be achieved
it
"If at birth
we
moment we must
is
from the
acquire our
also
begin the
31
practice of our duties."
What
is
must begin:
of birth that one
is
it
ourselves:
midst of so
assert itself in the
of citizenship of a heart already divided tress,
away from
too late to get
is
it
mem-
with that exquisite feeling
Addressing himself to the conditions of his seau
to
body of
existence except as a part
come
at last
relations to the
its
to carry
out the task
is
a public authority in
charge of education, following regulations prescribed by the
government and under the control of magistrates elected by the people. This system
is
legitimate government.
education state.
31
O.C.
[188]
is
Such Ill,
to
be asked
tasks
one of the distinguishing marks of a
To to
must go
259-60.
be entrusted with the responsibility of
perform the highest function in the
to those
who have
proved themselves
THE IDEAL STATE worthy in other public this notable
mark
those
offices, to
who
continuous love of country and
its
and
and
laws, through signal services
rendered to the state in the course of a long of armies
have deserved
"will
of public confidence because of ardent
life in
command
the
in the administration of the greatest affairs of
32
>>
state.
under such guidance, "children are brought up
If,
and
in the midst of equality,
them above
to respect
will learn to cherish
nothing contrary
all
common
they are imbued with the laws of
if
and the principles of the general
the state
in
things
.
.
.
will, if
they are taught
we cannot doubt
one another mutually
that they
as brothers, to will
to the will of society, to substitute the actions of
men and citizens for ists." With such an
the sterile and vain babbling of the soph-
education the government achieves the
purpose of "keeping within narrow boundaries that personal
which
interest
so isolates the individuals that the state
power and has nothing
bled by their will."
to
hope from
is
enfee-
their
good
33
This virtue
is
is
one side of the ledger from whose balance public
to flow.
Having
elicited the patriotism of
its
citizens
and
having, through the heavy burden and discipline of public education, successfully
brought them to consider the public good
above their private one, government must
commitments
in
two other and no
where
its
own
policy,
The safety
first
if
its
own
public
fields of
actions are decisive.
the satisfaction of the pledge to guarantee the
community would be
who might have been
a single
trial
now redeem
important
and the freedom of every member of the community. The
political
citizen
is
less
were
dissolved "if in the state a single
helped were allowed
to perish, or
one were wrongfully confined in prison, or to lead to
32
Draft of the manuscript of the Political Economy, O.C.
33
O.C.
Ill,
if
a single
an obvious injustice: for the fundamental Ill,
1
400-1.
261-2. [189]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU conventions having been broken,
what
right or
what
it
is
impossible to imagine
maintain the people in a social
interest could
union." After the solemn warnings about the general will and the
common
subordination of particular interests to the
good, after
the forceful defense of a far-reaching system of public education
from which
a
new man
is
emerge, Rousseau, in striking
to
language, poses the issue of the defense of the rights and of the life
Is
of the
members
community:
of the
the welfare of a single citizen any less the
of the
whole
perish for
state? If
of us,
all
and virtuous
I
we
will
are told that
the good of his country: but
government
of the multitude, then
I
common is
if
and dutifully
we
an innocent
maxim
this
lips of a
as
worthy
sacrificing himself for
are to understand that
to sacrifice
hold
cause than that
good that one should
admire these words on the
patriot voluntarily
missible for the
it
man
it is
for the
per-
good
one of the most execrable
ever invented by tyranny, as the most false ever to be advanced, as the most dangerous ever to be admitted, and as the most directly
opposed to the fundamental laws of
There
is
no room here
government if
to
society.
for reason of state, for the right of the
engage in the oppression of single individuals,
such actions did not matter
to the
body
politic. If
those
as
who
support similar views are pressed to explain what they mean,
they shall be forced in the end to identify the state with a "small
men who are not the people, but and who having bound themselves by
number people
of
the officers of the
oath to perish for
the welfare of the people, would thence infer that the people itself is to
perish for their own."
34
A far different task awaits the magistrates, at
a task
which
once one of the most necessary and one of the most
is
both
difficult:
that of "protecting the poor against the tyranny of the rich" 34
O.C.
[190]
Ill,
256-7.
by
THE IDEAL STATE preventing the establishment of wealthy classes and hence the
development of poverty. Nothing matters more, because laws can be properly applied only to the citizens
middle range
Those who full force of
the law
is
its
are
found
in the
are in such a condition of "mediocrity" can feel the
the law.
have the power
beyond
who
of the social structure.
to
The law
elude
it
and
be flouted by the rich
will will
even break
its
who
while
rules,
not applicable to the poor, whose misery puts them reach.
A
state
made up
of rich
and poor
is
a lawless
state. It is essential,
therefore, to prevent the worst inequalities in
the distribution of wealth. This can be done not so
taking wealth
away from
those
who have
it,
much by
but by depriving
What
everybody of the means of accumulating excessive wealth. is
necessary
not to "build hospitals for the poor but to guaran-
is
tee the citizens
The most
from becoming poor."
35
obvious causes of both opulence and poverty are
the unequal distribution of the population between cities and countryside, the development of luxury crafts
expense of agriculture. As a
and of trade
at the
not only will the country be
result,
divided between rich and poor, but selfish interest will replace public interest, citizens will
cause and
all
show
indifference for the
common
the springs of government will be weakened.
to avoid all this requires the application of the steady
government in the performance of
a
hundred
How
hand
of
daily tasks of
administration and in the skillful satisfaction of legitimate public needs.
The By
Satisfaction of Public
satisfaction of public needs
by the 35
Needs
state of conditions that will
O.C.
Ill,
Rousseau means the creation enable
all
the
members
of the
258.
[191]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU community
to secure
mean
does not
exempt the
to
is
is
necessary for their subsistence.
It
way
as
from having
citizen
society of plenty,
Work
what
the filling of "private granaries" in such a
work. Work, even in a
to
must always be necessary and never
useless.
the redeeming feature of a democratic society even
if
that society has reached, because of favorable developments, a state of
mean
economic abundance. Just
that the
submission, so
few are able it
can never
to
mean
everybody would find easily effort all that
abundance
human
is
needed
to
at
To have
many
hand without work and without
country where what
is
true state of
necessary to
all
that
he needs
for his
36
maintain an ideal state of abundance the government will to
have available adequate means. Such means are
and preferably
fail to
to
describing the public
losopher
who
a matter can hardly
considered the public
as the most honest and the safest of
provide for the needs of the state."
now
domain
37
—something
thought of a
all
the
means
to
Rousseau has hitherto been
as consisting
gives support to the views of a
Montesquieu.
first
be provided through the public domain. "Any-
share the opinion of Bodin,
domain
36
A
be found in such quantity that "each can,
body who has thought enough about such
he
to a condition of
the other alternative "in which
through his work, easily accumulate livelihood/'
abundance must never
to satisfy his needs."
exists in that
life is
as
reduce the
mostly of lands, but
modern
political phi-
he seldom does, except in the case of
He must
have
man who had
Fragments folitiques,
vii,
2,
felt
a strong affinity with
the
such a lively sense of the require-
O.C.
Ill,
524. This
is
the concluding
paragraph of a fragment of uncertain date but which on the basis of internal evidence appears to belong to the period of the replies
Economy. Cf. Derathe's comments, O.C. conjecture is that the fragment was written before the 37 O.C. Ill, 265. Political
[192]
and the
1528 ff. One Political Economy. Ill,
THE IDEAL STATE ments of
social solidarity
there
and who could give such
a subtle de-
domain: "But besides sovereign power
scription of the public
must always be something enjoyed
common,
in
as
the
public domain, a public treasury, the buildings used by the
whole community, the
roads,
walls,
and
churches,
squares,
markets, as well as the usages, laws, customs, courts, penalties,
and rewards which are either shared concern. There
no commonwealth where there
a notion of the public
is
traditionally tools of
is
or of public
no common
domain extending beyond the
more limited one, and including
economic and
social life
mon concern and which common interest is to be public
common
38
interest."
This
is
in
domain
which carry
controls over the a
burden of com-
the state alone can
manage
protected. Rousseau
too places the
at the center of the
body
politic. It
if
the
becomes the
primary source of public revenues, indeed the only source not likely to
of
weaken the
true economic system
Rousseau would be upset by
which
in the
judgment
policies requiring the introduction
of taxation.
But increasing public expenditures lead and
to the
enriching of
danger of mercenaries.
abandonment tions the
They
They
to social
unbalance
will multiply wars
and the
will result in urbanization
and the
idlers.
of the countryside.
To
maintain such vast opera-
revenues of the public domain will not be adequate.
Rousseau
is,
therefore,
under no
illusion as to the possibility of
avoiding taxation except perhaps in an isolated agrarian
Under more normal
conditions of political
life,
state.
taxation can
hardly be ruled out; and Rousseau thus devoted a great deal of
thought
The
to the
of a static 38
question of establishing the principles of taxation.
resulting proposals are conceived in terms of the needs not
Bodin,
1955), Bk.
and simple community, but of Six Books of the I,
a
growing and advanc-
Commonwealth, Tooley
ed.
(Oxford,
ch. 2.
[193]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU ing state whose policies, favoring a higher output and a balanced
economy, are an important item in the pursuit of
its
goals of
political equality.
The
be solved
issue to
first
is
that of the taxation of farming
which
land. Rousseau has seized the essence of the practices
had already succeeded
some of the more progressive
in
He
cultural countries of Europe.
agri-
therefore maintains that land
and
taxation should not be proportioned to the crops' yield
in-
creased as the yield increases, but should be related to certain fixed standards, such as the surface of the land, or,
seau
is
silent
on
farmer will reap the benefits better cultivation
to
which he
and
to
show
yield.
efforts.
Work and remain be pro-
social goals, will
example of Holland, England, and China
to the
and the
that such a system results in the best cultivated
most productive lands, while, on the contrary, the land
doned wherever "the farmer
It is also
better to tax the
way fraud
is
aban-
taxed in proportion to the yield of
particularly important in the
where the public exhibition
enjoyment he derives from ury goods
is
by the consumer
of the tax
is
consumer rather than the producer.
avoided. This
case of sumptuary taxes,
payment
is
is
39
his field."
In this
anxious
to
is
his purchase.
show himself
of the
an essential part of the
The consumer
of lux-
in the role of taxpayer,
since an invisible display of luxury renders luxury useless. real goal of the state
ing of
39
rest
O.C.
[194]
is
The
that of bringing about a gradual converg-
fortunes toward an average. Rousseau has stated earlier
all
his belief that only state
The
entitled because of
a stronger incentive to
on the land, one of Rousseau's highest
He refers
is
methods and greater personal
intelligence will be rewarded
vided.
though Rous-
some long-range average
this point, to
upon
Ill,
273.
a
through a greatly enlarged middle solid
foundation
class
can a
and be guaranteed the
THE IDEAL STATE alleoiance the rich refuse
and the poor are unable
task of reducing the rich to this ideal '"mediocrity"
But luxury taxes may be one way
one.
in
which
to give. is
The
not an easy
this goal
can be
reached. In any case, thev are likelv to produce favorable conse-
quences under either of two alternatives.
wealthv
will drive the
will benefit the state.
to
means
first is
that the tax
engage only in useful expenses and
The second
tinue to behave as before. If the
The
so,
the government will easily secure
requires to satisfy the real needs of the state.
it
Another key principle of taxation the advantages
which each
measurement of the
is
state" the first consideration
4
'
that of taking into account
citizen derives
"'utilities
this
that the wealthy will con-
is
from
society. In this
which each derives from the must be an awareness
social
of the fact
that the state usually "provides strong protection for the im-
mense possessions poor
man
hands." ful
-ities
who
built with his
the advantages of society are enjoved
rich,
this fact into
while barely leaving the
enjoyment of the hut he has
in the
If all
and the
man
of the wealthy
own
bv the power-
then a legitimate svstem of taxation must take
who
account. Hence, "he
pav nothing
of life should
possesses superfluities may,
thing exceeding his necessities."
if
possesses onlv the simple
at all,
while the tax on him
necessary, take
away
every-
4:
Rousseau's reflections on the twin themes of the disparity of
wealth and of the disparity of social advantage, leads him again to the
theme
of rich versus poor
running through
But
a flaming thread
This
his writings of these earlv years.
rhetorical theme, since analysis.
which forms
it
his rhetoric
is
is
not a
belongs to the heart of his political irresistible
and deserves
to
be quoted
at length.
Are not
all
not
lucrative posts in their hands?
*
all
O.C.
the advantages of society for the rich
III. 2
—
.
-O.C.
III.
Are not
and powerful? Are all
privileges
and
2-1.
[195]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU exemptions reserved for them alone? always on their side?
If a
guilty of other knaveries,
man is
not the public authority
Is
eminence robs
of
his creditors, or
is
he not always assured of impunity"? Are
not the assaults, acts of violence, assassinations, and even murders
committed by the
and
hushed up
great, matters that are
which nothing more
of
is
thought? But
robbed or insulted, the whole police force
and woe even
to
to
escort him. If the axle-tree of his chaise breaks, assistance. If there If
he
is
is
every one makes way.
If his
coach
met on the road by
is
and not the
a farthing:
price of his wealth.
If
flies to
had
wagon,
a
and
How
his all
fifty
better be
his
honest
knocked all
the rich man's right,
is
it
he
hand and
be delayed in his coach. Yet
idle jackanapes
him not
is
in arms to
the crowd, he waves his
pedestrians going quietly about their business
this respect costs
up
everybody
servants are ready to beat the driver's brains out,
on the head than an
is
he speaks but a word, and
a noise at his door,
incommoded by
himself
be suspected.
has to pass through any dangerous road, the country
is silent.
man
immediately in motion,
is
who chance
innocent persons
few months,
in a
a great
if
different
is
the case of the
The more humanity owes him, the more society denies him. Every door is shut against him, even when he has a right to its being opened: and if ever he obtains justice, it is with much greater poor man!
difficulty
than others obtain favours.
the highway to be mended, he
If the militia is to
be raised or
always given the preference; he
is
always bears the burden which his richer neighbor has influence
enough
to get
far
is
he from receiving any
get horsewhipped by the
word, it,
all
undone,
fine daughter,
Any reality
42
society in
Ill,
be overturned in the road, so
assistance, that
impudent lackeys is
denied
cannot pay for
it.
a
I
powerful neighbour.
which
271-2.
this
he of
is
look to
lucky
if
he does not
some young duke:
to the
he has the misfortune
can only arrive
O.C.
[196]
if
and
the least accident that happens to
his cart
if
gratuitous assistance
just because they
totally
On
exempted from.
him, everybody avoids him:
poor
when
in a
they need
upon any poor man
as
have an honest heart, a
42
economic cleavage had become a
at a political contract
which
will not
be
THE IDEAL STATE among equal
agree
because
among
I
am
And
classes.
the text of
condition that
in return for the pains
I
and you are poor;
will permit
I
and simple one:
ruthless
a
rich
ourselves:
serving me, on
But
between two
on Inequality,
Discourse
need me
citizens but
surrender will be, as Rousseau had already said in the
this act of
you
to
me
the
you give
have the honor of little
shall take to rule you."
a society tending to
"You
us therefore
let
you have
left
43
an averaging of wealth will be able
to
enforce a different contract, a social contract, and will also be able to consider the social ends
which taxation must have. Taxes
that are collected only because they produce revenues are not
good.
The
true statesman will
heavy burdens into useful believe that such charges
lift
his sights
and "transform
tools so as to predispose the
had
as their goal the
rather than the yielding of tax revenues."
people to
good of the nation
Such would be
a tax
system which would stop the importation of luxury goods, relieve
and charge the
the poor,
rich.
In this
way one
could, through
taxation, "prevent the continuous increase in the inequality of
wealth," the enslaving of the workers, and the multiplication of idlers in the cities.
Finally,
44
Rousseau maintains that
rectly attack the right of property
tion of political society"
all
personal taxes that "di-
and therefore the true founda-
must always be established only with the
express consent of the people or of
its
representatives.
While
a
host of taxes regulating domestic consumption or foreign trade
do not require such approval, taxation relating does.
to property rights
45
Because of an apparent Lockian influence, Rousseau's views
on private property in the
Political
Economy, have often been
contrasted with his earlier views in the Discourse on Inequality. 43
ist"
O.C.
Ill,
273.
(Capital, Vol.
I,
Marx
places these words in the
mouth
of a "capital-
ch. 30). Rousseau, needless to say, does not use that
word. 44
O.C.
Ill,
275-6.
45
O.C.
Ill,
270, 277. [i97l
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU At the
root of the misunderstanding there
confusion about
is
Rousseau's frame of reference. Property in the Discourse
cerned
as
first
the poor. In the Political it
dis-
an element in the evolution of man, secondly
the source of exploitation in a
of the role
is
must play
In the Political
community imposed by the
Economy
property
rich
as
on
discussed in terms
is
in the well-organized state.
Economy
the issue arises in connection with
property taxes and the need of obtaining an expression of consent on the part of the
"One must remember is
property and that
community before they can be imposed:
that the foundation of the social
condition
its first
is
compact
that everyone should be
maintained in the peaceful enjoyment of what belongs him."
to
46
The
impression of Lockian derivation in these words
initial
away. In the margin of the manu-
tends,
on
script,
Rousseau has added, "see Locke,"
reflection, to fade
47
as if to suggest that
these really are Locke's views. His takeover of Locke's doctrine is,
however, a prudent and limited one. There
Economy
the Political
sanctioned by
by
that property
civil society.
civil society
Property
That
nity.
is
to
be guaranteed
from the primitive
only one of the practical consid-
accompany the organization is,
in
among men which,
fairly late in the evolution
state of nature to civil society,
no statement
a natural right to be
merely
as part of a relationship
having developed
erations to
is
is
is
of the political
accepting the Lockian view that
commu-
civil society
must
guarantee property, Rousseau does not accept the prior and essential
He
Lockian concept that property rights are natural
does not repudiate his earlier statements that
unhappy day first
uttered.
for
mankind when the words mine and
And
it
rights.
was an
thine were
the rights of property are limited by the em-
phasis on the "peaceful enjoyment" each will derive from the
46
O.C.
[198]
Ill,
269-70.
47
O.C.
Ill,
1406.
THE IDEAL STATE safeguarding of his right
human
—
a noncompetitive right, built to the
scale.
Furthermore, property rights, as Rousseau makes serve specific purposes if they are to
them
is
needed
must
clear,
be protected. First
among
concern for the institution of the family. Laws will be to
guide the transfer of property from generation to
generation
and "the
responsibility of the
spirit
government
father to son
and from
should leave
it
seau has in
mind when he
foundation of
these
of
which
laws
to apply,
must be
is
it
that
the
from
relation to relation the goods of a family
or be alienated as
little as
possible."
What
Rous-
says that property rights are the
civil society is that
the continuity of the family,
and not the protection of speculators, comes
first.
Clearly he
is
alluding to land, the basis of his ideal community, and to the
perpetuation of family traditions through the ownership of land across the generations.
The second condition he has in mind is that of social stability. The guarantee of property must be accompanied by laws regulating property, because "nothing
is
more
fatal to
morals and to the
Republic than continuous shifts of condition and of fortune
among
which
and the source of
a
thousand disorders, which overturn and confound everything."
48
The
the citizens; shifts
are the proof
avoidance of the social chaos flowing from the unregulated
and too frequent
transfers of property can best
society in which, as
Rousseau has
be obtained in a
said, there is a
convergence
toward modest average fortunes which, almost by definition, do not lend themselves to the practices of a merchant entrepreneurial society.
The
property rights Rousseau
of the small individual property free
48
and equal O.C.
Ill,
citizens.
is
so anxious to shelter are those
owners of
a democratic society of
In that respect property becomes the
263-4. [199]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU The
foundation of society. the goods which
are
directly. It
goods which cannot be taken away
the
a concept of property
is
and
citizen
which
family are using
his
rules out the possibility
of the accumulation of wealth justified in theory
On
by Locke.
in practice
the contrary, as
Rousseau has recommended a policy of
minimum
everything above a certain of
life.
Such
a policy
is
and sanctioned
we have
just seen,
drastic confiscation of
required for the necessities
compatible with Rousseau's view on
property but not with Locke's. Finally, another passage calls for elucidation
the right of property
It is certain that
and
rights of the citizens
some
in
liberty itself; either because
foundation of
ments of the
civil
society
more easy
to
finally
the
usurp and more
citizens: for if material
duties
and
to
because property
and the true guarantee
their proprietors [personnes],
own
all
more important than
defend than the person, one must respect more what can
be more easily taken away; or
one's
the most sacred of
more nearly concerns the preservation
it
of life or because material goods being difficult to
is
respects even
is
the true
of the commit-
goods were not answerable for
nothing would be easier than
evade the laws.
to
elude
49
After the traditional beginning (property more important
than liberty and
vital to life),
conclusion, that property of the citizen,
toward the
is
comes the deliberately shocking
given in hostage for the good behavior
and guarantees the fulfillment of the
state. If
citizen's duties
property were not answerable for the actions
of proprietors, then the temptation to flout the laws might be too great. Property, a usurpation in the prepolitical state, acquires a
new role when the citizens agree to form the political community. now guarantees both the freedom of the citizen and the
Property
fulfillment of his duties. It
is
limited in
inextricably linked to the state. It
49
O.C.
[200]
Ill,
262-3.
is
its
extent and
it
not a right that can
is
be
THE IDEAL STATE claimed against the
state. It is
one of the
wisely to enable the citizens to do
one of the important
tools that
what they must
tools the state will use if
must be used do.
It
wants
it
will
be
to satisfy
public needs and to mortify private gains.
This may be a distant
But there
goal.
should not work to achieve
is
no reason why man
In his Letter to Philopolis, as
it.
we
have seen, Rousseau had turned away from a philosophy of quietism which denied
movement and
exert over his social
Man
we
life.
say that whatever
is,
is
must
right,
the influence
man
can
reject counsels of despair. If
then logically everything was
equally right even before the beginnings of governments and of
which would therefore lack
laws,
certainly taken
present. It
many
disastrous turns in the road leading to the
would be wrong
whatever chance
Mankind has
all justification.
may be
to try to stay
left
where we
are
and miss
us of getting closer to an ideal
state.
The conclusion is that we can through political action control the way in which we move as a society and that therefore political action
The
is
a moral duty.
Profession of Civic Faith
The Lisbon earthquake sends Rousseau back to Pope's Essay on Man. In 1742 he had dealt a first time with Pope: the chain of being was unacceptable as
human and
the
ever
is,
is
50
has
established a continuity
the divine, but Epistle
tion of happiness. In right," if
Voltaire forces
it
IV had
between
the right defini-
1755 he lamented the use of Pope's "whatit
led to political quietism.
him once more
to take
Now
in
1756
up the same problem. 50
August 18, 1756, C.G. II, 303-24. R. A. Leigh published "the actual text read by Voltaire of Rousseau's letter,"
Lettre a Voltaire,
now
which
the text of the Leningrad manuscript: "Rousseau's Letter to on Optimism," Studies on Voltaire, XXX (1964), 247-309. Quotations will be from this text. is
Voltaire
[20.]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU Voltaire, in his
Pope
when
right,
is, is
Poeme
to task for his
sur
Desastre de Lisbonne, had called
le
How
optimism.
could one say that whatever
immense
faced by such
disasters?
Europe had been shocked by the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. Where was the hand of Providence? Voltaire had found in the immensity of the disaster cause for lamenting the optimism of
Pope and Leibniz. Hence, the "paradox" one of the Enlightenment's central harsh
critic of
the
life
and thought of
concerning mankind's past evolution,
and
optimists
of Voltaire attacking
while Rousseau, the
tenets,
his times
rallies to
of the believers in the justness
and
a pessimist
the defense of the
and beneficence of
God.
The paradox strikes Rousseau toward I
cannot avoid noting,
and myself on the
sir,
a
the end of his letter:
most singular contrast between yourself
topic of this letter. Filled with glory
.
.
.
free in the midst of abundance; certain of your immortality
tranquilly philosophizing on the nature of the soul, or heart
is
suffering,
you have Tronchin
you see only
ertheless,
evil
on
earth.
and tormented by an incurable retreat
as doctor
While
is
well.
life,
while
I
you are
and
if
and
friend.
your body
Nev-
with happiness in
What
apparent contradictions? You have explained
live
an obscure man, poor
I,
disease, reflect
and find that everything
you
is it
my
the source of these yourself:
you enjoy
hope, and hope embellishes everything.
The paradox was
only apparent, as Rousseau well knew.
The
"optimism" of the Enlightenment was based on a faith in progress
brought about by science and the philosophical
without
much
concern for what the great majority of
do or of what would happen
to
left to its
own
benefits that the rights of
For the moment,
it.
The
"canaille"
devices, to enjoy later the generalized
men would have
brought to mankind.
institutions, sharp social divisions, grossly
equal distribution of wealth, could [202]
and
could
them. Reason was universal but
not everybody was equally endowed with
could be
elite,
men
all
be
left as
un-
they were, pro-
THE IDEAL STATE vided freedom was granted to those
who had something
intelli-
gent to say and priests and kings went about their business
without interfering with the forward march of philosophy and of the arts.
The
orderly state of affairs needed for the progress of
mankind was disturbed by such events
as the
mass slaughter of
Lisbon. This interference by Providence in the philosophers'
planning required the expression of a suitably pessimistic view, regardless of Condorcet's final vision of near immortality.
The
position of Rousseau
was quite
different.
For him
ulti-
mate happiness would not come from an automatic unfolding of progress achieved by conflict,
man
in semianarchical conditions of social
but in the recovery of certain qualities which
gradually
lost.
Rousseau had
men had
In order to believe that this recovery was possible, to
have confidence in the capacity of
through the imperfections of his current
and
life,
man
to see
to look to a
stage beyond it that was to make possible for him once again happy life that he once knew. More than to reason and to
the
the
flowering of the arts and the sciences, Rousseau felt the need to look
inside
man
himself.
More than
in
the
mathematicians and philosophers, the brilliant given to
life a
theorems
elite
of
which had
veneer of balance and perfection which did not
correspond to the reality of things, Rousseau wanted to find reassurance in the moral strength of the felt
that
common man. Rousseau
what he saw was comforting, and because
of this
he
could reproach Voltaire the famous, the rich, the honored symbol of the eighteenth century, for a pessimistic
view which Rousseau
the poor, the harried, the outcast, did not feel. If Rousseau pessimist concerning the past
was a
and the evolution of man down
to
the present, he saw the possibility of optimism for the future.
"Whatever
is, is
right"
was wrong
of the present, but right
if
used
if
to
used
to
defend the anarchy
understand the design of
nature.
What had
been destroyed in Lisbon was in
effect
an
artifact, a
[203]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU construction of man. Natural
man had
edifices of six or seven stories
on
and not nature had
tion
back
How is which
it
is
possible to
the
those anxieties and
of the
wounded
city to
go
few would have been
blame nature and providence
own making? And
are
we
killed.
something
for
also quite certain that
died in the earthquake would not have suffered
greater sorrows
Of
man
instilled in
civilized habits, very
of our
who
strip of land. Civiliza-
houses to salvage their belongings and their moneys.
to their
Without such
those
narrow
a
which caused the inhabitants
desires
never built a big city with
men
and pains had they
lived longer?
crushed under the ruins of
this
unhappy town, many
without doubt have avoided greater misfortunes; and despite the touching description and the aid that even one of those
it
gives to poetry,
unhappy people has
suffered
it
is
not certain
more than
if
in
the ordinary course of things he had waited in the midst of long
agonies for the death which surprised him. that of a dying
and
heirs,
man
murdered
tormented by useless little
by
little
Is
there a sadder
cares, oppressed
bed by doctors and
in his
barbarous priests describe death with relish? As far as I
see everywhere that the evils to
cruel than the ones
we
of moral evil
free, perfected
not nature skillful
we
is
am
to
whom
concerned
which nature submits us
are less
like to add.
Rousseau can therefore go back
"The source
I
end than
by lawyer
to
one of
main themes:
his
cannot be sought anywhere outside
of
and consequently corrupt man." Civilization and responsible for our troubles
and no matter how
are at multiplying our miseries through "beautiful
institutions,"
we have not yet succeeded
making
life
unbearable
to existence.
The view
in
and we do not yet prefer nothingness
advanced by Voltaire with the support of Erasmus that very few people would like to relive their lives in the same
on
a faulty statistical sample.
by Voltaire? "Perhaps the
Who
is
based
were the people consulted
rich, satiated
with false pleasures and
ignoring the true ones, always bored with [204]
way
life
and always
fearful
THE IDEAL STATE of losing
men
perhaps
it;
fore the
men
of letters, of all the classes of
and
most sedentary, the most unhealthy, the most reflective
the
there-
most unhappy.
Pessimism
is
perhaps
the eyes of the rich
justified if
and
we
mankind through
look at
of the literary
set.
But preferably one
should look at the great mass of the people in order to form a
judgment. Consult an honest bourgeois
comfortablv policy
country, for I
has spent an obscure and tranquil
must
we may
starve so that
dare state as a fact that there
who
is
we were
to
do that then we would believe
God. Rousseau does, and concludes
well sharpen
my
immortality of the soul.
raised
defend
it
until
in
feel last
God Rousseau
"the condition of doubt
A
1
my
is
enough
to justify
sity for its
it, I
believe
51
my
faith in the
want all
a
more strongly
a condition too turbulent for
hand
of providence
human
it,
my
is
life, it is
since soul."
not only a neces-
now
shifts,
on the foundations of
and
editions:
".
.
.
will never cause
of the immortality of the soul
Providence" (Leigh, op.
hope
freedom made strong by the twin guaran-
All other manuscripts
moment
it, I
the questions
to that of the existence of
an optimistic view of
—
and
with the famous
proper organization. Rousseau's argument
freedom
doubt for a
it, I
breath." Indeed,
to justify a civic profession of faith, built
religious
forever.
in providence
his letter
believes all the
belief in the beneficent
Valais a
subtleties of metaphysics can
by Voltaire are brought back
God, and
way
pains, they will never shake 01
High
even of paradise, the
accept, in place
and moving statement: "All the
will
but in the
his nearly automatic life
bargain of being forever reborn to vegetate in this
I
live,
not perhaps in the
unhappy with
is
and who would not gladly
in
lives
example, where you are or generally in any free country.
single 'montagnard'
If
who
good artisan
a
even a peasant, not in France where the
off his trade;
that they
is
who
and without ambition;
life without projects
cit.,
me
to
and of a beneficent
294). [205]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU tees of
freedom of conscience and of the right
No
church.
one should dare
to control
no one can penetrate: "Do kings
ment
their subject
Clearly
on earth
of this world have
and
inspection in the other world
duties
have
said,
and
when
a
man
is
a
thousand bizarre son/'
life is
rites
right of
empowered to
go
be limited by
good servant of the
are better than faith
irreproachable moral
them
some
to tor-
to paradise? its
nature to
anything that the sophist Hobbes
in spite of
render account to anybody of the
Works
are they
to force
human government must
all
civil
to a disestablished
man's conscience, where
way
in
state
which he
may
he must not serves
God."
An
ever a choice has to be made.
if
certainly worth in the eyes of
prescribed by
God
"a
men and rejected by reaGod saying, I have
Rousseau would rather appear before
done good but have not thought about You, rather than
to say
the opposite.
Proceeding from these premises and having made them clear as
he can, Rousseau
states the
terms under which a civic
profession of faith should be made. its
The
negative character.
as
Its
first
quality lies in
profession of faith bans religious
intolerance as an attack on the foundations of society. Intoler-
ance
the most hateful of the
is
necessary to uproot
it
dogmas
at its source
to
be proscribed and
it is
because some of the most
sanguinary fanatics "preach only patience and sweetness
when
they are not the strongest." Rousseau's definition of intolerance applies to "any
good man
damns
man who
cannot imagine
without believing
those
who do
all
that
it
is
possible to be a
he believes and
pitylessly
not think like him." Equally intolerant and
equally to be banned are those
who would
force the believers to
be unbelievers.
The
essential character of the profession of civic faith
seau sums I
would
up
therefore like the adoption in each state of a moral code, or
of a kind of profession of civic faith,
[206]
Rous-
as follows:
which included on the
positive
THE IDEAL STATE side the social
maxims which everybody would be bound
and on the negative
bound
to reject,
side the fanatic
to
admit
maxims which one would be
not as impious but as seditious.
Thus
every religion
which could be reconciled with the code would be admitted, every religion
which could not be reconciled would be proscribed, and
everybody would be free
to
have no other religion than the code
itself.
The code
ideal state
live
belief
some
is
now
complete. Within the walls of the civic
religious believers
and others whose only
and conduct would be provided by the code
scendent and worldly
rules of
itself.
Tran-
commands would be heard within
The difference common adherence to the
the
language would
boundaries of the community.
in
be nullified by a
self-imposed disci-
pline of the democratic state. 52
As
if
52
anticipating the charges that
would be pressed against him
his defense of a civic profession of faith,
Rousseau
tells
for
Voltaire in an
know the distinction that must be made between the intentions of an author and the consequences which may be drawn from his doctrine."
early paragraph of his letter: "I
[207]
VII Beyond the State War and
Peace
ROUSSEAU'S State of War Is first
State of
War,
more
or,
accurately,
That the
Born of the Social State, was published for the 1 it was written. It is only one or two
time 140 years after
years
removed from the Discourse on Inequality and the
Economy and In
it
in
its
ideas
is
Political
very close to them.
Rousseau develops further some of
concerning the natural condition of
man and
his
basic
themes
the requirements
of the ideal state, in relation to the problem of war, to refute once
again Hobbes's doctrine on the permanent conflict
among men
in the state of nature.
Such
a doctrine not only
about the nature of
man
"how can we imagine 1
flies
but
The
Saint-Pierre,
State of
faix perpetuelle;
War
is
[208]
it
in his
one of
and hateful
1896 edition of the Social
a series of Ecrits sur V Abbe
de
Ill,
3.
Que
VEtat de guerre nait de
VAbbe de Saint-Pierre; number of fragments.
dic de
what we know
561-682, written for the most part in 1756. They du projet de paix perpetuelle; 2. jugement sur le projet de
O.C.
are: 1. ~Extra.it
in the face of
also historically untenable, for
that this species so monstrous
E. Dreyfus-Brisac published
Contract.
is
5.
I'etat social; 4.
jugement sur
la
Poly'syno-
polysynodie; plus a
BEYOND THE STATE And
could have lasted even two generations?
yet this
where
is
the wish, or rather the frenzy, to establish despotism and passive
obedience have led one of the greatest geniuses
Even and
were true that
if it
produce that
man was war
state of universal
Hobbes dares
to outline
ever lived. "
:
capable of the unlimited
assumed by such views,
reckless greed
who
would not
"it
still
of each against
which
of
all
the hateful picture. " For there
is
a
contradiction between the two related aspects of Hobbes' as-
sumption, the unlimited urge on the part of
own
everything for his
man
to appropriate
use and the urge to destroy his fellow
men. The absurd conclusion follows that "the conqueror who having killed everybody should have the misfortune
upon the
alone
earth,
The
reason for this
What good would he he were
its
deserts
Who
which he
Who
ures?
all
clear,
in spite of the fact
get from the possession of the
Who will
consume the food
will
his
power?
of his
What
that
I see.
in chains, so that at least
gather for
fame
will carry the
will
To
prove that this
what he has already is
fearful
empire into the vast
he do with his
Instead of slaying slaves.
is so,
war
state of
is
man
he avoids enemies and
any desire
to
3
O.C. O.C.
in the
conflict
to
no longer a
is
remind us of
beginning of time.
wherever
conquer for purposes he cannot
Ill,
61
Ill,
6oi (Vaughans translation,
he will
That changes
lives
see.
He
from
possible,
he
Before he
can acquire the soldierly qualities which go with a warlike 2
treas-
done away. 3
Rousseau has only
said about
all,
and cowardly, he runs away from danger, he
to day,
lacks
The
the harvest of
he has stored? In whose eyes
may have
he
whole universe,
him
the whole face of the argument at a single stroke. It
question of destruction.
day
left
Rousseau thinks
will never reach?
he make boast of
bind
is
sole inhabitant?
every climate?
will
be
he would be master of everything."
that
if
would enjoy nothing
to
spirit,
1.
Political Writings,
I,
288). [209]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU he must already be a
moved in time from
Man
citizen
—
that
is,
must already be
far re-
the original state of nature.
own
has a vivid realization of his
and
limitations of strength
smallness and of the
which nature has imposed on him.
life
His years are numbered; his physical needs cannot be extended
beyond
a certain level.
And
yet, consider
many
the efforts of
philosophers to reverse the true order of things: "Everything brings natural
man
to rest; to eat
and
to sleep are the
he knows; and hunger alone forces him
One
made
has
madman
of him, however, a
torment his fellow
men
up
to give
because of passions
only needs
his laziness.
always ready to
unknown
to
him; on
the contrary, those passions exacerbated within society by every-
thing which can inflame them, are treated as exist in it."
they did not
if
4
True, small individual
conflicts
may arise. But they are The killing of a fellow
quickly quelled and they are not wars.
man
to
which someone may be led
preservation
commit
it
is
an
act that horrifies
and that he
cause natural law
is
will
for
the
sake
him when he
is
of
commit without anger. This
not founded in reason only.
We
forget an earlier natural law, "engraved in the hearts of
ineradicable characters and
than
all
it is
is
man
in
speaks more strongly
The
conclusion leaves no
no general war of man against man and man-
kind has not been created only
War
be-
is
cannot
it
there that
the precepts of philosophers. "
doubt: "There
self-
forced to
to destroy itself/'
must therefore be analyzed from
5
a different starting
premise, one which will not ascribe to a weak, relatively isolated
man, bounded by the confining
traits
guided by the dictates of an original
of his physical nature,
set of principles to
which
reason has not yet contributed much, actions of which he totally incapable.
O.C.
Ill,
605.
War 5
must flow from conditions O.C. III,6o2.
in
which
is
per-
BEYOND THE STATE manent and
intricate
in existence.
War is when
be taken only is
and constant relationships among men are
a process resulting
from decisions which can
War
have come into being.
political societies
the result of problems created by political bodies which, unlike
their individual
members, can grow and change: "The
which
is
and
will always feel itself
appropriate to
Its safety, its
than
is
body without any predetermined measure, the
artificial
it
state
all its
indefinite,
it is
weak
as
it
it
exist.
become more powerful
neighbors." States are not deprived of passions, and
reason of state
is
not
made up
civil society consists in
"The
of reason alone:
the activity of
its
essence of
members, and the
without movement would be a dead body."
These
size
can always be increased
long as stronger states
conservation require that
an
state
6
activities are the result of forces released
by the
es-
tablishment of societies and they are linked to the attainment of selfish
economic advantages. These become the goals of whoever
controls political society: "Land,
money, men,
all
the loot that
can be seized, become therefore the principal objects of reciprocal hostilities.
This vulgar cupidity will gradually change our
ideas about things
and war
will degenerate in brigandage, while
enemies and warriors become
From
this follows
by
little
little
tyrants
and
thieves."
Rousseau's definition of war as "the conse-
quence of a mutual disposition constantly and publicly manifested, to destroy the
available means."
enemy
state or at least to
weaken
The paradox Rousseau by
is
facing has
now
taken shape.
to believe
morality,
by the books of the philosophers and the
all
convinced as he was by their
"to
6
nature was miserable.
Ill,
605.
7
O.C.
He
all
has
Ill,
publicists,
skillful pleadings, that life in
He
the
has therefore been persuaded
admire the peace and justice established by
O.C.
by
the authors of books on law and
been led
state of
it
7
civil society, to
607. [211]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU bless the
since he
wisdom
of public institutions
a citizen."
is
Thus
and
to rejoice to
be a
man
properly indoctrinated about his
happiness, Rousseau closes his books, leaves the classroom and goes out into the world to find confirmation of what he has
unhappy peoples groaning under an
learned: "I see
mankind crushed by
a
iron yoke,
handful of oppressors, a famished crowd
overwhelmed by sorrow and hunger whose blood and rich drinks peacefully,
weak by
the
Rousseau affairs
tears the
and everywhere the strong armed against
the redoubtable power of the laws."
astonished by the fact that this grisly state of
is
accepted with indifference and without resistance. But
is
nothing more than "the tranquillity of the companions of
it is
Ulysses trapped in the cave of the cyclops while they were
waiting to be devoured."
And
the immediate landscape,
lift
suggests,
flames,
and
and you
will
still
if
this
is
the spectacle offered by
your eyes and look
be shocked:
abandoned countrysides, pillaged
see murders, ten thousand
men
afar,
Rousseau
"I perceive fires
cities.
killed,
.
.
.
I
and
get nearer
mountains of dead,
the dying trampled under the horses' hooves, everywhere the
image of death and agony."
The
conclusion
have given us a
is
inevitable.
false picture of
The
writers
mankind.
and the
What we
publicists
see today
is
the fruit of the institutions destined in theory to maintain the peace. Addressing himself to Hobbes, he invites the "barbaric
philosopher" to
come and read
This would put in
its
Hobbes" and would enable us and
see that "it
is
his
book on the
field of battle.
proper setting the "horrible system of to turn his
absurd doctrine around
not true that the state of
war be natural
to
man
but that war has been born of peace, or rather of the precautions
which men have taken peace."
8
O.C.
[212]
8
Ill,
609-10.
to
guarantee
themselves a durable
BEYOND THE STATE anything
If
saving
is
men from
and wars,
result of conflicts
complete destruction as a
the continued presence of those
it is
and benevolence,
natural sentiments of compassion
of those nat-
which even today we have not wholly
ural inclinations
ceeded in destroying.
They
and
are there
dices and the vices multiplied by social
our
resist life.
own
suc-
preju-
Hobbes were
If
man endowed with pity would be a monster and naturally what we have great difficulty in becom-
right, a sensitive
"we would be
ing even in the midst of the depravation which surrounds us."
Even
society has failed to kill
though
ble
it is
dence of war organized that
we
error of
man
for
at the
life.
this
be able
Hobbes and
man
when
is
that
and
is
is
good in man, responsi-
for the catastrophic inci-
understood, Rousseau
to consider
of the philosophers has
who can
be done: "The
been
to take natural
own
eyes and to trans-
only exist in another/'
linked to the progress of civilization.
his soul
is
sound and
have nothing have limited
body doesn't
his
convinced
is
to
what has
they have before their
plant into one system a being
War
all
are
end of the long evolution of mankind toward
Unless
will never
for the
what we
desires, those
Man
suffer.
who do
is
happy
"Those who
not rule over
anybody have limited ambitions. But the superfluous awakens cupidity, the
more one
has, the
much, wants everything." Out extremes of
Our
human
passions
and
superficial philosophers
changed and molded by
more one wants. Whoever has
of this progression have civil societies
look at
social life a
come the
and wars.
man
he has been
as
hundred times and they
imagine they are observing man. Rousseau concludes the State of
War
"They
on
a note already struck in the Discourse
are trying to find out
why
on Inequality:
savages brought
among
not share our passions or our pleasures and do not care at all
the things
only through
we
my
us do all
for
They will find the answer They know only what they see and They know very well what is a bour-
so ardently seek. principles.
they have never seen nature.
[213]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU geois of
man."
London
or of Paris but they will never learn
what
a
is
9
Absolutism and a United Europe If
war
something which potentially or in
is
manently among sovereign
by
weakening of
a
some form
reality exists per-
then peace might be secured
states,
and by arriving
their sovereign attributes
of confederation or union
among them. The
at
possibil-
among the European states which Rousseau sees as many common traits. They form among themselves
ity is greatest
possessing
"a kind of system
which unites them through the same
through the same international law, customs,
and
which
a kind of equilibrium
These common
There
is
traits
have become more than an abstract
commingling of commerce, its
inhabitants
community
in the
religion,
and trade
the necessary result of this."
is
a reality of Europe,
lessness of
letters
visible
at
every point:
10
idea.
the
in
in easy communications, in the rest-
which pushes them
of studies
to
unceasing
travel,
and knowledge brought about by
the printing press and in the general spread of
letters,
in the
multitude of states which their needs should in principle make
mutually dependent.
made
It
is
true to say that these factors have
of Europe, quite unlike Asia
and
whose peoples
Africa,
have in
common only a name, "a
real society
with
morals,
its
customs and even
laws which
it is
its
any of the peoples composing immediate
But
it
to
violate
this ideal
European
society
ships,
has remained a sham, for the truth
basis of so
"brilliant refuge of sciences
[214]
its
impossible for
without causing
which should have become the
many important
on the
O.C.
religion,
difficulties."
reality
9
its
Ill,
61 1-2.
10
and
O.C.
of art"
Ill,
565.
is
activities is
defiled
and
relation-
that daily this
by
conflicts
and
BEYOND THE STATE wars.
And one
at a loss to explain
is
our horrible proceedings, so so
much
"our beautiful speeches and
much humanity
in the
maxims but
cruelty in the actions, such sweet religion
and such
bloodv intolerance, a politics so wise in the books and so harsh in the practice, chiefs so beneficent and peoples so miserable, gov-
ernments so moderate and wars so cruel."
The
reason
means here the Political
national societies are
society
whose model he has
society
which
it is
first
founded on
is
born from relationships of national
in themselves are imperfect.
As he had
so
just given us in the
as well
must degenerate of necessity in quarrels and clash.
still
under law (and Rousseau
Economy^), that European society
nothing but chance, as societies
Our
not far to seek.
is
removed from the only possible
The
surface union
conflict at the first
expressed in the preface to Narcisse,
Rousseau underlines again the
illusion of safety
we imagine can
be found in the multiplication of a thousand reciprocal interests
and needs. The peoples of Europe "are related
movement
that the smallest
of
more intimate
almost the cruelty of
civil
that
have preceded
calculus of interests.
While
shock that
have
wars/'
it,
points
a
more calamitous
1X
This means that the European ties
many
so that their frequent disputes
in the others; their divisions are all the their ties are
at so
one of them must create
society, like the national socie-
has been founded merely on the the brute power of a tyrant within a
national society can keep in check opposed individuals
who
are
constantly at each other's throats in the pursuit of their personal gains and keep
them
strength of the state, conflict
apart by the application of the superior
European national
among themselves
since there
states are in is
permanent
no higher system
to
regulate their affairs. Just as the formation of the ideal state
cannot be 11
O.C.
left to
Ill,
chance but must be the result of
a deliberate
567-8. [215]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU decision of true
man
to accept the
commitments
of political
life,
so a
European union can neither be achieved nor maintained by
the course of chance. Deliberate intervention and not the mere "force of things"
Rousseau rope led by
is
is
needed
brought
Henry IV and
detailed effort
had gone
Europe.
to create
an
to recall
What
Sully.
attempt to unite Eu-
earlier
immense, protracted, and
into their plan.
How much
hardheaded
and subtle diplomatic work had preceded the begin-
reflection
came
to
nothing
but the historical record
is
there to
ning of the application of the plan. All
under the
assassin's blows,
show the tortuous and
paths that
difficult
Europe can be reached.
goal of a united
this
lie
It
ahead before the
was naive of Saint-
Pierre to believe that such a goal could be achieved merely
writing one book.
The
reality of politics
Pierre's plan failed not because
because
many
it
was too good: "The
it
is
was not good enough, but
and the abuses from which
evil
by
such that Saint-
people profit come in by themselves; but what
is
so
useful to
the public can only be introduced by force, since private interests are nearly always opposed to
The
question
is
12
it."
not that of the utility of the project on
perpetual peace prepared by Saint-Pierre, which difficulty rather
on the
lies
is
obvious.
basis of the conflict
and of man and private
between the
interests.
The
real interests of society
former are deep-seated,
not readily identifiable, and cannot express themselves.
be
summed up
The
in the failure to act, in politics as in morals,
as a longing for peace.
The
They can
latter are
expressed in terms of national independence and fortune.
loudly
They
go hand in hand with the two chief objectives of kings, which are to extend their domination abroad
absolute within their
12
O.C.
[216]
Ill,
599.
own
nation.
and
Whatever
to
else
make it more they may say is
BEYOND THE STATE mere
smoke screen
pretext, a
of
empty slogans intended
to de-
ceive the public: "such as the public good, the happiness of the subjects, the glory of the nation,
words forever proscribed within
the walls of cabinets but so heavily used in the public proclama-
and
tions that they always herald calamitous orders
people groan in anticipation of what
them
masters start talking to welfare."
is
to
come
as
that the
soon as their
of their paternal care for their
13
Absolute monarchies, then, are a source of wars
among
and of tyranny within nations, and a great obstacle
nations
united
to a
Europe. Viewing the supporters of benevolent despotism with
unconcealed contempt, Rousseau delivers a scathing criticism of
and of absolute power
royal absolutism of absolute
power aim
their fantasies.
duty a
Nothing of what they do
perform;
to
in general.
to reduce their people to
it is
due
is
The
carriers
an instrument of
a recognition of a
to the pleasure of issuing
commands
to
mass deprived of freedom and judgment.
Nowhere
is
the contrast between
and appearance
reality
greater than here. Ignorant and boring and corrupt rulers are
described and treated as invincible conquerors, kings of kings,
monarchs of the world, and sacred emptiness at the top, the greater
is
majesties.
occupant of the throne. In
this
and manipulators,
and men of
financiers
in maintaining a system
How of the
issues.
greater the
make-believe world, courtesans
which feeds
power can be exercised
main
The
the adulation showered on the
letters, are all interested
their vanity
and
their greed.
in a system of absolutism
is
one
Rousseau sees the ruler making a division
among
the affairs of state, reserving to himself the "greater
affairs"
and delegating
routine affairs of state.
13
O.C.
Ill,
to his ministers the "details," that
The
difficulty
with
this distinction
is,
is
the that
592.
[217]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU the "details' are in effect the "essential" sphere of government,
while the "great
affairs of state,"
have nothing
dors,
What
to
do with the welfare of the people
matters for the citizens
Furthermore, to see that the is
in
including the gossip of ambassa-
be governed justly and in peace.
to
is
state
be great, powerful and expanding,
the private business of the prince and the subjects have it.
Hence, the monarch must
detailed matters
first
of all
which make up the substance
taken care of these matters, to all these great affairs
if
he
still
which
has any time
are of
interest
of civil freedom, of
the safety of the people and even often of his own.
it
no
busy himself about the
no
left,
Once he
has
he can devote
interest to anyone, are
always born only from the vices of the government and which consequently are nothing for a happy people and very wise king.
for a
little
14
Wars, or
a foreign policy of prestige
and grandeur,
purpose of such governments, but the attention
are the real
to the details of
administration alone can establish the welfare of the people and the conditions under which the
with
itself.
But
in
community
about a good or a bad administration? lute ruler cannot be "troubled
not
see,
will live at peace
an absolute system of government,
The
who
cares
happiness of an abso-
by the miseries of a people he can-
by complaints he cannot hear and by public disorders of
which he either with
will never trifles
know
anything." Isolated and concerned
or with matters of personal interest, the carrier
of absolute monarchical
power can
also
be relied upon
to be,
usually, an imbecile, thanks to the operation of the laws of suc-
cession to the throne: "If by a miracle a great soul
might be capa-
ble of filling the painful tasks of royalty, the hereditary system
established for succession
and the extravagant education given
to
the heirs of the throne will always supply ioo imbeciles for
every true king, and there will always be regencies, illnesses,
14
O.C.
[218]
Ill,
61
8.
BEYOND THE STATE and passion which often
interludes of delirium
head of the
Hence,
it
state a
mere simulacrum of
will leave at the
a prince."
narchical government
where power
is
to
is
instability,
its
the uncertainty as to
be found, and the constant search for ways in "Generally one sees republics
which
to
change
their systems less frequently than monarchies."
If
mo-
follows that the chief characteristic of absolute
balance
its
exercise:
one takes for granted that absolute monarchy
should be abolished or changed, the key problem
1
is is
bad and
how
to
proceed. According to Rousseau, one of the weaknesses of SaintPierre
was that he
failed to take into
circumstances, as he merrily cated plans.
governments
No is
went on
and unless
factors are taken into account.
The
immensely compli-
on the reform of existing
political speculation
valid until
account specific existing
to build
all
the relevant historical
chances of being able to do
something about royal absolutism in mid-eighteenth-century
Europe were severely limited by
The
a series of negative factors.
general climate of opinion and of social sentiments were
unfavorable.
It
was impossible
to rely
on "love of country, the
public good, the desire for true glory," for
all
these chimeras
faded away long ago and only traces of them were small republics. in a large
More than
that, the intermediate bodies
Worse
still,
the French
"to render Parliament contemptible
than really give
its
17
to destroy the
O.C. O.C.
few
which
less
16
O.C.
619.
Ill,
643, 637. This
is
Ill,
tried
it
feigned to have
than a trap by which one
intermediate powers.
Ill,
monarchy had
before the people rather
members the authority
given them." This was nothing
15
had
kingdom could perform useful functions had been
allowed to decline.
hoped
left in a
17
642.
a clear allusion to the conflicts that in
marked the relationships between the French monarchy and the parliaments, which, awakened too late to the implications of royal absolutism, had been trying to regain some of their powers the mid-seventeen-fifties
of constitutional control over the king.
U19]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU In effect, the intermediate bodies raise in principle the question of their survival in
Saint-Pierre
is
an absolute monarchy. This
confused.
He
wants
give
to
power
where
is
to
the in-
termediate bodies but leaves to the king alone the final decision. If there are
intermediate bodies between the prince and the peo-
ple, can, or
must, they have a jurisdiction independent of both?
If
they have a precarious authority and are dependent on the
prince, can they ever
become an
integral part of the institution of
the state and have any real influence on
its
The
affairs?
alterna-
tives are clear. Either the deliberations of the intermediate bodies
soon become empty debates, or royal authority altered
and
a trend
bound
is
to
be
toward a republican form of government will
get under way. The
logic of absolutism, as the history of the
French monarchy so well proves, cannot
tolerate the survival of
reallv independent and powerful intermediate bodies.
But even assuming that history
and against the hard
be found
it
might be possible
to
institutional encrustations,
to take the leadership in the
when a whole nation how attentive can it be
ism? "At a time
can concern to great
country where music has become an affairs
of state except songs?
is
to
one
itself
only
problems, in a
affair of state,
When
who
reform of royal absolut-
with
idiocies,
go against
what
will be
sees all of Paris in
turmoil for a buffoon or a wit, and the business of the academy or of the opera placed ahead of the interest of the prince
glory of the nation, affairs closer to the
City?"
what can one hope from bringing public
people and transferred from the Court to the
18
The coming from the
life
of the
day when royal absolutism will be removed
of the state
is
remote.
And
until that day, royal
absolutism will work against a European union.
Diet "would limit the government of each state no 18
O.C.
[220]
and the
Ill,
638.
A
European
less
than
its
BEYOND THE STATE boundaries."
As princes would be guaranteed
of their subjects, so
would the
against the revolt
subjects be guaranteed against the
tyranny of the princes. Otherwise, there could be no European Diet: "I therefore ask myself
where
a single sovereign in the
is
world who, thus blocked forever in his most cherished projects,
would
tolerate
without indignation the mere thought of being
forced to be just, not only with foreigners, but even with his
own
subjects."
By
European union would check the advance
limiting war, a
of despotism
enforced
which
discipline
is
strengthened by war and
and tyrannical
financial
its
accompanying
How
exactions.
could one hope that princes could submit their disputes to a higher European court
if
they proclaim might and not right to be
the foundation of their power? to
"A mere gentleman
doesn't deign
bring his complaints before the tribunal of the marshals of
France and you imagine that a king would bring his before a
European Diet?"
The
sad truth
19
is
that princes
view wars
as a source of
advan-
In war princes hope to
tages greater than the disadvantages.
obtain exclusive gains for themselves alone, while disaster and
death will
fall
more
on
likely
brings real advantages to
all
their subjects.
and
its
But perpetual peace
generalized benefits hold no
interest for princes covetously looking to the
immense personal
gains to be derived from a successful war.
Nor
is it
to
be imagined that ministers advising the princes
could have a different point of view.
The ministers need war They need it to harass necessity, they
need
it
to
make themselves
to give jobs
to their
on the markets and establish in secret olies,
19
.
.
O.C.
.
they would lose
Ill,
indispensable.
.
.
.
the people under the pretext of public
all
a
henchmen, speculate
thousand hateful monop-
these advantages as a result of per-
593. [221]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU petual peace, and yet the public never stops asking why,
perpetual
for
project
adopted
it?
The
peace
possible,
is
the
public does not see that there
is
nothing that
impossible in this project except that the ministers should adopt
Rousseau extends the blame well beyond the ruling
Everybody
guilty. Before
is
peace can assert
the
if
have not
ministers
itself, "it
is
it.
class.
would be
sum of particular interests should not carry common interests and that each should see in
necessary that the the day over the the good of himself."
:
revolution. this
a
is
remote and chancy
possibility. If
it is
not
then peace and union might have to wait for violence or
realized,
if
the greatest good he can hope to achieve for
all
This
°
But on
this basis
European league
perhaps cause a greater
is
to
"who among us could dare be desired or
evil all at
to
once than
be feared?
it
suggest
might
It
might not prevent
for centuries.
In the end, the only conclusion seau's
prudence
feared.
Once
—
is
that reform
is
—seemingly
dictated by Rous-
impossible while revolution
is
old customs and the structure of the state are
changed, the consequences will be immeasurable. "Let us evaluate the danger of once setting in motion the enormous masses
Who
which compose the French monarchy.
will
be there
check the shock that will have been given, or forecast effects
which
it
can cause?"
reason
may
society
which unites
is
the
for the establishment of a
What fortune has started, how "the free and voluntary
clear.
achieve. Let us see all
the
21
But on the conditions necessary European union, Rousseau
all
to
European
states,
by acquiring the
strength and solidity of a real political body, might
become
a real
confederation."
These
are the conditions: (i)
be excluded from 20
O.C.
[222]
Ill,
(2)
it;
21
595.
O.C.
there
Ill,
no great European power can
must be
600, 638.
a single source of
BEYOND THE STATE laws; (3) there uble.
must be
a coercive power;
(4)
it
must be
indissol-
In Rousseau's words, European union will be possible
when
"the confederation be so general
power
will refuse to join
it;
when
no considerable
that
there will be a judicial tribunal
capable of establishing the laws and regulation which must
members; when there
oblige all the
and
will be a coactive
cive force to constrain each state to submit itself to the deliberations, either to act or to abstain
when bers
will
it
from
be strong and durable enough
from seceding
at will as
to
action;
prevent
will
be possible
finally,
its
mem-
soon as they will fancy the existence
of a particular interest contrary to the general interest."
Union
coer-
common
when
22
the states will understand that
the terms which bring individuals together in the social contract, in
an act of renunciation and of freedom, apply
among
national entities and will achieve for
objectives 22
O.C.
and peace
Ill,
also to a contract
them the same
as well.
574.
[223]
VIII The Roots Wealth and
THERE
is
Human
I
Have Cut
Happiness
a little-known essay left for our consideration in this
reconstruction of Rousseau's early thought.
It is
an "extraordi-
nary text" in which Rousseau warns us of the "dangers lying in wait for the wealthy man: greed, avarice, temptations of
and above astonishing
warmth
of heart
all sorts
With an
the taste for oppression and violence.
all
and vehemence, he denounces not
only the individual immorality caused by wealth, but also the social injustice
This
is
it
generates."
1
the Discourse on Wealth, a message addressed to an
imaginary correspondent, Chrysophile, conclusion to the
1
years of public discussion
factors to political life.
a fitting
and anxious relations of
3
Bernard Gagnebin, in his general introduction, "Les Ecrits
tiques," to 2
which forms
on wealth and happiness and the
private debate
economic
many
2
O.C.
Discours sur
Ill,
poli-
xxv-vi.
les richesses,
par
J. -J.
Rousseau, publie pour
la
premiere
par Felix Bovet, Paris, 1853, 24 pp. The Discourse on Wealth has any of the editions of Rousseau's works. It has not since been included
fois
m
not yet been published in O.C.
It is,
however, reproduced in Appendix
of Iring Fetscher, Rousseau's Politische Philosophic
II
(Neuwied, i960),
266-75. 3
It
has not been possible, so
the Discourse. Its
[224]
first
far, to
date with precision the writing of
editor, Bovet, attributes
it,
with very persuasive
THE ROOTS The
up by Rousseau
issue taken
acquisition of riches
knows
that this
is
is
Rousseau
justified.
way
rejects the
many
do good.
good, then
is
means
to acquire the
to
do good
argument on the grounds that
which destroy
Anyone attempting
it.
a
proceed
to
beginning under such a handicap that
is
He
times to defend
the end purpose
if
whether the
is
to
is
involved in trying to achieve good by indulging
is
in all the vices
in this
purpose
an argument advanced
whatever a person does in order
contradiction
in his letter
justified if the
the accumulation of wealth:
is
HAVE CUT
I
most
it is
doubtful whether the end can ever be achieved.
You want like, I
you
do good but you begin by doing
to
be rich so that
say, to
desire to have property
unhappy. As
How
evil.
if
is it
the
it is
I
could use well
to
do good with
man who
taken into account. There
not clear in what
to
if
help the
way
a time
is
this
all his
of a
neighbors in
them alms."
poverty and wealth must also be
gap
to
begin with, and
it is
prolonged interval between
initial
may
indeed
poverty and ultimate wealth can be
lem
and
what would one say
begins by plundering
The immense gap between
to
it
and
possible to enrich oneself without contributing to
order to have later the pleasure of giving
be
my wealth,
good were not that of not committing
first
the impoverishment of others, and charitable
would
"I
evil:
filled.
The
plan
do well once wealth has been attained, but a serious prob-
is
what
enough
to
to
do while wealth
is
being accumulated:
envisage the end of one's voyage
if
"It
one does not
is
not
make
inquiries about the route to be followed." Also, death can inter-
vene before the ultimate goal place at a
moment when
produced only
evil.
will stand
while the
still
is
if so, it
may
take
For one cannot reasonably expect that time efforts to
external evidence, to the years
to suggest the years
become
rich are
under way.
1749— 1756. Bouchardy thinks
written "probably after 1754" QO.C.
would seem
reached, and,
the efforts to accumulate wealth have
1
Ill,
that
it
was
1244). Strong internal evidence
753-1 756. [225]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU Nor can
be assumed that during that time there will be no poor
it
people to help, no unhappiness to remove. Will
man
on being approached by a desperate
"My
misfortune, to say:
me
to let
you die because
pounds of income in thirty years
large will be
Another lation of
friend,
I
issue
will
I
is
back
be wealthy and you will see
how
to assist you.
.
.
.
beneficence." is
that of the limits to be placed will
it
on the accumu-
be possible
charity will begin.
The
risk of this
and that one
approach
that the desire to
is
continue until the end of
fired, will
will die buried
under gold, the victim
of avarice, without having accomplished any good at
But the worst
difficulty
accumulation of riches,
is
How
is it
that in trying to
man
and becomes unable
tion
beginning.
to say that
no longer necessary and that on the morrow
accumulate wealth, once one's life
be crushed by
to
sense of humanity compels
Come
wealth. At what point
added wealth
about
be necessary,
have not yet accumulated the 100,000
need in order
when
my
I
my
it
all.
do good through the
undergoes a qualitative transforma-
do what he
to
possible,
Rousseau
out to do in the
set
asks, that a
man, having
spent a lifetime in the ruthless task of accumulating a fortune, will at the
end of
generosity?
"My
his life
friend,
if
open the heart and mind you want
to
be a
man
to pity
obtain nature's guarantee that you will get there,
age,
deluded in your expectation, you stop
life
is
the real issue:
"You
lest,
before reaching good-
ness or die not having lived." For, Rousseau friend, this
and
only in your old
tells his
are today poor
imaginary
and honest. But
do you know what you will become when you will be rich? Don't you
know
principles will yourself, will
that in spite of everything your ideas
change with your situation and
when you
no longer think
For the rich
man
will as
that, in spite of
no longer be what you are today, you
you do today."
will not
be able
influence of the environment in [226]
and your
to
remove himself from the
which he
lives,
from the
THE ROOTS
HAVE CUT
I
thoughts of the people he knows, and from the temptations to
which he
is
The environment
subjected.
the road to honor and to truth. But
it is
idle to
imagine that the
same will be true for those who move among Chrysophile is rich it will be necessary for him "to live as a
wealthy
and be
ridiculous.
placed
him he can
.
man and .
.
be
in the station
Once
the rich.
choose either
to
pitiless, or to live as a
But today
open
of poverty leaves
modestly without shame and practice
live
goodness without having to
fight.
Rousseau considers the rich incapable of expressing the
ments of natural
The
rich
could be
men
man in effect is no man at a man but he wants to be
all.
The
rich."
alternative
continuous work, unable to get from
nance which merely serves does not consider
it
say, for
am
by
The
rich
idler
should
downtrodden people
ex-
where they belong, he
will
of a million
they are born to that estate, habit levels everything, and
not happier under
my
a
rich
be in inverse
mean and voluptuous is
The
a bare suste-
to prolong their misery.
hausted by fatigue and need. This
"He
is:
poor, crushed
more than
at all strange that profit
proportion to work and that a
upon the sweat
it
life.
Having undergone
upon the unhappy
will "look without pity
fatten
senti-
or of participating properly in social
process of self-destruction, he can harbor only cruelty.
man
man
poor
where God has
canopy than
a peasant in his hut,
I
no
more, he should add, than the cattle in their barn."
The
rich
man
who
does not limit his contempt to the poor
surround him in the midst of the advanced civilization in which
he moves. His contempt goes beyond Europe climates,
to those "savage
whose inhabitants without work and without needs
in a state of continuous indolence; then the rich
man
live
tenderly
laments the fate of these unhappy people deprived of the only happiness, which life.
try
And he
is
that of preparing for others the comforts of
could not understand
where there
are
no honest
how one might
live in a
coun-
rich charitably sucking the blood [227]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU how
of the people. Indeed,
who
destiny of those
who
is
Yet
utterly useless as far as this
can one
to prefer the bright
fail
are our slaves to the idleness of the savage
parody of man,
we
are concerned?"
nonman,
this
is
has power and has most of the world at his
unhappy and
afraid.
chains, guards,"
He may
and yet he
feet,
is
well multiply "iron doors, locks,
he may well
erect
other instruments of torture, he
everywhere scaffolds and
may even endow
where "only approved doctrines
versities
He
deeply insecure.
unceasingly place on his payroll
new
chairs at uni-
be taught," or
will
writers capable of describ-
ing "the theft committed by the poor as ever more infamous and the theft of the rich ever avail, for
whom
he
supposed
more
respectable." All this will be to
no
the inevitable reaction will be to corrupt those with is
He
in touch.
to serve
will
be poisoned by those
who
are
him, and everything will acquire shapes con-
trary to reality. In the
end he
will be defeated
:
"Your doors
be broken down, your locks will be smashed, your
will
coffers will
be
forced open."
How
and how worthy. They are
different are the poor,
They work. They can do good
future, for they have retained the qualities
goodness and to
solidarity.
Once poor
be poor: "Rather than
rich, stay in the class of
two
it is
which
much
traits
large,
class of
merit
is
embodies those
an order
aspiration
two
in
human
classes
is
its
as
it
is
on
members. Whether small or
we must defend, if ever established. The gulf which
qualities to
cannot be bridged, and the ultimate
must be the elimination
given the conditions of contemporary [228]
lead to
by nature."
an all-embracing one, based
closer to nature
separates the
man
to try to enter basely the class of the
which nature implanted it
in
better to continue
people of merit and leave between these
classes the eternal separation established
The
free.
today and not in an uncertain
of the rich. civilization,
is
The
danger,
that the rich
THE ROOTS
HAVE CUT
I
might overwhelm the poor and succeed in extending
and
their social views to the entire
How sad it was that the rich ers
among
philosophers and
sees the intellectuals
their habits
community.
should have found ready support-
men
of letters.
Once more Rousseau
and the philosophers of
his time as
being
responsible for the acceptance and defense of the institutions
which have led
to the present state of affairs.
He
taunts them,
those "vaunted wise men," for they do not realize on what
contradictory grounds they stand.
They
are nothing but "cow-
ardly adulators of wealth, even more cowardly detractors of poverty,
who most
know how those who pay
prudently
philosophy to the taste of
A number of other scattered of Rousseau's
life.
and
social
to
and the
consequences flowing from economic
I
rich.
of the longest fragments deal with luxury, commerce, 5
arts.
Rousseau
economic system not, 4
to this period
show the same deep concern
maladjustments and the behavior of the
Two
it."
lack the white fury of the Dis-
course on Wealth, they continue for the political
for
their
4
can be related
texts
While they
accommodate
to
as
now
wishes to treat the issues of the
he has done up
to
now, from the point of
All quotations are from the Bovet edition of the Discourse on Wealth,
1-22. 5
Vaughan
(I,
341-9) publishes them
ment. Derathe, on the other hand (O.C.
as if
they were a single frag-
are two, written at
1528—9), feels that there different times, the second being probably another
version of Fragment
vi,
as part of
an answer
to
Ill,
8 QO.C. Ill, 512-4), which was written in 1762 an inquiry of the Economic Society of Berne. It is
true that, as Derathe points out, there are
some
striking similarities of
composition between this fragment and the answer to the Berne questionnaire.
On
parallels
the other hand, Derathe himself
between
this
poverty in the Political
seems legitimate
Qihid.,
1531) points
to
fragment and similar passages on wealth and Economy and the State of War. In substance, it
to treat the
fragments as a unit and as reflecting the
views of Rousseau in the mid-fifties. [229]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU view of morals, but from a new point of view, that of the
who
prosperity of the state. Rousseau,
he has been wrongly
feels
charged with untenable and flimsy paradoxes on the role of the arts
and
sciences,
wants
have cut themselves such questions
prove that
it is
from history in their philosophizing on
off
been viewed with
history luxury has
The
hostility
and
ancients were against luxury and enacted sump-
tuary laws to curtail
it.
true that later degeneration
It is
saw the
triumph of luxury and the consequent destruction of the
But even then writers continued
be against luxury.
to
paradox of Rousseau's century that for the
had come out
who
rather his critics
as luxury.
Throughout suspicion.
to
in favor of luxury,
first
It
state.
was the
time philosophers
defending what the wisdom of
the ages had always condemned. Therefore, "in refuting this soft
and effeminate philosophy, whose comfortable maxims have brought
to its
support so
voice to the cry of
common
many
partisans,
this state of affairs
am
only joining
my
the nations and pleading the cause of
all
sense as well as that of society."
men who,
I
Rousseau
is
The
responsibility for
willing to place at the feet of two
"in trying to acquire celebrity through singular opin-
ions capable of flattering the taste of their century, have thought
today of upsetting ers
all
the economic
and of substituting
them an
for
government, so attractive that seduced by
What
new
system of
difficult
not to be
entirely
was very
6
these economists
and philosophers
in a century in
which individual
pushed and in which "no one Of
it
of old political writ-
it."
come normal
6
maxims
the two
men, one
is
is
are doing has beinterests are to
be
concerned any longer about the
easy to identify as Melon, whose views on
luxury Rousseau had already denounced in his Last Reply of 1752 QO.C. Ill, 95). The second could well be David Hume, as Derathe suggests
(O.C.
Ill,
translator,
[23°]
1529). Hume's discussion of luxury, a bit distorted by his
had been published
in Paris in
1754 (supra,
p. 58).
THE ROOTS
HAVE CUT
I
public good." As the concern for the public good has declined, easy answers have been provided to the question
people happy, such as that the fostering of the
how
arts,
make
to
the increase
the accumulation of money, would produce happiness.
of trade,
But even in the system Rousseau
is
bring about the prosperity of the "essence of
its
prosperity, for
I
attacking, state,
if is
it
trade
is
not in
useful to itself
the
do not believe that anybody has
ever advanced as proof of the happiness of a nation that she
made up
and merchants. "
of workers
7
As
for gold
and
is
silver,
they are not an index of wealth since they have merely symbolic value with reference to the goods which they help to exchange.
This proposition
self-evident in Rousseau's
is
basis of the following hypothesis:
mind on
"Let us suppose that after
long and painful efforts a people has finally realized [that
has ruined
it
is]
all
its
its
uted
among
The
first,
the citizens.
anyone because no one that gold
were
to
world. public
There
prosperity for the private happiness of the citizens." alternatives.
goal,
neighbors and accumulated as
much gold and silver as is to be found in the rest of the And let us see what would be the consequences of this two
the
are
that this gold will be evenly distrib-
Then no advantage
will be able to
show
be destroyed overnight,
accrue to
will
off his wealth. If all
its loss
would not be
felt.
But Rousseau wishes
to
waste no more time in dealing with
"so chimerical a hypothesis as that of the even distribution of
wealth: this equality cannot be admitted even hypothetically
because
it is
not to be found in the nature of things."
second alternative
is
tion of gold. In
an established society any
be augmented.
Money
breeds
initial
money and
O.C.
Ill,
the
inequality will
unsocial behavior.
Conditions come about which "cost the honor and 7
Thus
the only real one, of the unequal distribu-
life
of the
518-9. [231]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU man
To
and make the glory and fortune of the wealthy.
poor,
covered with gold, the poor
steals a
crown
is
who
a rascal
man who will be
in order to
hung
—while
and the monopolies of the merchants and the specula-
tions of publicans are described as useful skills
those
honored
and of the
citizens tranquilly drink the blood of the artisan laborer,
a cruel
buy bread
who
practice
them the favor
and guarantee
to
and the admira-
of the prince
tion of the public.
To
these bloody images already to be found in the Political
Economy and
the State of
War, Rousseau now adds an
attack
against "monopolies" supported by government, while repeating
we found
the judgments about the exploitation of the masses
the Discourse on Wealth. This monstrous inequality
by public authority, and while the
is
in
enforced
rich appropriate to themselves
the substance of the people, the people are reduced to slavery.
Hence,
it
follows that "the wealthier a state
number
greater the ings."
8
The
of the poor
of securing without
everything that
The
in
real conditions of happiness are to
freedom and work, in the opportunity, that all,
is
and the greater
is
needed
chances that
undue
difficulty
be found in
made
is,
money, the their suffer-
available to
and through work
for sustenance.
this will
happen without
deliberate effort,
Rousseau viewed as very scant. Too many people are anxious abandon "mediocrity," that happy medium where well-being
to is
found, in order to reach for wealth, which then becomes an intolerable source of
9
un happiness. Too few
hard and make the choice between a
life
of freedom. Perhaps a great upheaval
is
but must be invited.
On
are ready to
of leisure
and
work a life
not only unavoidable,
revolution, Rousseau's position has
remained ambiguous, even though he had analyzed the
human
condition in truly revolutionary terms. But now, at the end of his
8
O.C.
[232]
Ill,
521-3.
9
O.C.
Ill,
502.
THE ROOTS Discourse on Wealth, a nervous
arm
we
HAVE CUT
I
find a one-line fragment:
this frightful giant."
perhaps not going
civilization are
10
"Shake with
The wrongs
modern
of
be redeemed in any other
to
way. Nothing, Rousseau appears to be saying, but a radical shock will
be enough
to destroy the
power of the
forces responsible for
the plight of man.
Waiting
for the
In 1756 the It
had begun
Tree
to
Die
cycle in Rousseau's thought
first
comes
to
an end.
in the orchard of Les Charmettes. It ends in the
The
temporary peace of the Ermitage.
ceaseless turmoil of the
intervening years has died down, for the moment.
can look back in an introspective
mood and
achievements and the fact that a period in his
The purpose
of this book has been to
decisive importance Rousseau
twenty years,
how
major works
is
had
And Rousseau
try to recall his
life is closing.
show how much
of
said in the course of these
indeed most of what he was to say later in his
to
be found in
this
early period of vigorous
polemics and creative thinking.
By 1756 Rousseau had institutions of the
stated his oppositon to the culture
contemporary world.
He
and
had found them
wanting, incapable of guaranteeing peace and certain to lead
wars and revolutions.
He
had attempted
to
to get to the heart of the
matter by pointing to the contrast between being and appearing, the disease of
modern man.
superiority of natural
man
He
over
had become convinced of the artificial
therefore, painstakingly attempted to
which
social
man.
He
push aside the many
in the course of time civilization
had,
layers
had superimposed upon
natural man.
10
Discourse, 24.
[233]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU Of
that original state of man,,
Rousseau had
a simple vision,
followed by a more complex one of a second state of nature in
which man had achieved, perhaps,
Whether the
a golden age of happiness.
or not these images had any historical reality was not
concern of Rousseau. Their appeal was that they pro-
first
vided a model and a foundation from which a useful analysis of
human
nature, past
the end to
He
and present, could be developed,
what mattered most, the
definition of a citizen.
had from those premises evolved
state in
its
difficulties
harsh to a
realities
certain views about the
and traced the
fundamental injustice
men committed by
to arrive in
origin of the present
the relations
in
the rich against the poor.
He
had
among
also further
outlined at length the requirements of the ideal state needed to build a free society of equals.
He had
nature and purpose of the general citizen
and of the
peace.
He
state,
at this point discussed the
will, the responsibilities of the
the causes of
war and the
had portrayed the moral and
undue wealth and given the would bind the community
social
possibility of
consequences of
outlines of a civic faith
which
together.
All this had been done in a deeply religious mood, with the
conviction that there was a latent greatness in
be brought out once more, in part at
provement of the the capacity of of a
common
institutions
man
to look at
purpose.
He
least,
man which
could
through a parallel im-
by which man was governed and
of
himself within the larger framework
was not an
that the recovery of greatness,
was
optimist, because he
difficult
once
knew
man was
cor-
rupted; but he was confident of the future and reproached Vol-
pessimism and told him
taire for his
good thing
to
could not see
above
all,
be
how
alive. it
He
that,
on balance,
could be avoided.
that he possessed a truer
He was
was
a
firmly convinced,
man and the men
image of
contemporaries, and that the philosophers
lived in a world of make-believe, their vision darkened [234]
it
feared revolution and yet at times
than his of letters
by
selfish
THE ROOTS
I
HAVE CUT
preoccupations and a readiness to accommodate themselves to the dictates of a deadly, even
The end
of this
first
if
benevolent, despotism.
phase of Rousseau's thought
is
accompa-
nied by a few autobiographical pages written in the winter of 1756:
The
polemist of the years following the publication of the Discourse
on Arts and Sciences (1751-1753), the fiery adversary of French turns around to consider the beginning of his career and music .
his
.
.
pugnacious and a
bit
mischievous
someone who knows
his value,
that having henceforth given a past
still
on the Origin
Geneva
His clear-sightedness,
even with a shade of modesty, but with the assurance of
his serenity
from
activity.
close; the
have two principal causes
up
second
is
and the
first is
that having written the Discourse
1754), having recovered in
of Inequality (spring
his citizenship
the
:
polemics, he can detach himself
religion of his infancv,
he has the
feeling of having reached a turning point.
Hence, the condition of
moral and intellectual equilibrium of which
this piece bears witness,
a condition
which would be broken
in the spring of 1756,
when
Jean-Jacques, suffering from an "emptiness of his heart," will launch
upon
a
new
What he go back
adventure.
has done so
to the sole
serve to resolve the to look to
11
man
far,
Rousseau
tells us,
and fundamental principle" which should
problem of
man and
of society.
in order to establish
remove from
He
has tried
himself and to find in his constitution "the true
system of nature." This has been called
though
has been to try "to
man what
I
it
"I did
"my
system," even
nothing more than
was demonstrating he had himself
added." This had been his effort throughout nearly his entire
and he was convinced
that
to
he had reached the
life
truth.
11
Gagnebin and Raymond, O.C. I, 1836. The text of the Fragment is in O.C. I, 11 13-9. Its attribution to the winter of I 755 _I 756 was first made by Th. Dufour and is now confirmed (jhid.,
Biographique 1836).
[235]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU The
position of his adversaries could not be any weaker,
12
for
they had proceeded with inconceivable thoughtlessness. Rousseau does not think he was ever refuted, because truth cannot be refuted.
But not even
a serious attempt at debate
was under-
went never beyond "three
taken. His adversaries' arguments
or
They showed clearly that they were who were driven by their interests to speak better judgment," writers who could "maintain that
four school commonplaces. " writers "in
bad
against their
letters are the
faith
foundation of the
At the beginning
believed.
friend Parisot that in
Rousseau had never
state." This,
he had
of his literary life
Geneva
arts
told his
were not the support of the
Republic.
What
Rousseau has proved
literary debates,
to
himself
is
which he has no intention
the futility of such
of continuing.
He
is
pleased that he has probably upset the bright intellectuals and
who may even have
artists
seau's attacks against arts
financial security.
tury of wealth talents
and
Rous-
and sciences could endanger
their
Rousseau wants
and
to reassure
laziness cannot possibly
in times so corrupt there
They can go about Paris
if
feared for their livelihood, as
is
their business, "these idlers
selves the arbiters of the beautiful they life
do without
no question
and who, because they have nothing
spend their
them. "The centheir
of morality."
who abound
to do,
in
appoint them-
have never
talking about music they do not love
felt
and
and about
paintings they do not understand."
Rousseau feels relaxed
is
going
to dismiss these
people from his mind.
He
He still has the friendship of a man he Diderot. He is sustained by the thought of the
and happy.
greatly admires,
13
There were only two exceptions. A great prince, the king of Poland, a friend, Bordes, who had criticized Rousseau in "two discourses filled with spirit and ideas and very agreeable to read," even though what he did was just to give "a pleasant coloring to vulgar errors." 13 O.C.I, 1837. 12
and
[236]
THE ROOTS
HAVE CUT
I
conversations "of this virtuous philosopher
whose
friendship,
already immortalized in his writings, makes the glory and the
happiness of
my
life,
of this astonishing universal
unique genius, whose worth
whom
ignored by his century, but in
is
the future will have difficulty to recognize only a man."
Perhaps a few, the
best,
possible to continue to
against likely,
and perhaps
among
the philosophers will find
work withirim,
them and about the culture
in spite of all
it
he has said
of their century. This
is
not
however, once they have really understood what he has
done.
For the quiet of Rousseau's mind comes from his certainty that
he has done something no one has yet
under
a radical
misapprehension
if
realized.
His enemies are
they think that he has been
merely playing with literary images and has amused himself by touching upon the foibles of culture and civilization. Rousseau
knows
what he has done
that
is
something more important: he
has struck at the foundations of contemporary tions.
He
is
pleasure of watching
14
roots
O.C.I,
and
institu-
has seen his adversaries rally to the defense of what
Rousseau knows
whose
life
I
1 1
had
dead:
them
"For two or three years
I
had the
ceaselessly water the leaves of the tree
secretly cut."
14
14-9.
[237]
IX 1756
After
Barbarus hie ego
sum
TWENTY-TWO
years were
.
.
.
They were
left.
by the
first filled
produced the Nouvelle Heloise, the Emile,
creative outburst that
and the Social Contract. They were then used
for the painstak-
ing measurement of the real and the possible against Rousseau's ideal standards of
men,
and government, carried out in
society,
the Letters from the Mountain, the Project of a Constitution for Corsica,
and the Considerations on the Government
They were
finally
and
of introspection
and why?)
devoted
to a
of Poland.
never-ended and obsessive effort
justification
(who am
I,
what have
I
done,
in the letters to Malesherbes, the Confessions, the
Dialogues, and the Dreamings of a Solitary Walker. At the end,
Rousseau
and
felt as
much
in the Dialogues
epigraph he had
"Here
I
first
used in the
am, a barbarian, for
Throughout
he was an alien in
as ever that
he went back
this infinitely
I
letter to
am
his world,
for the third time to the
Conzie years
earlier:
not understood."
complex
literary output, the
deeply
rooted themes of Rousseau's thought appear and reappear in their subtlety
tion
and splendor of language,
and striking novelty of forms.
changed in [238]
their social, political,
all
their variety of presenta-
They remain
and economic
essentially un-
aspects
and show
AFTER 1756 an unbroken continuity with what Rousseau had said in the years
up
to 1756.
The
effort to
make himself
Rousseau
clear never lets up.
is
aware of the distinction one must make between the intentions of an author
and the consequences and interpretations which
may be drawn from
his doctrines.
1
He knows
misunderstand what he has written.
he had been judged a
man
2
After the First Discourse
of paradoxes; after the Letter on
French Music, an enemy of the nation; Inequality,
an
enemy
of
that readers will
mankind;
after the Discourse
the
after
Letter
on to
D'Alembert, a defender of Christian morality; and the opposite after the Emile.
Hence
his
And
yet, "I
have always remained the same."
overwhelming urge
to
defend himself,
as a believer in austere republican institutions
and
as a
and
to
show
;
that,
legal liberty,
defender of the laws, he could not be described as a
seditious manipulator
and
a supporter of license.
He
could not
accept the accusation of wanting to destroy the order of society,
because he had refused to declare sacred laws that were
just
and miseries of
responsible for the most disastrous disorders
mankind.
He
4
felt that in spite
of
what men
of letters, "paid
from the
fat
1
Letter to Voltaire, 18 August 1756, C.G.
2
Rousseau had written in the Polysynodie that aristocracy was the
II,
305.
He must have doubted that this would be clear to few years later, having in the meantime written the Social Contract, he added a footnote to the yet unpublished manuscript of the Polysynodie: "I could wager that one thousand persons will find here
worst of sovereignties. his readers, for a
yet another contradiction with the Social Contract. This proves that there are
still
more readers who should learn
should learn to be coherent" (O.C.
to read
than there are authors
who
645). Prophetic words! 3 Lettre a Christophe de Beaumont (1762), in Oeuvres completes de ].-]. Rousseau, ed. L. S. Mercier (Paris, 1792), XIV, 10-1 1. 4
Ill,
Rousseau juge de Jean Jacques, Dialogues,
1
772-1 776, O.C.
I,
887. [239]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU of the people,"
5
said, the solitary
prophet could do a great deal.
In essence, what he had attempted to do from the very
our stupid admiration for the instruments of our un-
to criticize
happiness
6
and
on the contrary that nature had made
to suggest
man happy and show
"human
that
one can never return once one has
left
time, he
to the times of
down
would not be
great states to their
and revolution, but
.
that
only,
if
"Thus
of the process of corruption:
that of bringing large populations
and
simplicity, but only to stop, if
was
first
possible, the progress of those [peoples
and
.
.
innocence and equality
them," and that his key objective was not the
possible, the slowing
ness
had been anxious
nature does not go backward,
acceleration of the process of crisis
his goal
him and
good, but that society was depraving
making him miserable. At the same to
was
first
and
whose
states]
them from
situation has preserved
it
small-
advance
a rapid
toward both the perfection of society and the deterioration of the species."
7
Rousseau has been able
to gain his insights,
cause he has found in himself the of
what he was and because
of his
now
life,
his emotions
he
traits of original
of the life he lived.
tells us,
be-
man, because
To
the analysis
and dreams, Rousseau devotes,
as
we
well understand, some of the more important pages of his
work.
He
had always been preoccupied with himself. But
"the
new
and
a desk,
it
was
made real through his gradual retreat from the world, that provided him with a better chance to be himself and 8 find in this way the true meaning of human existence. It was when he left his books unpacked, and refused even to have a pen stuff, I
life,"
and "instead of these sad papers and
would
fill
my room
5
Fourth Letter
6
Dialogues, O.C.
8
Les Reveries du promeneur
9
Ibid.,
[240]
1042.
to
of
all this
with flowers and grass,"
Malesherbes, 28 January 1762, O.C. I,
934.
7
Ibid.,
solitaire,
I,
9
printed that
1143.
935.
1776-1778, O.C.
I,
1014— 5.
he
AFTER 1756 would
about the
really think
would then be
human
A
condition.
motion which would assemble and place
set in
before his imagination visions of peace in the
and good people.
10
Then perhaps
the
midst of simple
reconstruction
of
world could begin, and the distance which separated
ideal
from the
real
a state of
could in this
way
my
it
dreams
objects.
11
made up
of intense enjoyment, but
where time stood
still:
"If there
soul finds a basis sufficiently solid to
and gather there
all its
being, without
to recall the past or envisage the future;
where time be
rest there in its entirety
having
still
moments
consisting rather of a steady state
which
lost in
find happines, a happiness not
of a succession of fugitive
a condition in
could be
an
pure contemplation, or the result of the
observation of small things, or of
He
He
world be measured.
which could be
is
chain of ideas
nothing, and where the present
marking
its
forever without
lasts
duration and without leaving any trace of
its
however passage,
without any other sentiment of deprivation or enjoyment, of pleasure or pain, of desire or fear, than alone that of our existence,
and that
—
entirety it
can
call
as
this
sentiment alone could
long as this condition
lasts,
fill
whoever
the soul in
its
finds himself in
himself happy, not of an imperfect, poor and relative
happiness, such as one finds in the pleasures of sufficient, perfect
and
full
life,
but of a
happiness which does not leave any
emptiness in the soul which has to be
filled."
12
way Rousseau described himself and the way in which he had come to grips with the problem of man and society. But if contemplation and withdrawal had given him the sense of human existence, he knew that the solitary and contemplative In this
life
was not acceptable
Rousseau
10 12
Ibid.,
tells us,
lead an active
u
1073.
Reveries,
O.C.
for the majority of
I,
men, who must,
life to satisfy their
Dialogues, O.C.
I,
ever-renewed
816-7.
1046. [241]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU 13
needs.
Rousseau could find happiness
If
sitting
by a murmur-
ing stream, the kind of happiness that can be created within a social
group was
angered him.
What
still
his
concern and injustice in public
Rousseau keeps forever reminding us
in solitude
men
am, alone on earth."
I
alienation of
man
15
above everybody
He
has become the symbol of the
is
advantage
and of
here both a sequel and a parallel
still
thought was flourishing.
Dreamings
of the Solitary
"everything must in the end find turn will come."
The Road
We
"All
is
16
At the end
of
Walker, he can say that
proper order, and sooner or
its
17
Have Traveled and
The opening all
a considerable
statement that he had by his work cut the roots of
his life, in the
:
him
else in looking at the evils of institutions
the tree everybody
world
"Thus,
This sense of loneliness and of rejection by society does
to his earlier
my
analyze the
cursed by society. In the end he must consider
not lead to pessimism. There
later
in effect, this: to
living together in society.
this as a privileged position giving
progress.
is,
he has found the clues he needed
problems of multitudes of here
life still
14
the Choices hefore
sentence of Emile
is
Us
the key to Rousseau's
well on leaving the hands of the creator of things,
degenerates in the hands of man." Nature gives us not only
beauty,
18
but goodness. Nature, in
its
magnificence, untouched
by man, does not herald "slavery and domination." 13
Ibid.,
1047. Raymond's
comment
is
Reveries, O.C.
15
The opening words
16
See supra,
p.
I,
of the Reveries, 17
18
Cf. the Nouvelle Helo'ise, passim.
Third
[242I
I,
1801).
O.C. I, 995. O.C. I, 1010.
Reveries,
19
letter to
QO.C.
1066, 1057.
237.
Nature
that Rousseau the citizen always
establishes the "priority of action over feeling" 14
19
Malesherbes, 26 January 1762, O.C.
I,
1
139.
AFTER 1756 offers us
laws which,
if
such
the
domination:
is
speaks to the heart of
and
followed, could prevent slavery
"sacred
man and
law which
imprescriptible
from the
his reason" starting
among men and which only
principle of political equality
a
"feudal barbarism" could abolish by cutting off from the body politic "its
most numerous and sometimes most healthy part."
We already know that Rousseau sees man
as the
ment
end of
20
the present condition of
which began with the abandon-
a long process
of his original condition as nature had created
it.
Now
Rousseau peers once more into the past and he sees three stages in the evolution of
"He
nature:
man. The
first is
or conforming to that of anyone.
mere physical
love; limited to
ond of
state
is
man
that of
well-being as opposed
Nothing
attracts his hate or his
instinct,
he
nothing."
is
one which perhaps witnessed the only
man. Some
in the state of
own
does not conceive of his
ideas of relationships, of justice
real
The
sec-
happiness
and of moral duty
begin to appear. Personal interests cross each other: "But as long as the clash of interests
gence, at
men
hand
is
less
than the aid offered by
are essentially good."
But the third and
as progress multiplies social relationships
world necessary each other." Since this
to
when
opinion,
each man, makes them
and sharpens
all
born enemies of
21
is
the stage reached today by
human
development,
then, in Rousseau's eyes, social relations, progress of ideas,
culture are to be held accountable for having is
— 20
that
is,
is
"when a turbulent making the whole
the opposition of strong particular interests, love of self becomes vanity,
intelli-
final stage
bad.
Bad men
Considerations sur
le
are not
and
made man what he
found in the
desert,
but in the
gouvernement de Pologne, 1770— 177 1, O.C.
973. Cf. Fabre's comment (ihid. } 1760) on Rousseau's natural law and his approach to the problem of the poor: no ostentatious philan-
Ill,
thropy, but political power. 21
Letter to Beaumont, Oeuvres completes, ed. Mercier,
XIV, 28-9. [243]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU
How
world.
wrong had Diderot been
being a bad
man
of badness
comes
born. of
it
and
to life
And beyond
is
Rousseau of
in accusing
because he was a solitary man.
22
The beginning where
exalted in society,
evil
bear specific responsibility for the corruption of men.
How
has Rousseau convinced himself that this
man
claims to have observed
what he
calls a "secret opposition"
man and
that of our society.
dition
ment from alone.
and an
which
his fellow
There was the
the Dialogues.
affairs.
He
beings have given
Vincennes
vision of
What
irreconcilable con-
and detach-
to
him and him
which he returns
in
he saw was "another universe, a true
golden age, societies of simple, wise and happy men" verse in
human
also claims a
his progressive alienation
human
He
so?
is
have perceived
to
calamities in proportion to
and the complexity of human
certain vision of life
23
between the constitution of
A tension
which increased public
progress
and
all his life
is
have grown out
society, the institutions that
which he could
"in
fulfill
hope
all
his visions,
—
a uni-
through
the destruction of the prejudices by which he had been con-
quered himself, but from which he believed in that moment the vices and miseries of
mankind
to derive."
all
24
In writing to Malesherbes he gives animation and substance to the dream.
He
after his heart,
fills
this
human
imaginary world with
by moving "under the
beings
shelters of nature
men
worthy of inhabiting them." Rousseau then crowds this golden century of his fantasy with
all
the happy events of his
life,
and with sadness looks upon
"the true pleasures of humanity,
pleasures so delicious, so pure,
and by now
These were but
I,
22
Dialogues, O.C.
23
Ibid.,
''
so far
from man."
fleeting visions in the midst of a hateful world,
I,
788-9.
790, and second letter
to
Malesherbes, 12 January 1762, O.C.
1136. 24
Dialogues, O.C.
25
Third
[244]
letter to
I,
828-9.
Malesherbes, 26 January 1762, O.C.
I,
1
140.
AFTER 1756 where everything was
in effect the opposite of
what Rousseau
had imagined. But they served one fundamental purpose in Rousseau's political philosophy:
strengthen his conviction
to
by which
of the necessity of a standard
to
measure accurately
man's present condition, of a goal which could provide norms for the
changes that had
be introduced in that condition.
to
This, then, was the justification of the search for the ideal state of nature: not to find in
and
a justification of institutions
it
relationships as they existed in the historical present, but the inspiration necessary to
change them. The vision was only a
may never have
vision; the state of nature
man was
perhaps a fanciful one.
does not
exist,
So be
will say.
existed.
This ideal
man
did not matter: 'This
but he can exist as an
it,
26
hypothesis."
Without
you
It
Rousseau clearly believed, no one
this hypothesis,
could cope with either the general or the specific evils of our society.
That those
evils
were
all
around us
it
was
difficult to
deny. But Rousseau further believed that they could, in part at least,
be done away with by operating within the framework of
existing society.
What was
essential
had become what he was and to find
to
understand
how man
go back in history in an attempt
ferent course.
There was nothing
inevitability of certain
given premises.
As the
And
there
vision blurs, the
things.
That
family,
and
reality all
is
it
is
There
consequences flowing from
inevitability of change.
mind has
social relations.
This dissembling
when he
inevitable about history.
was the
such that
disease: the inability to
2(3
to
out what he might have been, had history taken a dif-
was only the
is.
was
to focus
on the
reality of
has affected the individual, the
Man
suffers
from a universal
be himself and appear for what he really
caused by our social order. Everybody
maintains that he
is
lies
ready to sacrifice his interests to the
Letter to Beaumont, Oeuvres completes, ed. Merrier,
XIV, 61.
U45]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU "No one wants
public good:
27
agreement with his own."
themselves satisfied with a
'
it is
not in
mediocre'' or average condition, but
and
the only real passion will be for luxury
The
when
the public good
All will preach modesty and declare
gold.
28
family has equally been affected by progress. Since nat-
been silenced by extreme inequality, the
ural sentiments have
iniquitous despotism of fathers ness of children
and
public morality
is
responsible for the unhappi-
is
for the habit of forced marriages. Again,
to
be improved, one has
assumptions under which parents operate.
go back
to
if
to the
29
All social relations are poisoned by the fact that 'Tor a long
now
time
without for
the society of
reality,
one person
relationship 31
it."
is
man
has offered only a false appearance
without truth." is
bound
to
30
society in
It is a
which
cause a loss for somebody
in the essence of things,
Thus Rousseau once more
a gain
"This
else.
and nothing can change the doctrine of the
rejects
automaticity of social adjustments and relationships. Rather than creating happiness for
all,
they create more and more unhappi-
ness as their complexity increases. For this
egoism inherent in the constitution of
change
it
until that constitution
Rousseau to
—
persuaded that
is
the result of the
and nothing can
changed.
we can change
it
if
we want
that while progress has inevitably brought about our sad
state,
change
are changed.
up
is
is
societies,
to
them
purpose
is
to
is
possible
Men
if
the accepted premises of that progress
have the freedom of making a choice and
to decide
whether they wish
show men how
to choose,
the fictitious and fantastic tions
and prejudices. 28
27
Ibid., 29.
Nouvelle Heloise, O.C.
31
Emile,
[246]
is
man
to dis-
of nature
Considerations, O.C.
ed.,
Bk.
II,
24.
II,
99.
from
the fruit of our institu-
32
29
Gamier
man" who
to choose. Rousseau's
"by teaching them
tinguish reality from appearance, and the
it is
Ill,
960.
30
Dialogues, O.C.
I,
729.
32
Dialogues, O.C.
I,
728.
AFTER 1756 For,
beyond the broad generalizations, Rousseau had singled
And
out specific causes for the decline of society. reciprocal influences of three of
particular that
he
them and
it
to the
is
each of them in
to
They
attributes special responsibility.
are the
population upheavals which have led to the abandonment of the countryside in favor of
way
the
cities,
affected the behavior of opinion-forming
and
finally the
To
economic system
which culture has
in
elites in
urban centers,
itself.
the tragedies of urbanization and the beauties of
many famous
the land, Rousseau devotes Heloise,
which remains
on
life
pages in the Nonvelle
his classic treatment of that problem.
The movement away from
33
the land he sees as a complex process
deriving from the pressures of public opinion, of a literature
which has been holding up political
system favoring
numbers congregate territory a desert.
conformism
in
and
few
a
Thus Europe
Worse even than
contempt country
to
cities
life
and
leaving the rest of the
cities,
rushes toward
its
ruin.
34
the resulting population imbalance
in thought created
of a
Thus huge
centralization.
by urban
life,
where
a
is
the
few men
think while the majority ape them, where coteries fight one another, each protecting
one
is
own privileges and common good. 35
interests,
its
concerned with the
and no
This analysis flows from Rousseau's extraordinary bias in favor
The
of a life close to nature. cultivate land to those
and
live
on
natural condition of
its fruits.
Every
effort
arrangements that will keep the
man
is
must be devoted
maximum number
people happily and properly exploiting the
to
soil.
Land
is
of
an
economic resource that provides a never-exhausted source of 33
Cf. especially, on mountains,
particular problems of Paris, sufficient
community
II,
I,
on urban life, culture, and the on the structure of a selfon authority and equality in a
xxiii;
xiv-xxvii;
at Clarens, IV, x;
peasant democracy after Rousseau's heart, V, 34
Noavelle Heloise, O.C.
II,
20.
35
vii.
Ibid.,
234. [247]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU human
sustenance, of security and of peace, of continuity and
enjoyment
This happy picture cal
man.
in the life of
36
clouded by the corruption of the
is
politi-
system in an advanced civilization, where the rich exploit the
"One nearly regrets to be a man, thinking of those 3T whose blood we drink. It is a system that leads the rich to peasants:
abandon the country because in luxury in the cities,
poor
and
of the greater
the same time drives the harassed
at
send their children to the
to
escape the curse of their father.
is
be relieved of the
may
that the children
3S
absurd a system which makes
form of
to
cities
The hope
expense of maintaining them.
How
chance of indulging
impossible for the best
it
But where things go
social activity to survive.
sight of a well-cultivated land with free workers
exciting that "one forgets one's century
well, the
on
it
is
so
and one's contemporar-
39
ies."
The corrupting
forces of the times
the culture they provided. For
tempt; he
knew
that
The
He
of the
was paid back with
summed up
lost
The
in the
that
come from an appreciation
men
of letters
fulfill
who
go far
to seek in their
around them. There
is
books duties they
a philosopher
who
loves
Ibid., 551. Ibid.,
603. See also at 515-6 for the consequences of a free or
tyrannical government on agriculture. 38
of
touch with the real people around them: "Stay clear of
those cosmopolites
36
40
to accept the rule of reason to the exclusion
wisdom and happiness
refuse to
37
be sur-
quarrel had, of course, been a long and tiresome one.
by Rousseau
and
a total rejection of his ideas.
the emotions of the heart. In their cold rationalism
had
of letters
really could not
accusations were sweeping and could be refusal
men
what he was doing was "trampling under
foot the opinions of his century."
prised that he
were the
them Rousseau had only con-
Ibid.,
[248]
534-5.
39
Ibid.,
603.
40
Reveries, O.C.
I,
1020.
AFTER 1756 the Tartars so that he does not have to love his neighbors."
What toms
the culture of our time has forgotten
differ
and the imposition
source of corruption, for
is
life is a
impossible that habits be the same
it is
under different conditions.
for people living
that national cus-
uniform standards of
of
41
42
The literary men themselves are corrupt and venal to the They are responsible for doctrines which, "while flattering
bone.
the happy and the wealthy, crush the unfortunate and the poor,
removing from the former the latter
all
seau, apart
powerful,
The
hope and consolation. "
from
44
is
literary
checks, fear and restraints, from
all
men, Rousseau
says,
The
"human
reason
since each century adds
its
preceding centuries." Rousseau believes, how-
"human understanding
gains at the other,
replace."
pretend that
itself,
has always the same measure, a
very narrow one at that, and that
it
loses at
one end
all
that
it
and that prejudices forever reborn take away
acquired
us
charge of Rous-
his dislike of a literary class at the service of the
lights to those of
from
The main
expressed in a letter to Mirabeau written in 1767.
goes on forever perfecting
ever, that
43
lights
which
cultivated
reason
cannot
45
ultimate contradiction
lies
in the fact that these philoso-
phers, seeming to believe in the perfectibility of tireless in
showing contempt
for
human
man, were
nature, which, accord-
ing to them, was bad in the beginning and had become better
only under their tutelage.
The
philosophy of the Paris salons
thus a humiliating and sad one, which downgrades the 41
is
common
Emile, 9.
42
Letter to the Marechal de Luxembourg, 20 January 1763, C.G. IX, Here Rousseau uses corruption to mean a change brought about by an alien culture. By definition such a change must be bad. 43 Dialogues, O.C. I, 842. 44 "I sell the work of my hands, but the productions of my soul are not
7.
for sale at all" (ibid., 840). 45
Letter to Mirabeau, 26 July 1767, C.G. XVII, 156.
[249]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU man, who apparently needs nothing more than
to
wisdom, and in
a benevolent
political matters
must be guided by
absorb
its
despot.
These philosophers furthermore have become nipulating public opinion in such a
They apply
interests.
way
a "consequential
as
to
benefit their
and methodic
the task. Ever since the philosophical set organized
body
its
spirit" to itself in
46
state/'
In conclusion, as Rousseau points out in one of his
last writ-
why he
has been
ings, the third
walk of the Reveries, the reason
forced to reject the philosophy and the culture of his time its
a
leaders have been the arbiters of "the destiny of individ-
and hence of that of the
uals,
ma-
skillful in
representatives are providers of a certain morality
that
is
which Rous-
seau cannot accept: "This rootless and fruitless morality which they pompously display in books or in showy theater pieces
without ever reaching either the heart or reason; or else other morality, secret and cruel, the internal doctrine of
members,
which the other
to
serves only as a
alone they follow in their conduct." utility
and
of private pleasure
had
would lead
the
first
fall
of the society of
felt
guide.
The
but
unable
is
first
at
and
47
These
gain,
their
mask and which
are the moralities of
which Rousseau from
an accelerated pace
men who had
all
this
to the
accepted them as
its
down-
main
parades under the appearance of social concern,
to provide for the
46
Dialogues, O.C.
47
Reveries, O.C.
I,
common good
through the
965.
comment on this passage is: "Rousseau distinguishes here the morality which the philosophers of his time admit, which is roughly that of social utility if he judges it to be I,
1022. Jean Fabre's
—
'rootless' it is
to
be
because
'fruitless' it is
partner,
it
is
it
because addressing
profitable in all
[250]
QO.C.
itself
if
he judges
I,
it
only to the interest of the
—
and the which they do not admit, according to which it is things to seek one's pleasure and to follow one's inclina-
incapable of creating a real moral sentiment
'internal doctrine'
tions"
can only be the result of reflexion,
1786).
AFTER I756 reconciliation of individual goods; the second authorizes in effect
the most extreme license in the pursuit and attainment of private profit, regardless of
consequences.
This was a culture not only linked but also enslaved
economic system in which it
was therefore supporting
as the necessary
community. Rousseau was convinced that
foundation of the
all this
was wrong and end of the
that a catastrophe such as that described at the
Discourse on Inequality was
"more favorable ity
had nothing
to to
an
to
found large advantages and which
it
inevitable
wealth than
if
men
to prosperity."
continued
48
be
to
Clearly prosper-
do with the accumulation of wealth. Through
culture Rousseau comes back to the economic system.
In the second part of the Nouvelle Heloise, Julie little
we know
tells
us
how
about the economic system and speaks of the
hidden forces that make
go. It
it
is
baffling to all in Paris that,
together with such great wealth, there exists a poverty deeper
than in the countryside where there are no millionaires. She considers this question well worthy of research by Saint-Preux. will probably
be better
to unravel the history of
economic
It
life "in
the garrets of the poor." There, rather than in the mansions of the Faubourg St. iniquities the
Germain "one
bread fiom the oppressed,
But
if
evil
are good.
whom
what
its
consequences are
wealth creates, even
Going back
to
last
when
clear.
The
still
first
the intentions of the
what he had
to
black 49
hidden is
the
owner
said in the Discourse
Wealth, Rousseau reminds us that not only can the rich
buy
secret
they feign to pity in public."
the workings of the economic system are
from public view, moral
finds out through
powerful and the rich take away the
man
on not
pleasure through money, but that whatever good he will try
do could better be done
if
his
wealth had earlier been divided
rather than allowed to accumulate in his hands 48
Considerations, O.C.
49
Nouvelle Heloise, O.C.
Ill,
and that "the
1004.
II,
303.
U51]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU good which he believes matches the »
•.
acquire
to
be able
to
rarely
50
evil,
will create.
The
there
the present continuing evil of
is
which an unbalanced
repressed civil war,
who had
with Helvetius,
and peace.
unjust actions.
52
interest,
hence no
there are "people Is it
buy, the other to
sell itself,
that one
Through them always its
can a proper
in opulence
political
and people
must seek love of
justice
the state disintegrates:
to
and
the rich
pocket, the poor prefers bread to liberty/'
Indeed, political power can be distinguished in reference to the uses of wealth: "Civil power
two ways: one legitimate through wealth."
the state
between these two extremes, one made
the most abject.
holds the law in
How
swimming
just or
of deepening
classes, so that the idea of
and of the community degenerates. if
Rousseau disagrees
The present economic system is one
antagonisms between two
order exist
51
suggested that without personal inter-
would have been no general
est there
distribution of wealth
and create tensions which
rich attract enemies
are the opposite of social order
And
it
guilty in order to
it.
Apart from past
laws?
accomplish through
which one must be
real evil of
authority,
is
its
exercise
53
by
carried out in
one abusive through
54
formal equality
is
nothing in
states
where wealth can
exert such abusive authority. For equality becomes a
mere sem-
blance and illusion: "It serves only to keep the poor in his poverty and the rich in his usurpation. In reality laws are always useful to those
nothing.
Hence
who own and damaging it
50
Dialogues, O.C.
52
P.
raire 53
54
to
follows that the social state
I,
671.
M. Masson, "Rousseau
51
Ibid.,
those is
who have
convenient to
921.
contre Helvetius,"
Revue
d'histoire litte-
France (1911), 112. Lettres ecrites de la montagne (1764), O.C. Ill, 890. Projet de constitution four la Corse (1765), O.C. Ill, 939.
[252]
de
la
AFTER 1756 men
only to the extent that they
has too much/'
the economic problem becomes a major political prob-
Thus lem.
have something and no one
all
55
impossible to separate political power from economic
It is
power, and those having excessive economic power will always try to acquire excessive political
There
is
power.
also the issue of the
deprived of liberty and decency:
abuse of
men
"Man
a being too noble to be
is
used
at all
em-
convenient to others without consulting
him
simply used as an instrument of others, and one cannot ploy
him
also for jobs,
for
what
what
is
convenient to himself; for
is
but jobs are made for men, and
one must not so
much
seek the
adapted, but rather that which to
and
as tools
make him good and happy
men
which man
to
most adapted
is
made
for
to distribute things suitably,
employment
as
are not
much
to
is
most
each man, so
as possible."
as
56
In a variant of this passage of capital importance, Rousseau expresses even
more vigorously
words which once more "It
would be
better to
and
all citizens
bruited about,
when we
to
ill-regulated,
and
miserable and bad. This order which is
all citizens
have a well-regulated society
often only apparent and in effect
sacrifice the reality of things as
countries."
is
we
so
much
destroy
it
one does in most
57
present system then goes against fundamental aspira-
If the
tions of
man-centered ideal he writes:
have society
happy and honest, rather than
In
this antiefficiency position.
stress his
man, and
ties
him
rather to a set of rules
which
in the
end deny him both freedom and happiness, what can be done about
it?
In Rousseau's
mind
there
is
no tendency
to wait for
doomsday, even though that will inevitably come, given a signed acceptance of the present. For Rousseau 55
Contrat social (1762), O.C.
56
Nouvelle
Helo'ise,
O.C.
II,
Ill,
536.
it is
re-
possible to
367. 57
Ibid.,
1657. [253]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU look for ways of improving the present.
They seem
achievement of a better balance between what
what
is
and between
public,
man; and
is
and country;
city
to
be the
and
private
a better use of
and
a decision to fix limits to the power, the wealth,
the economic development of the community.
He
has not forgotten Bodin.
The
large as possible to give a sense of
which
possesses
community
to the
country
In drafting his project of a constitution for
it.
Corsica, he recognizes the gap
between the
from wishing the
ble. Abstractly, "far
like
public domain should be as
on the contrary that
it
should
ideal
state to
own
and the
possi-
be poor, he would
everything," and while
not wanting to destroy entirely private property, because this
would want
impossible, he limits, to give it,
a
it
to subjugate
and
it,
as strong
possible."
58
and
keep
to
word
I
it
want
Rousseau knows there
all this is
it,
to direct
always subordinated to the
that state property be as great
and
that of the citizen as small
In practice,
is
within the most narrow
it
measure, a rule, a check, to contain
public good. In one
and
"to confine
is
as
weak
as
not easy to bring about, but
in Corsica a great deal of excellent
uncultivated land and that a plan of both private and public
development of these lands could be undertaken. In Poland the
same view
is
true. It
tempting from a purely economic point of
is
to suggest that all royal
lands be sold: "But the moral and
political object of such a project starosties
were
establish a
to
fund
would
be
sold, I
for
wages and benefits
their country or will
The example
so little to
is
like to see
for those
with the population more or
[254]
O.C.
the
who
to
will serve
;
of Switzerland in distributing industrial activity is
one that Rousseau finds most
beneficial in political terms. Switzerland
Projet,
taste, that if
them bought back
have well deserved of her."
evenly through the country
58
my
Ill,
931.
59
less
is
almost one large city
evenly distributed, and
Considerations, O.C.
Ill,
1009.
it
is
AFTER 1756 possible to find "manufacturing establishments in precipices factories over
and
mountain streams." This curious mixture of nature
art possesses for
of living,
By
and
Rousseau
which breathes
if
do not know what of animation, G0
and well-being."
on man than on money Rousseau means
greater reliance
the abolition,
"I
liberty
possible, of
wage
labor
and the
transfer of the
responsibility for doing
what
the community. This
the equivalent of a system of corvees in a
free society,
mon
The
work.
is
an attempt
has' to
be done on the shoulders of
common
develop the
to
practice should extend
But most important of
from military service
away with mercenaries
public works, and thus do
idea that, to achieve
wealth by com-
all is
what he
of
to
kinds.
all
61
Rousseau's effort to express the
calls "prosperity," limits
must be
placed on the accumulation of wealth, on economic development
and
progress,
and on the national power of
states.
his project of a constitution for Corsica, the idea
expressed, because Rousseau stration of his views. It
had the
was not
most clearly
easiest case for the
demon-
difficult to say that a small, iso-
lated,
undeveloped island should limit
goals,
and
try to
Throughout
is
ambitions,
its
maintain the peace by keeping
fix
to itself.
modest
And
in
the ideal republic of Clarens of the Nouvelle Helo'ise, the idea
had already been put forth of the superiority of
which did not seek
its
a system of life
fulfillment in a constant increase in the
production of goods. Peace comes from the knowledge that in the future
man
realized
will
have what he has today. This ideal can be best
by the application of man's labor
fruit of past labor supports the present
of present labor announces the
the same time
to the land.
"Here the
abundance, and the
abundance
to
fruit
come; one enjoys
at
what one spends and what one reaps and the
different times are united to strengthen the security of the pres60
Letter to the Marechal de
Luxembourg, 20 January 1763, C.G. IX,
7-8. 61
Projet,
O.C.
Ill,
932; Considerations, O.C.
Ill,
1006.
U 55
]
THE EARLY ROUSSEAU ent."
218; obstacles
219-21; and Saint Pierre, 216, 219-20; as a source of wars, 216-7, 221-2; and a united Europe, 220—1 to its elimination,
Academy
of Dijon, 29, 49, 74, 84,
1
14
and freedom, 263-4; praised, 7, 15, 40-1; and Rousseau, 157-8, 241-2 Adam, Antoine: "Rousseau et Diderot" (Revue des Sciences humaines, 1949), 49, 50; "De quelques Sources de Rousseau dans la litterature philosophique (1700— 1750)," in Jean-Jacques Rousseau et
Active
life:
son oeuvre (Paris, 1964), 35
and Europeans, 99-100 i ts development 128—9; nature, 126-7, 128—30; and human
Africa, 118, 214; gallows for both natives
Agriculture:
its
and end of
consequences, 128-30, 133-5; original state of
happiness, 247-8; and industry, 147-8, 247-8, 255, 256
Alembert,
d':
on Geneva, 32; and
guerrilla warfare,
music, 41-2; on moral decadence,
44;
and
Italian
87-8; and progress, 44; and
Rousseau, 42-3, 11 6-7; on transformations of mankind, 43-4 Elements de philosophic, in Melanges de litterature, d'histoire et de philosophic (Amsterdam, 1759), 42-4 "Discours preliminaire des editeurs," in Encyclopedic (Paris, 1751), 42, 87-8 Encyclopedic, ou Dictionnaire raisonne des sciences, des arts et des
metiers (Paris, 1751-), 32, 39, 41-2, 87-8, 167
[279]
INDEX Alembert,
d' (cont.^)
Jugement sur Emile, in Oeuvres posthumes (Paris, 1799), 44 Jugement sur la Nouvelle Heloise, in Oeuvres posthumes
(Paris,
1799), 44 Amiel, Henri Frederic:
"Caracteristique generale de Rousseau," Jean-
Jacques Rousseau juge par
les
genevois d'aujourd'hui
(Geneve,
1878), 2-3, 55-6 Antiquity: institutions, 10 1-2; morals, 90-1 Arts and sciences, 70, 78, 82-4, 107, 108, 178-9
Athens, 81, 116 Baczko, Bronislaw: "Rousseau et Falienation sociale" (Annates,
1962), 12-13, J 4> 21-2 "Barbarus hie ego sum"; in 1742, 69; in 1750, 74 Berkeley, George, 75-6 Besse,
Guy: "Marx, Engels
Voltaire, 1963),
et le
XVIIP
ff.;
in 1772,
siecle francais"
1959-
238
(Studies on
273
Besterman, Theodore, 10 Bodin, 28, 192-3, 254 Bonnet, Charles, 153 Bordes, Charles, 63, 71, 236; replies to Rousseau in:
"Discours sur les avantages des sciences et des arts" (Js/lercure de France, 1751), 85 Second Discours sur les avantages des sciences diverses (Lyon, 1783), 110-1 Bouchardy, Francois, 1-2, 104, 224-5 Buffon, 46, 1 16-7
47-8 La Philosophic de V existence de 1952), 6, 11, 14, 17-18, 22, 272 Burke, Edmund, 3, 20
et des arts, in
Oeuvres
Histoire naturelle (Paris, 1749—),
Burgelin, Pierre:
J. -J.
Rousseau
(Paris,
Candaux, Jean-Daniel, 1-2, 27, 259-60, 266 Cassirer, Ernst: The Philosophy of the Enlightenment (Princeton, 1951),
43-4 Chablais, 31
"Chain of being" and Rousseau in 1742, 68 Les Charmettes, 26-7, 61 Citizen: duties, 82-3; education, 97,
108; ideal, 97-9; rights, 98—100,
189-90 Clarens, 255 Claville: Le Traite
[280]
du
vrai merite de
Vhomme
(Paris, 1734),
58
INDEX Collectivism, 17-18, 254-5, 2 57~8
Condillac, Etienne Bonnot de, 55, 72; on origins of languages, 47; praised
by Rousseau,
1 1
6-7
Essai sur I'origine des connaissances
humaines (Amsterdam, 1746),
46-7 Condorcet, 149-50 Corsica, public
and private property
in,
254-5
"Deux
Collaborateurs economiques de FEncyclopedie: Rousseau" (La Pensee, 1951), 59 Derathe, Robert, 1-2, 3, 167-8, 170, 17 1-2, 174-5, l 7%> l 9 2 22 9> 2 ^6 "L'Homme selon Rousseau," in Etudes sur le Contrat Social (Dijon,
Denis,
Henri:
Quesnay
et
>
1964), 13-14
Grimm and Voltaire, 39, 54-5; defense of his acceptance of society, 51; his determinism, 52; on general will, 172-
Diderot: criticism of
and Linguet contrasted with Rousseau, 53-5; praised 16-7, 236-7; and Rousseau, 48-5 Apologie de V Abbe de Prades (Amsterdam, 1752), 50 Correspondance, Roth ed. (Paris, 1955- ), 52 "Droit naturel," in Encyclopedic (Paris, 1755), 50, 172—4 Lettre apologetique, Dieckmann ed., (Geneva, 1951), 39, 54-5 Lettre sur les aveugles (London, 1749), 55 80; Helvetius
by Rousseau,
un
Pages contre Refutation
1
tyran, (Paris, 1937), 54
suivie
de
Vouvrage
d'Helvetius
intitule
Oeuvres philosophiques (Paris, 1956), 53-4 Supplement au Voyage de Bougainville, Dieckmann 1955), 5i Dieckmann, Herbert: Inventaire du fonds Vandeid
I'Homme, ed.
et inedits
in
(Geneva, de Diderot
(Geneva, 195O, 39. 54 Duclos, Charles Pinot,
Dufour, Theophile (Paris,
1
1 1
6-7
L., 235; ed., J. -J.
924-1 934), 28; "Pages
Rousseau, Correspondance generate inedites de
J. -J.
Rosseau" QAnnales,
1905), 64
Dupin, Mme., 28-9 Dutot: Reflexions politiques sur
les
finances et le
commerce (The Hague,
1738), 57-8
Economic system: growing complexity of, 21, 93-5, 129-30, 133-6, 143-4, 2 435 influence on human affairs, 13, 17, 19—24, 81-2, 93-5, 130-2, 134-5, 137-9, 143-50, 175-6, 195-7, 2H, 213-5, 221-2, 247-8, 250-4, 272-3; and possibility for change, 21-3, 83, 11 1—3, 190-7 232-3, 253-5; an d welfare, 229-32, 246, 255-7 [28.]
INDEX Education: criticisms 66;
liere,
of,
82-3, 108; history as
66-7; and Mo-
core,
its
recommendations
principles, 64-6;
its
for,
66-7
Engels, Friedrich, on Rousseau and Hegel in Anti-Diihring,
Enlightenment, Rousseau's criticism
275-6
41, 55—60, 75—8, 84—8, 91—2,
of,
97-8, 101, 102-3, 105-11, 229-31, 236-7, 239-40, 248-51
Mme.
Epinay,
Memoires
d',
et
Histoire de
3
Madame
correspondance de
Madame
d'Epinay (Paris, 181 8), 50-1
de Montbrillant (Paris, 195 1), 50-1
Ermitage, 29
European union: and absolutism, 215-7, 220-1;
basis,
222-3; functions, 220-1; past history, 216-7, 219 Evolution of mankind, 7-8, 14, 93-5, 102, 11 5-8,
214; conditions,
130-7,
139-44,
175-7,243 Fabre, Jean, 1-2, 243, 250,
"Deux
267—8
Freres ennemis, Diderot et Jean-Jacques," in Diderot Studies,
III
(Geneva, 1961) 50-1, 53-5
"Realite et Utopie dans la pensee politique de nales,
1
959-1 962),
J. -J.
Rousseau" (An-
19—21, 35
6, 18,
Fenelon, 58, 64, 81 Plan de gouvernement (171 1), in Oeuvres (Paris, 1824), 58 Fetscher, Iring:
"Rousseau's Concept of Freedom in the Light of his
Philosophy of History,"
Nomos
IV,
Friedrich,
ed.
(New
York,
1962), 22; Rousseaus Politische Philosophie (Neuwied, i960), 20, 22, 59,
8,
224
Filmer, Robert: Patriarcha (London, 1680), 169
Freedom:
its
abuse, 261;
18; loss of,
Freedom
its
conditions, 10, 260-4, 268-9; denned,
17-
140-2; reservations about, 70
of choice, 52, 153-5, 246, 256-7,
French Revolution,
3,
277-8
155
Freron, Elie-Catherine, 85
Gagnebin, Bernard, 1-2, 19, 28-9, 32, 45-6, 103, 104, 224, 235 "Verite et veracite dans les Confessions," in Jean-Jacques Rousseau
et
son oeuvre (Paris, 1964), 4 Gautier, Joseph, 85
Gay, Peter:
The
Party of
Humanity (New York, 1964),
3
and Diderot, 172-9; and government, 183-5; now t0 £ nd it, 160, 182—4; as an ideal, 6; and law, 160-1, 182-3, 264-5; its source, 178-9; and subordinate societies, 179-82
General
will:
defined, 6,
Geneva: advice [282]
to,
266-7;
179;
arts
m
>
7°5
i fs
influence, 26, 30-3, 155,
157-
INDEX Geneva 8;
(cont.~)
and luxury, 148;
its
magistrates, 70; political quietism in, 260-1;
as a standard, 62, 89, 266;
and
Voltaire, 33
—Triumph
Giraud, Raymond: "Rousseau's Happiness
French Studies, 1961-1962), 10, 12 Golden age: and childhood, 11; existence
of,
or
Tragedy" (Yale
93, 94, 176-7; festivals in,
129; and happiness, 130, 243
Gospel, 89-90, 205 Gossman, Lionel: "Time and History in Rousseau" (Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, 1964), 10, 11, 14-15, 127 Gouhier, Henri: "Nature et histoire dans la pensee de Rousseau" (Annales, 1953-1955), 24 Government: in a democracy, 163-5; and Hobbes, 120-1; and Locke, 139-40, 142; its origins, 139-44; and Voltaire, 165-6
Grimm, Frederic-Melchior: criticism of Rousseau, 45-6; Diderot and, 54-5; parliament and music, 41-2; and preface to Narcisse, 45, 105; and the state of nature, 44-5 Correspondance litteraire, yhilosoyhique et critique, Tourneux ed. (Paris, 1877), 41-2, 45-6, 58-9 Groethuysen, Bernard: /.-/. Rousseau (Paris, 1949), 17 Grosclaude, Pierre: /.-/. Rousseau a Lyon (Paris, 1933), 67-8
Grotius, Hugo, 28, 170 Guehenno, Jean: ]ean-]acques: En Marge des Confessions 1712—1750 (Paris, 1948), 49 Guillemin, Henri: address in 55;
J. -J.
Rousseau
"Les Affaires de TErmitage"
et
son oeuvre (Paris, 1964),
(Annates,
1
941-1942),
50-1;
Un Homme,
deux ombres (Geneva, 1943), 50-1 Guyon, Bernard, 1-2, 52-3 Guyot, Charly, 1-2 Happiness: and Pope, 68-9, 71; its requirements, 10 1-2, 232; for Rousseau, 240-2; and wealth, 230-3
Havens, George Remington: Voltaire's Marginalia on the Pages of Rousseau (Columbus, 1933), 37-8 Helvetius, 46, 55; criticized by Rousseau, 52-3, 252; and Diderot, 53-4;
and Mandeville, 56-7; and Montesquieu, 34
De VEsprit (Paris, 1758), 52-3, 57 De V Homme (London, 1773), 53 Hendel, Charles William: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Moralist (London, 1934), 167-8
Henry
IV, 216
History:
and
its
control,
23-4,
153-5, 2 45> 2 &4, 267-8; as a cycle, [283]
INDEX History (cont.^)
274-5; dialectical interpretation
of,
271-4; Father
Lamy and
Fene-
lon on, 63—4; learning from, 64; and nature, 24—5
Hobbes,
7,
206; on despotism, 56, 208-9; and Diderot, 49-50; general 109; on government, 120-1; utilitarianism, 56;
criticism of, 75-6,
views on original
man and
war, 119—20, 176, 208—10, 212
Floffman, Stanley: "Rousseau on
War
and Peace" (American
Political
Science Review, 1963), 18-19
Holbach, 46, 52-3, 55, 75-6; Holbachian conspiracy, 46, 50 Systeme de la nature (London, 1770), 46 Hubert, Rene: Rousseau
et
VEncyclopedie (Paris, 1928), 50, 167-8,
172
Hume:
Discours politiques (Paris, 1754), 50, 230
Ignorance, 91—2 Industrialization,
148-50; see also Agriculture and Progress
Inequality: evolution of, 133-6, 142; natural, 93-5, 121, 126, 134-5,
144—5; utilitarianism and, 144—5; an d wealth, 95, 274 and change, 135, 153; denounced, 27, 102, 273
Institutions:
Rousseau Suisse (Fribourg, 1961), 30 "Essai sur la politique de Rousseau," Contrat Social (Geneva, 1947), 13, 23; "Rousseau the Pessimistic Evolu-
Jost, Francois: J. -J.
Jouvenel, Bertrand de:
tionist"
(Yale French Studies,
1
961-1962), 7-8,
17, 18, 20, 22, 55
Kant, 3 Kateb, George:
"Aspects of Rousseau's Political Thought"
Science Quarterly, 1961), 19—20; Utopia and
its
(Political
Enemies
(New
York, 1963), 9 Krafft, O.: "Les Classes sociales a Geneve et la notion de citoyen," in
]ean-]acques Rousseau et son oeuvre (Paris, 1964), 32
La Bruyere, 36 LaMettrie, 55, 75-6 Labriole-Rutherford,
M.R.
de: "L'Evolution de la notion
du luxe depuis
Revolution" (Studies on Voltaire, 1963), 59 Lamv, Bernard: Entretiens sur les sciences (Bruxelles, 1684), 63—4
Mandeville jusqu'a
la
Language, 127, 131
Launay, Michel: "Les Problemes politiques dans la correspondance de Rousseau," in ]ean-]acques Rousseau et son oeuvre (Paris, 1964), 272; "La Societe francaise d'apres la correspondance de Rousseau," Annales historiques de la Revolution frangaise (1962), 39 [284]
INDEX Laws: and happiness, 101-2; and see also General will
legislative procedure,
16 1-3, 266-7;
Lecat, Claude-Nicolas, 85
Leigh, R. A.: ed., Correspondance complete de Jean-Jacques Rousseau
(Geneva, 1965-
),
"Rousseau's Letter to Voltaire on Optimism"
(Studies on Voltaire, 1964), 201-2, 204-7 Levi- Strauss, Claude: Tristes Tropiques (Paris, 1955), 4-5, 8, 22
Linguet, 54-5
Lisbon earthquake, 40-1, 201-4 Locke, 48; on money, 146; his natural law discounted, 174—5; on property,
139-40, 142, 197-200 "The Supposed Primitivism of Rousseau's Discourse
Lovejoy, Arthur:
on Inequality" (1923), in Essays in the History of Ideas more, 1948), 5 Luxury: and downfall of
states,
eenth-century debates, 57
81-2;
ff.,
its
effects, 95,
in history, 96,
(Balti-
147-8; in eight-
230; suppression
of,
95-6 Lyon, 27, 69, 71, 72
Mably, Gabriel Bonnot Parallele des
de, 18,
Romains
MacDonald, Frederika:
et des J. J.
46 Francais (Paris, 1740),
Rousseau, a
New
67-8
Criticism (London, 1906),
50-1
Man:
40-1, 108-9; as master of his
duties,
256-7; his worth, 17, 253 Savage man: and civilized man,
5,
fate, 3, 14,
24—5, 52, 153-5,
47-8, 112, 124, 135-6; erroneous
views about, 99, 213-4, 227-8; and natural man, 123, 124, 130
5,
93,
99,
Natural man: his characteristics, 12 1-4, 243; his conflicts, 125; his freedom, 124-5; an d Hobbes, 119-20; misunderstanding of, 92-3, 120-2; and progress, 125 Civilized
man: being and appearing and, 11-14,
27,
59-60, 72,
78-9, 82, 90-2, no— 1, 138-9, 245-6, 273; his daily life, 137, 204; judged according to wealth, 80-1, 145; his morality, 250-1;
and natural man, 137-8; his social ties, 109-11, 136-8, 146—7 and 18th century writers, 249-50; his happiness, 205; and political action, 165; and the rich man, 143-4
Common man:
Mandeville, Bernard de: acknowledges pity, 122; criticized, 58, 75-6, 109; on mercantilism and private interest, 56—7 Fable of the Bees (London,
1
7 1 4), 56
A Letter to
Dion (London, 1732), 57 Marx, 197, 275-7 [285]
INDEX Marxism and Rousseau, 273-8 Masson, Pierre Maurice: "Questions de chronologie rousseauiste" (Annates, 191 3), 127; La Religion de J. -J. Rousseau (Paris, 191 6), 71; "Rousseau contre Helvetius"
(Revue
d'histoire litteraire de la
France, 191 1), 252
Maupertuis, Pierre-Louis Moreau de, 55-6
Melon, Jean Francois, 37, 57-8, 81, 87, 96, 230 Essai 'politique sur le commerce (Paris, 1734), 57 Middle class: and complacency, 260-2; enlargement, 194—5, 260; in Geneva, 259-61; and law, 190-1; as a standard, 22; and Voltaire, 38 Mill, John Stuart: Autobiography (London, 1873), 257—9 Moliere, 66, 92
Montaigne,
1-12, 36, 54, 68
1
Montesquieu,
49,
7,
natural man,
1 1
105; praised by Rousseau,
81,
116-7,
192; on
8-9; and Rousseau, 34-6
Esprit des Lois (1748), 34, 36, 119
Montmorency,
vii,
33
Morality: of the ancients, 90; of civilized man, 250-1; and customs, 109; and political
life,
96-7
Moraze, Charles: La France bourgeoise (Paris, 1952), 39, 60 Morel, Jean: "Recherches sur les Sources du Discours de Vinegalite" (Annates, 1909), 47 Morelly, 55-6, 58-9
Munteano, Basil: "Les 'Contradictions' de etsonoeuvre (Paris, 1964), 16 Nation: and tors, 19,
its
J. -J.
Rousseau," in Rousseau
customs, 99, 109; described, 18, 117; and external fac-
107
Natural law: content, 122-3: kinds
Nature: and Naville,
art,
of, 174-5; violation of, I 3^) 27-8; benefits of 242-3; and progress, 132-3
Pierre:
siecle (Paris,
Nicolas, Jean:
ques de
la
,
D'Holbach
et
la
philosophic scientifique au XVIII
6
1943), 46
"Une
Lettre inedite de
J. -J.
Rousseau," Annates
histori-
Revolution frangaise (1962), 68-9
Osmont, Robert, 1-2 Paris, 4,
26-7, 28, 29, 220, 236, 249-50
69-70, 236 and agriculture 255-6; appearance of, 21 1-2; and economic policies, 18-19; obstacles to, 221-2, 252; sentiments maintaining
Parisot, Gabriel,
Peace:
a token, 213; see also
[286]
War
INDEX 101-2
Pericles,
Petty, William, 81
Physiocrats, 59 Poland: and land distribution, 254; political choices open serfdom and education, 269; its survival, 18
to,
256-7;
Politics: primacy of, 8-9, 21-3, 88-9, 153-5, 200-1, 277-8 Pope, Alexander: on "chain of being," 68, 201; on happiness, 68-9, 71;
and
Voltaire,
Essay on
Man
201-2
(London,
1
732-1734), 68-9, 201-2
Poverty: exalted by rich, 63; and
Prevost,
human
and Rous-
character, 227-8;
85-6
seau, 28-30, 63,
Abbe Antoine-Francois:
Histoire de
M.
Cleveland (Paris, 1731),
62 Progress: basis,
13 1-2,
133; and behavioral changes,
136; beginnings,
133-4; as cause of dependence and inequality, 133-7, 145, 274; and daily life, 135-6, 137; as a dialectical process, 10, 93-5, 273—4; effect
upon
family, 246;
government and, 163—4;
inevitability
new
chance, 132-3; as a linear progression, 10, 44; 255-6; its presence, 74-5, 132
and
premises
for,
Property: and agriculture, 128-30; as basis of government, 139-41, 170;
man, 19-20, 274; conditions end of original state of nature,
as central factor in the evolution of
for
its
recognition,
126-7, I2 9~3°>
I
43
169; and the
_ 45 Locke's views
on, 139-40, 142; as a source
of inequality, 136, 140-1, 142; in a well organized state,
197—201,
254; and Voltaire, 37—40 Proust, Jacques: Diderot et VEncyclovedie (Paris,
"Le Premier des pauvres, taire"
(Europe,
essai sur les Reveries
1962), 41, 49, 53;
du promeneur
soli-
961), 7 Providence: and Rousseau, 201-6; and Voltaire, 201-3 1
Public domain: and Bodin, 192-3; importance
of,
193, 254
Pufendorf, 45
Quesnay, Francois, 59
Raymond, Marcel, 1-2, 28-9, 45-6, 103, 104, 235, 241-2 /.-/. Rousseau et son oeuvre (Paris, 1964), 9-10, 16 "La Reverie selon Rousseau et son conditionnement historique," Rous-
Address in
seau et son oeuvre,
1
Raynal, 85 Religion: decadence of, 91; civic profession of faith, 201
ff.;
freedom
of,
205-6 [287]
INDEX Revolution:
to
270-1;
112— 3, 222; and Engels, 276; and its inevitability, 23, 105, 232-3,
be avoided, 23—4,
freedom, 262-3;
goals,
i ts
272;
274-5
justification for,
Romilly, Jean, 39 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques:
62-3
Letter to Isaac Rousseau (1735),
Bonac (1736), 63
Letter to
Le Verger de Madame de Warens (1737): criticism of Voltaire, 36; favorable to La Bruyere and Montaigne, 36; significance of Geneva, 30; state of mind when written, 61; willing to face poverty, 63 Chronologie universelle, ou histoire generate des temps (1737): on
wealth, 64
M.
Projet pour Veducation de
de Sainte-Marie (1740), 64, 82-3;
and Mably, 67 740) on common
66
Letter to d'Eybens (spring,
1
Epitre a Bordes ( 1 74 1
30, 71; degradation of poverty, 63
), vi,
:
Letter to de Conzie (1742),
vi;
sense,
agreement with Pope on happiness,
68-9; challenges Montaigne and Pope on "chain of being," 68; disassociates himself from the Enlightenment, 69 Epitre a Parisot (1742), in,
70-71;
vi,
32;
on happiness, 71; pessimistic thoughts
Geneva, 30, 32, 69-70 presente a M. de Ste Marie pour Veducation de
talks of
Fragment du memoir e
son pis (1743): and
first Discourse, 64-65 musique moderne (1743), 74 Depeches de Venise (1 743-1 744), 27 Les Muses galantes (1743-1745), 71 Les Petes de Ramire (1745), 71 Letter to Roguin (1745), 28 Letter to Voltaire (1745), 36 L'Allee de Sylvie (1746): being and appearing, 72 Le Persiffleur (1747), 72-73
Dissertation sur la
Letter to l'Etang (1749): criticism of Paris, 28
Discours sur
les sciences et les arts
138, 155, 235; aftermath of
(1 749-1 750), v, 30, 35, 69, 73, 74, its publication, 84-8, 104, 239; its
aims, 75, 155-7; being and appearing, 78—9; and Diderot, 49; and eighteenth-century writers, 75-8; and Montesquieu, 35; the
teaching of morals and sciences, 67; virtue, 79 ff. Mme. de Francueil (175 1): fate of his children, 86
Letter to
Letter to Raynal (1751),
vi; first
reply to critics of
first
Discourse, 85;
passion for wealth, 94-5
Observations de Jean-Jacques Rousseau de Geneve (1751), [288]
vi;
answer
INDEX Rousseau, Jean- Jacques Qcont.*) to king of Poland, 85; "genealogy" of
evil,
95;
and Geneva, 88-9;
rebukes a great philosopher, 86-7; religion and the sciences, 91; reverence for the Gospel, 90 Letter to
and
Grimm (1751), citizenship,
vi,
85; being
and appearing, 90-1; education
97
Derniere Refonse de Jean-Jacques Rousseau de Geneve (1752), vi; as answer to Bordes, 85; being and appearing, 91-2, 97; critical of mercenaries, 98; goodness of natural piness,
1
01-2; luxury: consequences
historical basis, 96,
230, supporters
man, 92-3; laws and hapof,
of,
95-6, refutation of its 230-1; Spartan way of
commended, 101; taking of life, 98-100 vi, 85; Geneva as the ideal standard, 89 Narcisse, preface (1752), vi; and adversaries, 84, 105-10; being and appearing, 14; and Grimm, 45; man: his duties, 108-109, and institutions, 111-12, 153, and moral corruption, 107-8; personal interest and mutual solidarity, 109-12, 215 Lettre sur la musique frangaise (1752), 239 life
Letter to Lecat (1752),
Preface d'une seconde lettre a Bordes (1753),
vi;
final
reply,
85;
general discussion of his "system/' 103—5
Discours sur I'origine et
(1753— 1754),
v,
les
fondemens de Vinegalite farmi
13, 14, 89,
les
hommes
127, 167, 196-7, 251; admiration
for d'Alembert, 42; aftermath of publication, 235, 239; agriculture vs. industry,
critized
by
149-50;
its
aims, 155-8; analyzed
by Grimm, 45-6; Geneva, 155;
Voltaire, 37-8; dedicated to Republic of
evolution of mankind, 7-8, 175; final state of nature, 131, 150-3,
274-6; golden age of Utopia, 130; government: establishment of, 139-41, 143-4, evolution of, 142-3; ideal political community, 158-64; luxury, 147-8; original man: characteristics savage
man
and, 124, study
of,
47-8,
1
of,
12 1-4,
14-8, 121; original state of
nature, 126, 129-30; present state of society, 130-1; presentation
and daily life, 137—8, and ineand nature, 132-3, and potential for perfectibility, 13 1-2, and social change, 133—5; on property, I97~8, 2 745 relationship with Condillac, 47; respect for Montesquieu, 35; role of Diderot, 49; wealth: and deception, 144, 146, and inequality, 145, 274, as source of war, 145-6 Essai sur I'origine des langues (1754): and the Discourse on Inequality, 127; the golden age, 128, 129; language: origin and development, 127, and politics, 131; origins of agriculture, 128-9 Discours sur les richesses (ca. 1 753-1 756), vi, 19, 224, 229; accumuof his "system, " 104; progress: quality, 134-7, 145, 263, 274,
lation of wealth attacked,
225-7, 251—2; character of the poor, [289]
INDEX Rousseau, Jean-Jacques Qcont^) 228; criticism of philosophers and
men
of letters, 229; recourse to
232—3
revolution,
Discours sur I'FLconomie politique (1754-1755), v, 167-8, 215, 232; family and the political community contrasted, 168-9; the general will,
167,
virtue,
and
1
7 1-2, 178-84; Montesquieu and Plato, 35; political
185-6, and defense of personal rights and 186-7; property: purposes,
patriotism,
life,
189-90,
190-1, and education, 187-9, an d
distribution of wealth,
197-8, in the well organized
state,
198-201, and taxation,
198; public domain, 192—3;
on land, 194, on luxury, 194-7 (first version, 1754— 1755), 168 ff. Letter to Philopolis (1755), vi; and Paris, 29; primacy of politics, 153-4, 201 Fragment biographique (175 5- 1756), 235; critique of adversaries, taxation:
Du
Contrat Social
236-7; praise for Diderot, 236-7 Fragments politiqu.es (mid-fifties):
De
VEtat de nature: control of
human
Histoire de Lacedemone,
De VHonneur Le Luxe,
le
arts,
178-9; institutions as cause of
depravity, 102
et
de
107—8
la vertu:
commerce
passion for wealth, 232
et les arts: luxury, 230;
wealth and public
prosperity, 231-2; work, 192
Du
Facte
82—5 deux republiques de Sparte on patriotism, 186-7
social,
1
Parallele entre les
De
la Patrie:
Letter
on Providence
et
de Rome, 102,
1
12
(1756): belief in God, 205; "chain
to Voltaire
of being," 69; civic profession of faith, 205—7; freedom of religion,
205-6; miseries brought by
civilization,
204; optimism of the
Enlightenment, 202-3; optimism of Rousseau, 203; pessimism of Voltaire, 202; search for clarity, Ecrits sur V Abbe de Saint-Pierre
Que
239 (1756):
VEtat de guerre nait de Vetat
social, v,
208, 232; Hobbes's views
on war challenged, 208—13; membership in body politic, 171 Extrait du projet de paix perpetuelle, 208; European union, 214-6, 222-3 Jugement sur la poly synodic, 208; absolute monarchy: instability of, 219, and intermediate political bodies, 219-20; criticism of Saint-Pierre's writings, 180, 219, 220; European federalism and the general will, 179-81; fear of revolution, 222 Jugement sur le pwjet de paix perpetuelle, 208; European union: absolute monarchy as obstacle to, 220-2, and Saint-Pierre, 216 [290]
INDEX Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (cont.~) Polysxnodie de I'Abbe de Saint-Pierre, 208; criticism of absolute monarchies, 2 1 7—8 Lettre a d'Alembert
stir les
spectacles
(1758):
civic festivals,
129
on La Nouvelle Heloise (1760), vii, 9, 238; and d'Alembert, 42-3; beauties of nature, 28, 242; freedom of choice, 52; inequal-
]u\ie,
itv
and family, 246; people
of
Geneva, 31; popular
festivals,
259;
poverty, 259; praise for middle class, 26c; production and pros-
and farming, 247-8, 255-6; worth of
perity, 255; urbanization
man, 253 Letter to Voltaire (1760),
36-7
Letters to Malesherbes (1762), 74; attack
upon men
of letters,
239-40;
corrupting influence of institutions, 244; nature and equality, 242; visions of
an ideal
state,
244
Emile, ou de VEdncation (1762),
vii,
15, 238; attack
upon men
of let-
248-9; contrast between Montesquieu and Rousseau, 36; importance, 10-11; inevitability of revolution, 150, 270-1;
ters, its
man
Du
is
to
blame, 3
vii, 15, 238, 239, 259; and Diderot, 172-4; and the Discourses, 155-9; and Geneva, 265-6; natural law, 174—5; origin of the political communitv, 168—70; political effects of economic ills, 252-3; source of general will, 174-8; as a standard, 267-8
Contrat Social (1762),
Beaumont (1762): existence of an ideal 244-5; stages in the evolution of man, 243
Lettre a Christophe de of nature,
state
Luxembourg (1763): maintenance of na254—5 montagne (1764), 162, 238; antagonism between
Letter to the Marechal de
tional cultures, 249; Switzerland,
Lettres ecrites de la classes,
252; enactment and application of laws, 266-7; freedom
or tyranny, tract:
261-4; Genevan middle
and the general
will,
class, 259-60; Social Con264—5, and government, 265, used as a
guide, 265-6; state of nature as a standard, 265 Projet de constitution pour la Corse (1765), 238; political
power and
wealth, 252; public and private propertv,
253-4 238; being and appearing,
Confessions (1 764-1 770), 6-7, 9, 26, 11; criticism of Montaigne, 11-12; disparagement of institutions, 27; vs. Italian music, 41-2; golden age and childhood, 11; Holbach and Diderot, 46, 48-9; impressed by Father Lamy, 63;
French
influence of Geneva, 30, 155; inspiration for the second Discourse, 1
14-5; primacy of
of
life,
politics,
153; protest: nature
85-6; satisfaction with the preface
of,
56,
and
style
to ISarcisse, 105; search
[291]
INDEX Rousseau, Jean-Jacques Qcont.')
29-30, 62, 115; tenacity of early
for truths,
political concerns,
6-7; Voltaire, 33, 36-7 Letter to Mirabeau (1767): abstraction urged, 268; cultivated reason
downgraded, 249; force underlying civilized life, 272; hobbism democracy, 272; revolution and property, 270 Considerations sur le gouvernement de Pologne (1 771— 1772): beauty and goodness from nature, 242-3; definition and conditions for freedom, 262—3; disintegration of the European states, 270; vs.
inspiration of the Social Contract, 268; passion for luxury gold, 246; peasant's serfdom, 269; prosperity:
through
and
common
work, 255, and property, 254, and self-sufficiency, 256—7, and wealth, 251 Dialogues, Rousseau juge de ]ean-]acques (1 772-1 776), 6-7, 46;
upon
at-
and appearing, 246; definition of badness, 243-4; force as the social tie, 272; freedom of choice, 246; his goals, 6-7, 13, 239-40; golden age: and childhood, 1 1, visions of, 241, 244; moral evil of wealth, 251-2; opposition to the litertack
culture, 270-1; being
ary world, 249—50, 271; in search of himself, 16, 238
du precedent
(1776): praise for Condillac, 46—7 776-1 778): being and appearing, 59-60; freedom and revolution, 262-3; introspective mood, 6-7, 238, 240-2; rejects morality of the Enlightenment, 250—1;
Histoire
ecrit
Les Reveries du promeneur
solitaire (1
variety of popular festivals,
Saint-Pierre, 180, 216,
259
219-20
Savoie, 61
Scherer, Jacques, 1-2, 105
Senechal, A., 28-9 Shklar, Judith N.: "Rousseau's Images of Authority" {American Political Science
Review, 1964), 13, 17-18, 272
Adam: Lectures on Rhetoric and
Smith,
Belles Lettres
(London, 1963),
1,77
Social contract: characteristics of, 264-5; as a standard, 265-6, Solitary life: as
an escape from tyranny, 151;
politically
268
wrong, 15, 154,
241-2 Sparta, 79, 101
Spink, John Stephenson: Jean-Jacques Rousseau et Geneve (Paris, 1934),
30 Starobinski, Jean, 1-2, 3, 48, 121, 129
Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
10-1 [292]
1,
12, 20,
la
56
transparence et I 'obstacle (Paris, 1958), 6-7,
INDEX Starobinski, Jean Qcont.~)
Montesquieu par lui-meme (Paris, 1953), 35; "Tout le mal vient de Finegalite," Europe (1961), 71 State: the "Dedication" and the framework of an ideal state, 150 ff.; his139
torical reality of,
ff.;
the purposes of the ideal state, 185
State of nature: description, 126; existence of, 4-5, tion of, 92-3,
1 1
6-7, 125; search
Final state of nature: corruption as 1
for,
its
15, 126;
ff.
misconcep-
114-9, 121; as a standard,
116, 126, 234, 245, 2.64, 265;
6, 8, 99,
1
its
ends,
4,
123-30
cause, 131, 243; despotism in,
50-1
Stelling-Michaud, Sven, 1-2 Sully,
216
Switzerland, 79, 254-5 Tahiti, 51
Taxation: on land, 194; on luxury items, 194-5; on personal income, 195;
on property, 197-201; purposes, 197 Vallette, Gaspard: ].-]. Rousseau,
Genevois (Paris, 191 1), 30
Vaughan, Charles Edwyn: The Political Writings of jean Jacques Rousseau (Cambridge, 191 5), 155, 171-2, 174-5, 2 °9> 22 9 Vauvenargues
:
Discours sur Vinegalite des richesses (171 1), in Oeuvres
completes (Paris, 1806), 58 Venice, 4, 27 Venturi, Franco:
La Jeunesse de Diderot
(Paris, 1939), 47;
on language,
54 Verniere, Paul,
53-4,
ed.
:
Diderot,
Oeuvres philosophiques (Paris,
54—5; Diderot, Oeuvres politiques (Paris,
1956),
1963), 49-50,
173-4 Vico,
67
Vincennes, 49, 72, 244 Virtue, 79-80, 94-5, 98-100, 185-91,
274
and Diderot, 49-50, 54; in Geneva, 33, 39; on government intervention, 165-6; his optimism and pessimism, 55, 201-5, 2 345 praises Dutot and Melon, 37, 57-8; on property, 37-9, 40; rejects general will, 40; role of peasants, 40
Voltaire, 3, 8, 71; defense of luxury, 38-9;
Defense du Mondain (1737), 57 Dictionnaire philosophique, 38, 38-9, 40 Idees Republicaines (1765), 38, 40 Lettre a M. le Comte de Saxe (1737), 57 Le Mondain (1736), 57
[293]
INDEX Voltaire Qcont.')
Observations sur luxe, les
Poeme
sur
le
MM Jean Lass, Melon
mommies
et
Dutot, sur
impots (1738), 57 Desastre de Lisbonne (1756), 201
le
commerce,
ff.
Vossler, Otto: Rousseaus Freiheitslehre (Gottingen, 1963), 8, 17,
War: and Hobbes,
1
19—20, 176, 208—10, 212; and origin of the its source, 145-6, 210-1, 213-4; i n tne
community, 170;
nature, 120-1, 124-5,
Warens, Wealth:
Mme.
upon
incentive for war, its
19-20
political state °f
208-10
de, 27, 61
effect of
274;
le
et les
and poor, 21-2, 94, 195-7, 22 4> 226-8; as 145-7; and inequality, 143-5, 2 3 I_2 2 5 2- 3>
rich
>
justification challenged,
225-7, 251-2; passion
for, 71, 89,
138, 232, 246; viewed as usurpation, 112; and virtue, 80; and welfare,
230—2
Weil, Eric:
[
2 94l
"J.-J.
Rousseau
et sa politique" (Critique,
1952), 20