Rousseau's core question: what do I need to make me happy? What would I want if I ignored convention and turned inward to ask myself?
Rousseau's life: (1712-1778)
Rousseau and the Enlightenment
The Enlightenment in France, and the philosophes
Liberal
Rationalist
Materialist
Progress as ideal
Rousseau's ambivalence toward the Enlightenment and the philosophes
R. stresses the importance of feeling, will, instinct, emotions
Skeptical and pessimistic about progress and science; R's argument in the Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts
in nature we are truly free
in nature we have amour de soi (love of self); in society we acquire amour propre (self-love), which is prideful.
knowledge and virtue are incompatible
R. is not opposed to the Newtons and Descartes; he worries, rather, about the popularizers of science and their effect on the virtues
The argument in the Second Discourse: Man in society vs man in nature
R's method: imagine a state of nature
Language and abstract thought not natural
Family is not natural (nor is exclusive romantic love, p. 56; or the mother/child bond)
Property is not natural
Technology and the division of labor take us from ourselves
Vengeance is not natural (p. 55)
Memory and imagination are not natural
Man is not equal by nature; he is equal only by convention (Social Contract 1:9, p. 153)
What is Rousseau's point?
Other Works
Emile (1762)
Rousseau's ideal upbringing/education
The reality
Book IV, "Confessions from the Savoyard Vicar"
La nouvelle Heloise (1760)
The Reveries of the Solitary Walker (posthumous, 1782)
Rousseau's quest for completeness lies in solitude: "Alone for the rest of my life--since I find consolation, hope and peace only in myself--I no longer ought nor want to concern myself with anything but me."
Happiness, not knowledge, is what matters
A life of imagination and dreams
Considerations on the Government of Poland
Poland represents the civic ideal; it is closest to the Greek polis
How to create this ideal of civic virtue? With proper institutions
Obstacles to renewing Poland
The Social Contract
The General Will
The idea of a general will
How do we know its content
Rousseau's Political Theory: Key themes and issues
Rousseau and the problem of alienation
The problem
Judith Shklar's two models for R's solution (Men and Citizens: A Study of Rousseau's Social Theory, 1969)
civic virtue
the age of gold (family life)
What IS R's solution, to Shklar? He doesn't give one
Rousseau and democratic theory
Rousseau and the problem of legitimacy/the founder
What justifies political authority?
Might makes right? No
Consent?
yes, R. is a contract theorist who thinks consent makes authority legitimate
no: R. is not really a contract theorist
Is Rousseau a revolutionary?
Rousseau on freedom: Is Rousseau a totalitarian who wants government to force us to be free?
