Humanism Lecture Five

Humanism – Lecture Five 10/11/05


Jean-Jacques Rousseau lived during the French Enlightenment and was alive at the same time as many other famous philosophes

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Voltaire (1694-1778)

Montesquieu (1689-1755)

Rousseau (1712-1778)

Diderot (1713 -1784)

Condorcet (1743-1794)


All of these believed that human reason is the best guide to humankind’s destiny.

“Reason is to the philosophe what grace is to the Christian.”

Rousseau was unusual than the rest of the philosophes in that he had little education – however, he formed ideas about human nature that his thought has prevailed over many thinkers of the time.

Biography

Born in Geneva, Switzerland.

His formal education ended when he was about 12 years old. He had many types of jobs after this – mostly he got work copying music – he was mainly self-taught – an autodidactic.

He moved to Paris in his late twenties and began to mix in upper circles of French society – met Diderot.

He was always very shy especially around women – in 1746 he met an uneducated young servant girl - Therese Levasseur – who he married in 1768.

Literary Career

Rousseau’s lit career begins with an essay entitled Discourse on the Arts and Sciences (1750).

In this essay Rousseau argues that morals had been corrupted by the replacement of religion by science – by sensuality in art – by licentiousness in literature – and by the emphasis on logic over feeling.

This essay made Rousseau famous – Diderot: “never was there an instance of a like success.”

This was followed by an operetta: Le Devin Village – performed before the King.

A play: Narcisse

Two important works appeared in 1755:

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1755

What Is the Origin of the Inequality Among Men, and Is It Authorized by Natural Law?

Discourse on Political Economy

In 1761, Rousseau published a love story: Julie, our La Nouvelle Helois – which became the most famous novel of the eighteenth century.

In 1762, Rousseau wrote Emile – which was critical of institutional religion while saying how important religion was to mankind.

In the same year Rousseau published his most famous work: The Social Contract – in this book he tries to describe how we go from ‘the state of nature’ to the civil state – and to answer why the laws that govern humans are legitimate.

Rousseau was not happy as he got older – he suffered from intense paranoia – he accepted an invitation to visit his friend David Hume in England and stayed there 16 months – his autobiography – Confessions – was published after his death in July 1778 – the same year in which Voltaire died.

The Paradox in Learning

Rousseau read that a prize would be give by the Academy of Dijon for the essay that best answered the question:

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“Whether the restoration of the arts and sciences has had the effect of purifying or corrupting morals?”

Rousseau: “I felt myself dazzled by a thousand sparkling lights. Crowds of vivid ideas thronged into my mind with force and confusion that threw me nto unspeakable agitations.”

“man is by nature good, and that only our institutions have made him bad.”


Rousseau was already 38 years old by the time he wrote the essay. – he had read widely – traveled in Switzerland, Italy, France – observed different cultures – had spent time in sophisticated French society and had nothing but bad feelings for the social circles of Paris.

What Rousseau set out to show in his essay was that: “man is by nature good, and that only our institutions have made him bad.”

This is the underlying message of all Rousseau’s writing.

But Rousseau said that this first work – this essay – lacked logic and order – and was the weakest in reasoning that he ever wrote.

For this reason the essay was an easy target for his critics – many readers also had trouble with Rousseau’s thesis: that civilization is the cause of unhappiness or that the corruption of society is caused by learning in the arts and sciences.

Rousseau begins his prize winning essay saying good things about human reason:

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“it is a noble and beautiful spectacle to see man raising himself … from nothing by his own exertions; dissipating by the light of reason all the thick clouds by which he was by nature enveloped.”

“fling garlands of flowers over the chains which weight men down and stifle in men’s hearts that sense of original liberty for which they seem to have been born.”

“the politicians of the ancient world were always talking about morals and virtue; ours speak of noting but commerce and money.”

fashion – doing and looking as others makes us all look alike – making us not dare to be who we truly are – we never know who we are dealing – earlier men could easily see though each other – prevented them having many vices.
politicians emphasized economic aspects of politics.
criticized luxury – it could produce a brilliant but not lasting society – artists and musicians after luxury lower their genius to the level of the times.

One of the ways in which to confront all this is to acknowledge the role of women – “men will always be what women choose to make them. If you wish then they should be noble and virtuous, let women be taught what greatness of soul and virtue are.”

Rousseau – said in the essay – that: the question is not if the man is honest, but is he clever – not whether a book is useful, but well written – rewards are given for cleverness, while virtue is left unnoticed.

Rousseau pointed at some historical evidence that showed that progress in the arts and sciences always lead the corruption of morals.

In the essay – Rousseau said that only Sparta was ideal – because patriotism was the supreme virtue and where arts, artists, science, an scholars were not allowed.

It is quite extraordinary that Rousseau would be praising ignorance and the height of the French Enlightenment – But what Rousseau was really worried about was that all the different points of view brought about by the arts and sciences would bring about confusion with morality.

A stable society is based on a stable set of values and morality – these values can be undermined by philosophy and science.

Rousseau thought this for several reasons: 1) each society is unique and its genius is its own local set of values – science and philosophy seek to discover universal truth – this exposes local values as less than truth. 2) Philosophy and science need proof and evidence but some of the most important moral values cannot be proved – they need through to be believed – what keeps a society together is faith not knowledge.

Rousseau’s argument was not against science and philosophy – but with the movement to popularize these disciplines.

Rousseau respected men like Bacon, Descartes, and Newton – but thought that they were the exceptions – and that the scientific attitude should not be come common amongst the population.

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“It belongs only to a few to raise monuments to the glory of human learning.”

“those compliers who have indiscreetly broken open the door to the sciences and introduced into their sanctuary a populace unworthy to approach it.”

“nature would have preserved them [most men and women] from science, as a mother snatches a dangerous weapon from the hands of her child.”

[Ordinary people should build their happiness upon the opinions which] “we can find in our own hearts, [virtue] is the sublime science of simple minds, [for true philosophy is to] listen to the voice of conscience.”


The Social Contract

In this book Rousseau looks at why we should follow the laws of a society.

This is the book which begins with the famous quote: “Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains”

In the natural state humans were happy.

Rousseau claimed that humans in the natural state had natural ethics.

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“a natural sentiment which inclines every animal to watch over his own preservation, and which, directed in man by reason and pity, produces human virtue.”

(as man develops social contacts, he also develops vices, because he is motivated by ..)

“an artificial sentiment which is born in society, and which leads every individual to make more of himself than others, and this inspires in men all evils they perpetrate on each other”

The Social Contract – what man loses is his “natural liberty” – what he gains is “civil liberty” property rights.

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The Social Contract

“each of us puts his person and all his power n common under the supreme direction of the general will, and, in our corporate capacity, we receive each member as an indivisible part of the whole.”

Civil humanism.

Conclusion

Rousseau philosophy is an attack on reason – and gave impetus to the Romantic movement emphasizing feeling (Goethe: “feeling is all”), revived religion, provided a new direction to education (Emile considered by some the best book on education since Plato’s Republic), inspired the French Revolution, and inspired other philosophers – especially Kant – who forgot to take his daily walk while reading Emile - while Hume awoke Kant – Kant said that it was Rousseau who showed him a new theory of ethics – hung a picture of him on his wall – convinced that he was the Newton of the moral world.