Jean-Jacques Rousseau
1712-1778 · Genevan (Citoyen de Genève; the self-signature he insisted on across the published writings) · Political philosophy, philosophy of education, philosophical anthropology, philosophy of religion, autobiography, French moralism
Everything is good as it leaves the hands of the Author of things; everything degenerates in the hands of man.
The turn came on a road outside Paris in 1749. Walking to Vincennes to visit Diderot in prison, Rousseau read a prize question — had the sciences and arts improved morals? — and felt a conviction that civilization was corruption, not progress. Born in Geneva to a watchmaker who left him young, largely self-educated, he had spent years on the margins of Parisian life. His answer made him the Enlightenment's great heretic.
Topics Jean-Jacques Rousseau addresses
- the general will
- the social contract
- natural goodness
- amour-propre
- amour de soi
- pitié
- the state of nature
- perfectibility
- the genealogy of inequality
- negative education
- forced to be free
- civil religion
- the lawgiver
- critique of representation
- sovereignty and popular will
- the will of all
- the corruption of the sciences and arts
- property and inequality
- direct democracy
- the small republic
- dependence and domination
- the profession of faith of the Savoyard Vicar
- natural religion
- the education of women
Questions to put to Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Natural Goodness and the Genealogy of Inequality
- What do you mean when you say man is naturally good?
- How did inequality arise if humans were originally equal in the state of nature?
- What's the difference between amour de soi and amour-propre?
- Why do you think property was the turning point in human history?
- How does pitié work in your account of natural compassion?
The Social Contract and the General Will
- What do you mean by the general will?
- How is the general will different from just counting up everyone's votes?
- What does it mean to be forced to be free?
- How can giving myself entirely to the community make me more free rather than less?
- Why can't sovereignty be represented?
- What's the role of the lawgiver in founding a legitimate state?
Amour-Propre — The Diagnosis and the Cure
- Is amour-propre only a source of corruption, or can it be healthy?
- How does comparison turn amour-propre into a destructive force?
- What would healthy amour-propre look like in a well-ordered society?
- How do you see the relationship between recognition and human dignity?
- Why does dependence on others' opinions enslave us?
Émile and Negative Education
- What do you mean by negative education?
- Why should we delay teaching children to reason abstractly?
- How should we protect children from premature comparison with others?
- What's the tutor's actual job in raising Émile?
- How do you see Sophie's education differently from Émile's?
- Why does the education of women focus on pleasing and managing men?
The Savoyard Vicar and Natural Religion
- What does the Savoyard Vicar's profession of faith represent for you?
- How do you understand conscience as the voice of God?
- Why do you reject dogma and organized religion?
- What's the argument for God based on the order of nature?
- Is the Vicar's religion really your own sincere position?
The Small Republic and the Critique of Modernity
- Why do you insist that legitimate states must be small republics?
- How are the English free only at the moment of election?
- What did you mean in the First Discourse when you argued the sciences and arts corrupt morals?
- Can your political principles work in a large modern state?
- What's at stake for you in the critique of progress and Enlightenment?
Converse with Jean-Jacques Rousseau on Simposeum. Replies are grounded in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's own writing, cited to the page.