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JeanJacques Rousseau

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Title: JeanJacques Rousseau


1
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
  • Discourse on the
  • sciences and the arts
  • Lecture 2

2
Who was Jean-Jacques Rousseau? (1712-1778)
  • Born Geneva 1712
  • Son of a watchmaker
  • Mother dies at his birth
  • Raised by father
  • No formal education
  • Apprenticed to an engraver, but escaped
  • Led a wandering life.

3
Rousseau, son of nature
  • The Confessions, opening lines
  • I have resolved on an enterprise which has no
    precedent and which, once complete, will have no
    imitator. My purpose is to display to my kind a
    portrait in every way true to nature, and the man
    I shall portray will be myself.
  • Whether nature did well or ill in breaking the
    mould in which she formed me, is a question which
    can only be resolved after the reading of my
    book.

4
Early Life Events
  • Reads Plutarchs Lives with his father
  • Life of Lycurgus, mythical founder of Sparta
  • Runs away from apprenticeship
  • Is locked out of the city at dusk
  • Gives up the stable life he could have led I
    should have been a good Christian, a good
    citizen, a good father, a good frienda good man
    in every way (Confs., Bk 1).

5
Genevan values
  • Calvinist predestinarian theology
  • Concern with outward appearance of virtue,
  • No dancing or theatre!
  • DAlemberts article Geneva (Encyclopédie)
  • Rousseaus reply Letter to M. dAlembert on the
    Theater
  • Oligarchic Republic ruled by oligarchy
  • Rousseau gave up Catholicism to return to Geneva.

6
Geneva as ancient republic
  • Rousseaus praise for Geneva (Epistle, DOI)
  • A state of great antiquity
  • Small in size
  • Citizens follow what the virtuous magistrates
    propose
  • Non-aggressive, but acts in own defense.
  • What kind of state is this?
  • Democratic?
  • Aristocratic?

7
Sparta vs Athens
  • Sparta
  • Eugenics
  • Defense is paramount
  • Simple way of life no arts or sciences
  • No external trade iron money
  • Lots of training
  • Communal meals
  • Womens freedom
  • Cowards ostracised
  • Boys taught to steal
  • Respect for elders
  • Athens
  • Many wars (5th cent.)
  • Rich from allies tribute
  • Many foreigners
  • Trade center
  • Bustling port
  • Arts, architecture, philosophy
  • Acropolis
  • Socrates, Plato, Aristotle
  • Softened by luxury (DSA)
  • No eugenics

8
Paris versus Geneva
  • Paris (modern Athens)
  • Corrupt
  • Unnatural
  • Weak
  • Citizens dominated by opinions of others
  • Complex and large officials, taxes, rules
  • Display of wealth
  • Lack of genuine relations among people
  • Geneva (modern Sparta)
  • Virtuous time for unfortunate, Fatherland and
    friends (DSA, p. 16)
  • No theatre
  • Defense of homeland
  • Simplicity
  • Small
  • Non-aggressive
  • This is Rousseaus ideal.

9
Geneva in reality
  • Unequaleconomically and politically
  • gap increased in 18th century
  • Only a small percentage of men citizens
  • 1500 out of 18,500 inhabitants
  • Women and foreigners excluded
  • Rule by oligarchy of patrician families
  • Laxity in enforcement of Calvinist
    rules, -Sumptuary laws (what one may wear).

10
After Geneva
  • Wandering youth Switzerland, Italy, France
  • Lives with Maman, an older woman who educates
    him and arranges his conversion to Catholicism
  • Studies and teaches music
  • Follows own programme of study science,
    mathematics, philosophy and literature
  • Injures himself in a chemistry experiment.

11
Enlightenment Paris 1740s
  • Works as diplomat, tutor, secretary and all round
    in-house intellectual for the rich and famous
  • Meets men of letters, scientists and nobles
  • Devises system of musical notation, used even now
    in China
  • DAlembert praises it in the Encyclopédie,
  • Rousseau presents it to Royal Academy of
    Sciences
  • Notation system example of reform of scientific
    language more simple, more precise and
    easier to learn (OC, V, 130).

12
Participation in Science Child of the
Enlightenment
  • Baconianism of Encyclopédie
  • Studies chemistry under famous teacher, Rouelle,
    with Diderot
  • Sets up lab with Dupin de Francueil
  • Writes on sciences
  • chemistry (1740s) Institutions chymiques
  • botany (1765-1778), Elementary Letters on Botany,
    Dictionary, correspondence
  • Writes on clarification of definitions, ease of
    access to sciences.

13
The Eighteenth-Century Chemical Laboratory
14
Relation to Encyclopédie
  • Close friend of Diderot and other Encyclopedists
  • Meetings at Café Procope, Paris, Left Bank
  • Enlightenment ideas
  • progress through science,
  • utility,
  • Lockean sensationalism, materialism
  • Falls out with Diderot over dAlemberts
    Geneva
  • Writes 200 articles on music
  • Many incorporated in Dictionary of Music (1768).

15
1750 Landmark Year
  • Vision on the road to Vincennes
  • Rousseau formulates his vision
  • I could no longer see any greatness or beauty
    except in being free and virtuous, superior to
    fortune and mens opinion, and independent of all
    external circumstances (Confs., Bk 8).
  • Prize of the Academy of Dijon awarded to DSA
  • Diderot There has never been a success like it
    (quoted in Confs., Bk 8).

16
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17
Two major themes
  • Freedom
  • Berlin two notions of Freedom
  • Rousseau uses both
  • Ancient citys freedom to rule itself
  • Modern individual self-determination, freedom
    from restraint
  • E.g. Rousseaus escape from engraver.
  • Equality
  • Not absolute
  • But sufficient so that one man cannot buy another
    (SC 2.11)
  • Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
  • Against law of nature for many to starve while
    few live in luxury!

18
The two key political principles
  • the greatest good of all consists in.Freedom,
    because any individual dependence is that much
    force taken away from the State
  • Equality because freedom cannot subsist without
    it.
  • as for wealth, no citizen should be so very rich
    that he can buy another,
  • And none so poor that he is compelled to sell
    himself (Social Contract, 2.11).

19
Rousseaus reform
  • His reform gives up the trappings of a
    gentleman
  • sword,
  • watch,
  • gold lace,
  • white stockings
  • wig
  • Copies music in order to earn a steady
    livelihood
  • Sends his five children to orphanage as soon as
    they are born
  • I thought I was acting as a citizen and a
    father, and looked upon myself as a member of
    Platos Republic (Confs., Bk 8).

20
Music A Philosophical Concern
  • Follows Plato and Aristotle re music
  • philosophically significant due to its effects on
    the moods
  • 1752 famous controversy between French and
    Italian opera fans,
  • Rousseau argues that Italian music encourages
    freedom to feel, a freedom essential to civic
    freedom
  • Why? Italitan more melodic and less formal than
    French music
  • 1752/3 The Village Soothsayer, opera about
    peasants, not nobles
  • composed in Italian style
  • great hit with the French King.

21
Rousseaus major works
22
Montmorency, France Rousseaus escape route
23
Rousseaus Life, 1762-1778
  • 1762 condemnations of Emile and the Social
    Contract
  • Flees France takes refuge in Switzerland
  • Learns botany
  • 1765 goes to England at invitation of David Hume
    they quarrel
  • 1767 returns to France under assumed name
  • Writes autobiographical worksConfs., Dialogues,
    Reveries,
  • Copies music and continues to study botany
  • Dies 4 July 1778 at at Ermenonville, Ile de
    France.
  • Re-interred with Voltaire in Paris (Pantheon)
    during French Revolution.

24
One of many famous portraits of Rousseau studying
nature
25
Rousseaus first tomb Ermenonville, France
26
Questions
  • 1. Is it true that we are losing our humanity and
    being ossified into ruthless machines? 2. The
    independence of technology is inevitable
    nowadays.
  • But are we abusing the technology which brings
    convenience to us?
  • 3. Is there any unnecessary use of technology?
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