https://arts.st-andrews.ac.uk/intellectualhistory/files/original/b0271b4e4d588617723a33ded314fb8f.pdf b0c16b13e4c353b3e0578d42b4a0a64e PDF Text Text V THE CRITIQUEor CULTURE ANDSOCIETY IN ROUSSEAU'S EARLYWRITINGS Throughout this writings fact to elaborate in our understanding that Rousseau's of these lenge to several adopted thought. sections of society have made men miserable Rousseau formulated notable these seventeenth-century figures a chal- and foundations for all secondly, development and my accounts that as identical particularly des langues, on the other, have the dual sense in which he believed and the perfection and corrupt. ideas of culture, My third as refutations theorists, and Locke, as well as in a series leading comprise on the one hand, and the musical sur l 1origine been put forward to portray and multi- in which such institutions of our historical sur l'inegalite, of the Essai the ev.olution on the genesis It has also been my contention, with the path of our moral degradation, and of law, property, and conventions doctrines I have argued to a number of abstract as having much the same nature Rousseau saw the course of the Discours Firstly, of history from 1750 to 1756 were con- his essays practices metaphysical times. of view and have in about the essence - so that the early about the place correctives - especially music, and language men at all theses of his social as historical claims were depicted four.main to interpret point major works in the period largely universal plicity I have attempted of Rousseau from an historical tried ceived study including, of polemical of the eighteenth-century 379 thesis that respectively, has been that of the views of some above all, controversies Enlightenment, Hobbes with among whom �Rameau, Buffon, Fourthly, Condillac, and Diderot historical arguments directly to the substance pertain rather I have here stressed tions if we locate formulated that Neither understanding contexts of the others. about historical and of his works. in which they were of various or rebut, thinkers and insofar indispensable But I think I have said method and about the philosophical who accept mistaken assumptions with regard between views propounded by different writers. do I wish to pursue here what might well appear to be an of my claims, even though there philosophy problems which arise the diversity of cultures, moral debasement of all with regard to the first are some difficult two and important from his having held to a belief con- both in on the one hand, and in the invariable civilisations, on the other. I should like to conclude my study with some remarks about what I take to be the philosophical propose - and specifi- two claims seem to me quite in Rousseau's instead refer theory - while the third to amend, elaborate, inconsistency ceptual theory with the arguments explanation relations two of my points social that them in the precise made by scholars to the actual them in just we can only grasp the sense of his specula- is the case my last enough already errors within and in connection for any adequate the first to our own historical which they were designed as that that of Rousseau's to his idea of history fourth if we locate grasp settings. Now it should be apparent cally the most important. I have sought to show that we can only have a proper of the meaning of Rousseau's these ~ere coherence to show how these Rousseau's conception his reflections of his early points, of history, on the decadence social thought, focused both within help to clarify of culture 380 and I and about the manner in which and society were formed �in the period l'inegalite leading and the Essai fore to end this Rousseau's social a treatise genesis work with a brief that upon that theory is, l mean there- in the course of sur les sciences et of the controversy Rousseau came to form the system- of which the two main components soon proved to be on the origins of inequality and an exposition of the of music and language. struck on reading Rousseau remarked that the notice question 'Si le retablissement 1 les moeurs'. univers et je devins un autre to catch his breath, vision - about the natural of our social leading recapture ideas for the best 2 lecture he wrote. moved practically faint a je vis un autre He had stopped to delirium - which had kindled of his ·principal on the & des Arts a contribue de cette homme", essay by by a fiery goodness of humanity and the evil order more than its a prize des Sciences "A l 'instant a tree he had been thunder- of the Academie de Dijon in the Mercure de France of October 1749, proposing tions sur of the earliest the Discours composition In his Confessions epurer des langues. account and l hope to show that which centred of the Discours sur l'origine major writings, les arts, atic to his composition contradic- in his mind most of the works, even though he was never to shadow or penumbra. Si jamais quelque chose a ressemble a une inspiration Subite, c'est Le mouvem[en]t qui Se fit en moi a cette Lecture: Tout a coup je me Sens l'esprit ebloui de mille Lumieres ... je Sens ma tete prise par un etourdissement Semblable a L'ivresse .... Si j'avois jamais pu ecrire Le quart de ce que j'ai vu et Senti Sous cet arbre, avec quelle clarte j'aurois fait voir toutes .Les contradictions du systeme Social, avec quelle force 1. See the Correspondance 2. Confessions, O.C.l, complete, p. 351. 381 II, appendice 67, pp. 293-294. �j'aurois expose tousles abus de Nos institutions, avec qucllc Simplicite j'aurois demontre que L'homme est bon naturellem[en)t et que c'est par ces institutions Seules que les hommes deviennent mechans. 3 Yet whereas the Discours constitutes notable les sciences SU!' the most immediate expression fact about this work that fait 115 career he admitted had neither order, though it was full The text nor logic, undoubtedly it is a it as perhaps which truly launched in 1751 4 might have been "mal when it appeared in the following vision, Rousseau came to regard the worst of all his major writings. his literary of that et les arts year to one of its nor structure, critics. he lamented later, of warmth and vigour he maintained It and that de tous [les ouvrages] qui sont sortis de ma pl.ume c 1 est le plus foible de raisonnement et le plus pauvre de nombre et d'harmonie. 6 3. Rousseau to Malesherbes, 12 January 1762, Correspondance complete, X, p. 26. See also p. 399 below. There have been many, not always illuminating, accounts of Rousseau's psychological state at this crucial moment of his life. Among the best known are those of Gerhard Gran (see 'La crise de Vincennes', Annales, VII (1911), pp. 1-17) and Guehenno (see Jean-Jacques, I, pp. 271-283). 4. In the light of some new evidence, together with a reinterpretation of familiar sources, Leigh concludes (see the Correspondance complete, II, pp. 135-136 and 140) that Rousseau's first Discours must have been published in 1751, probably around 8 January. Most scholars have previously supposed that the text appeared at the end of November 1750. As to its dates of composition we know very little apart from that it must have been drafted between October 1749 and March 1750 (since the closing date for the competition was 1 April 1750), though Rousseau did make a number of minor changes and additions later. In his Confessions (see O.C.I, p. 352) Rousseau reflected that he had worked on the essay at a feverish pace and had confided the fact that he was engaged in writing it only to his two best friends at the time, that is, Diderot and Grimm. For an account of the reception of the Discours by the members of the Academie de Dijon see especially the documents reproduced in the Correspondance complete, II, appendices 68-75, pp. 294-303. a Lecat', 5. 'Lettre 6. Confessions, O.C.I, O.C.III, p. 98. p. 352. 382 �In 1763 he added a foreword which made much the same point, is even some evidence to suggest already to warn his readers have intended ously lacking in literary that talent, in his original that I find it ment of this the prize elegant, it stirred work. difficult Its preface and there he may the work was conspicu- commenting that on reconnoitra facilement dans [cet ecrit] fort peu exercee dans le genre oratoire. 8 For my part 7 to disagree rhetorical une plume with Rousseau's flourishes own assess- may well have merited for which it was composed, but in my view it is much the least least consistent, - least original least profound, of all and - despite his celebrated the fuss which writings. 7. This foreword appears in Geneve (Societe Jean-Jacques Rousseau) Ms R 89, a manuscript which comprises a collection of Rousseau's early published works with corrections and additions that he meant to incorporate in the Duchesne edition of his writings. The passage which refers to the mediocrity of the Discours sur les sciences et les arts reads as follows (O.C.III, p. 1237): "Qu'est-ce que la celebrite? Voici le malheureux ouvrage a qui je dois la mienne. Il est certain que cette piece qui m'a valu un prix et qui m'a fait un nom, est tout au plus mediocre, et j'ose ajouter qu'elle est une des moindres de tout ce recueil." Cf. Havens, p. 92. In the light of the evidence noted by Havens (see pp. 168-169) it seems clear that the foreword was drafted in 1763, though Bavens was mistaken to suppose that it was actually incorporated in the Duchesne edition of the Discours printed in 1764. In fact it was first published in Moultou-Du Peyrou. 8. Pichois-Pintard, p. 30. My reason for stating that the evidence only suggests this conclusion is attributable simply to the fact that I am not yet entirely convinced - even though it seems to me most likely that the fragment which incorporates this passage constitutes an original draft of the preface of the Premier Discours. Though there is no reason to doubt that it is in Rousseau's own hand, I believe that it might just conceivably be a rough version of another of his early writings, possibly of the foreword to his Discours sur la vertu du heros, composed in 1751. An intermediate draft of the preface to the Discours sur les sciences et les arts has certainly survived, however, and this fragment (BN Ms n.a. fr. 5215, p. 531), also in Rousseau's hand, was first transcribed by Leigh in his 'Manuscrits disparus' (see pp. 58-62). Apart from that solitary remnant all the original manuscripts of the work, including the final copy sent to the Academie de Dijon, have been lost. Rousseau's revisions to the published text, nevertheless, are still available. Most of these changes figure in Geneve (Societe Jean-Jacques Rousseau) Ms R 89, and they now appear, too, in the notes of O.C.III. A few further, and minor, alterations have recently been transcribed by Leigh in 'D'Alernbert's copy of Rousseau's first Discours', The Library, XXII (1967), pp. 243-244. 383 �The central Civilisation morals, theme of the Premier Discours has been the bane of humanity, Rousseau reflected, perfection of our arts has followed seems plain enough. and the corruption the same cource of our a~ the and sciences. Nos ames se sont corrompues a mesure que nos Sciences et nos Arts se sont avances a la perfection. 9 Before we acquired before the skills our behaviour moeurs etoient and attributes mais naturelles dissemination of enlightenment, progressively debased by the exigencies by "notre fas~, fausse until men, and came to be moulded by art and artifice, rustiques, tom, by "ce voile of cultured unifonne our pristine with the same unremitting • 10 With the birth however, our original et perfide delicatesse", 11 of sophistical de politesse", and by "tous ces vils virtue force has been displaced that governs "nos and purity has been taste and cus- by "la bienseance", omemens" 11 of from our lives the ebb and flow of tides. L'elevation et l'abbaissement journalier des eaux de l'Ocean n'ont pas ete plus regulierement assujetis au cours de l'Astre qui nous eclaire durant la nuit, que le sort des moeurs et de la probite au progres des Sciences et des Arts. On a vu la vertu s'enfuir a mesure que leur lumiere s'elevoit sur notre horizon.12 We can only regret of those earliest 9. Discours 10, Ibid., times, our loss of the simplicity Rousseau continued, sur les sciences et les arts, and happy innocence when the members of our O.C.III, p. 9. p. 8. 11. Ibid., pp. 8 and 21. James Hamilton, in 'A Theory of art in Rousseau's first discourse', SVEC, XCIV (1972), pp. 77-80, makes the interesting suggestion that the principles of 'politesse', 'bienseance', and 'gout' constitute the three main principles of art which Rousseau saw as having undermined our moral virtues. 12. Discours sur les sciences et les arts, 384 O.C.III, p. 10. �race lived together deeds and actions beginning in huts and wished for little should be under the gaze of their the sole the contours adornments of a shoreline But when men later cent temples more than that of the world - sculpted became vicious in order that In the would have been - like exclusively they banished the deities gods. their by Nature herself. their should be less gods to magnifiable to spy on them, On ne peut reflechir sur les rnoeurs, qu'on ne se plaise a se rappeller l'image de la simplicite des premiers terns. C'est un beau rivage, pare des seules mains de la nature .... Quand les honunes innocens et vertueux airnoient a avoir les Dieux pour temoins de leurs actions, ils habitoient ensemble sous les memes cabanes; mais bien-tot devenus mechans, ils se lasserent de ces incommodes spectateurs et les releguerent dans des Temples rnagnifiques. 13 So, too, by artistic those• civilisations and scientific by the trappings vigorous viduals of culture and robust. which have been the least progress, which have been the least and learning, For the arts preserve it from invasion. for instance, ignorant failed Tartars. knowledge possessed the Persians easily devotion The marvellous by their able to conquer Asia, erudite virtue nations was founded solidly 14 et les vertus" of their inhabitants. p. 22. 14. Ibid., p. 11. subjection and expert 385 upon II strength to of the Chinese, to the coarse then, sages? as we are taught while the greatness Scythian Ibid., inventions indi- on the contrary and their Of what use to the Chinese people, - who were taught 13. do not inspire of patriotism; to the state to ward off their burdened have proved to be the most and sciences with courage or with the spirit they sap men of both their tainted and was the For their science part, - were of the Geman and la simplici te, l' innocence �Above all, Athens, the history demonstrates to the vices of tyranny, person dangerous are those in Athens, of ignorance of communities of men whose minds have cautioned of their with that how much more resistant by the vain monuments of culture. consequences the praises when contrasted how much more durable, not been contaminated the wisest of Sparta, 15 Socrates, his fellow-citizens arrogance of the and presumption and even sang to them. Voila ... le plus Sage des hommes... et le plus savant des Atheniens au sentiment de la Grece entiere, 16 Socrate faisant l'Eloge de l'ignorance. At Rome Cato followed seductive delights vitality of art and ostentation and resolution unheeded as well, prevail tural his example and inveighed of his compatriots. and an entirely specious once again - to the detriment production, and political against the venomously which were undermining the Yet his warnings went form of learning of military came to discipline, agricul- vigilance. Socrate avoit commence dans Athenes, le vieux Caton continua dans Rome de se dechainer contre ces Grecs artificieux et subtils qui seduisoient la vertu et amolissoient le courage de ses concitoyens. Mais les Sciences, les Arts et la dialectique prevalurent r':ncore: Rome se remplit de Philosophes et Ja'Orateurs; on negligea la discipline militaire, on -i~eprisa l'agriculture, on embrassa des Sectes et l!'on oublia la Patrie.17 Tbe Roman Republic, decadent ineluctably 15. theatre formerly of crime, the temple of virtue, and the capital soon became tbe of the world slowly but succumbed ,mder the yoke with which it had earlier See ibid., harnessed pp. 12-13. 16. Ibid., p. 13. This passage follows a rather free translation several paragraphs, probably from a Latin text, of Plato's Apology. of 17. Ibid., p. 14. In the early 1750s Rousseau was to expound upon this distinction between Socrates and Cato on several occasions, and he may even have intended to devote a whole work to the subject (see Pichois-Pintard, pp. 78-112). Of the fragments assembled in Pichois-Pintard (see pp. 48-64) one was to figure in his Discours sur la vertu du heros and another was incorporated in his 'Economie politique'. 386 �18 the barbarians. collapse Much the same pattern of the ancient and, indeed, of decline empires of Egypt, Greece, it is a general under the weight of their rule that all own scientific these developments clear Discours account of why the arts responsible infer tion of virtue. The sciences, stems from the vices from superstition, The arts, Luxury, in fact, the arts terns and sciences, explain how nor did he offer any All that his readers that could he supposed the with the deteriora- Rousseau suggested, have al\7ays been and each of the particular and indolence moreover, - astronomy and physics are everywhere nourished et de la vanite seems to be a crucial that sciences give rise geometry from avarice, "n€... de l'oisivete ment, since Rousseau maintained without progress. conjoined to which sloth which is itself 24 ho1111nes". , for example, • 1.. ty. 22 i'dl e curios 23 11 21 decay should have been generally of man. to be universally engendered "dans l'oisivete luxury, and sciences from the text was the fact advancement of culture civilisations dans tousles have occurred, for the moral decadence legitimately great Rousseau did not really might actually 19 and Constantinople, and artistic Le meme phenomene s 1 est observe et dans tousles lieux.20 In the Premier also marked the it can hardly from by des term in the arguever be found while they never exist at all without it. 18. See ibid., p. 10. 19. See ibid., pp. 10-11. 20. Ibid., p. 10. 21. Ibid., p. 18. 22. See ibid., p. 17. 23. See ibid. On the subject of "la grande question du luxe" in the Discours sur les sciences et les arts see especially Havens, p. 191, note 110. 24. Discours sur les sciences et les arts, 387 O.C.III, p. 19. �Le luxe va rarement sans les sciences et jamais ils ne vont sans lui. 2 5 The dissolution of luxury which, ("la dissolution in turn, ruption tures of morals, of the history beyond that a product of men that of all we have received state is apparently des moeurs, suite is essentially and enslavement punishment then, et les arts, a necessary necessaire du luxe 1126), of idleness. And the cor- have been such characteristic civilisations are thus proofs for our haughty endeavours of happy ignorance and would have been our blessing consequence fea- of the to advance in which it was our proper destiny - - to remain for ever. Voila comment le luxe, la dissolution et l'esclavage ont ete de tout terns le chatiment des efforts orgueilleux que nous avons faits pour sortir de l'heureuse ignorance ou la sagesse eternelle nous avoit places.27 Now there sur les later sciences et les arts some important which anticipate to advance in both the second Discours des langues. ties are undoubtedly For one thing, between specific passages. there elements ideas of the Discours that Rousseau was and the Essai are a few quite Hence, for instance, sur l'origine striking continui- Rousseau's remark in the Premier Discours that our politicians "ne parlent que de conunerce 28 et d'argent" - whereas those of the ancient world spoke of morals and 25. Ibid. For a discussion of the significance of these lines in Rousseau's argument, and for a general outline of the distinction in the work between the sciences and sloth, on the one hand, and the arts and luxury, on the other, see Goldschmidt, Anthropologie et politigue, pp. 38 and 76-77. 26. Discours 27. Ibid., p. 15. 28. Ibid., p. 19. sur les sciences et les arts, 388 O.C.III, p. 21. �virtue - seems to be recapitulated Essai that our orators . weary l isteners. that 29 now only shout "donnez de l'argent" Similarly, today "un gout ... fin appears his general [a) reduit to apply specifically especially in his charge in eh. xx of the in the passage l 1 Art de plaire to the art there over, to the connection we find that men portrayed the "fers" liberte arts 11 • 33 contains the first l'inegalite Most importantly, of the central that statement later originelle • 31 With text as leur sur les sciences et les writings in the Discours ils more- the civilised assurer have become slaves in the Premier Discours postulate 11 anywhere in Rousseau's pour laquelle 1130 music has in the later the Discours - which was to be elaborated of sur and have forsaken sembloient etre we can already nes". 34 find a sketch, of the work to which he was only to turn a - the idea, tion may be attributed that ultimately not by Nature but by man. 29. work are depicted - that men in society liberte few years too, that de fer 1132which shackle the "chaines We find, en principes and second Discours, into which "tous coururent ... croyant his contention "cette le Dictionnaire between the first in the earlier in the Discours of music in the Essai, in which he contends become "une langue dont il faut avoir regard statement to their is, that all the abuses of civilisa- to the social For "d'ou naissent I inequality ordained 1 tous ces abus", See eh. IV, pp. 376-377. 30. Discours sur les sciences Havens~ p. 185, note 79. 31. See eh. IV, pp. 341-342. 32. Discours sur les sciences 33. Discours sur l'inegalite, An even more familiar reprise, Contrat social, I.i (O.C.III, les fers". et les arts, O.C.III, p. 8. et les arts, O.C.III, p. 7. See also O.C.III, p. 177 (see eh. III, p. 192). of course, is Rousseau's statement in the p. 351) that man is now everywhere "dans 34. Discours sur les sciences et les arts, O.C.III, p. 7. It should also be borne in mind that note i of the Discours sur l'inegalite, especially in its focus upon the idea of luxury, is in large measure a refrain of the Premier Discours. 389 �Rousseau exclaimed in his prize essay, si ce n'est de l'inegalite funeste introduhe entre les hommes par la distinction des talens et par l'avilissement des vertus?3 5 Most significantly, arts that Rousseau first effect that our real it i" in the Discours sur les sciences advanced the general our apparent cultural moral degradation and social skill, and the tssai des langues. shown an interest long before early thesis progress in the Discours in sharper sur l'inegalite To be sure, in problems about the general - to the has led only to - which was to be developed, focus and with much greater sur l'origine historical et les Rousseau had of mankind 36 he bad begun to work on bis Premier Discours, and as as 1737 be bad in fact which he reflected l'histoire de l'etude drafted history a 'Chronologie universelle' in that doit faire une des principales parties d'un honnete homme.... L'univers est 35. Ibid., p. 25. It is possible, however, that these last two passages did not figure in the manuscript which Rousseau submitted to the Academie de Dijon. ror in the preface to the published text Rousseau observed (ibid., p. 3) that he had made "deux additions faciles a reconnoitre", and while we have no evidence to show exactly which elements of the work were added later, and while several distinct possibilities have been suggested by scholars, we might be inclined to agree with rran~ois Bouchardy (see ibid., p. 1240) that these remarks - ostensibly a shade more radical in tone than the rest - were introduced by Rousseau after he bad won the prize. In the first Discours there are, moreover, some faint anticipations of a few ideas developed in his other writings in social theory, most notably, perhaps, the remarks about the ''Precepteurs du Genre-humain" (see ibid., p. 29) which foreshadow the chapter on the legislator (II.vii) in the Contrat social. > 36. From his earliest childhood he had been especially fascinated by Greek and Roman history, he reflected in his Confessions (O.C.I, p. 9): "Sans cesse occupe de Rome et d'Athenes; vivant, pour ainsi dire, avec leurs grands hommes, ne moi-meme Citoyen d'une Republique ... je me croyois Gree ou Romain; je devenois le personnage dont je lisois la vie." l 390 �une grande famille dont nous sommes tous membres; nous sommes done obligez d'en connoitre aussi la situation et les interets. 37 In his a 1'i°.Bordes' 'Epitre of 1741 he had also offered of a moral world that was more attractive inhabitants later the Essai than our own because its lived more simply and naturally to portray on broader sur l'origine a glimpse - a spectacle that he was canvases in both the second Discours and des langues. 0 vous qui dans le sein d'une humble obscurite Nourrissez les vertus avec la pauvrete, Dont les desirs bornes dans la sage indigence Meprisent sans orgueil une vaine abondance, Restes trop precieux de ces antiques terns Oil des moindres apprets nos ancetres contens, Recherches dans leurs moeurs, simples dans leur parure, Ne sentoient de besoin que ceux de la nature.3B These cursory anticipations of some ideas which Rousseau came to expound in his mature works, however, can hardly be taken to constitute coherent sketch of his later speculations only because they are so rudimentary the period before his composition accompanied by equally short ated and defended later. Monsieur Parisot 1 and isolated, and morals, not but also because in!· of the Premier Discours statements that were almost diamen-ically about history a they are in which he put forward claims opposed to the propositions Hence, for instance, of 1742 we find two lines in his he enunci- 'Epin-e on the subject which do not accord at all with the ideas of both the first t 1 a ) t of inequality/ and second Discours. 1 Chronologie 37. universelle, ou Histoire generale des temps, depuis la creation du monde jusques a present', in 'Pages inedites de Jean-Jacques Rousseau', ed. Dufour, Annales, I (1905), pp. 214-215. At the time of its transcription by Dufour this manuscript belonged to Ferdinand de Saussure. With regard to its probable date of composition see ibid., p. 213, note. l. 3B. 'Epitre a M. Bordes', O.C.II, p. 391 1131.• �Il ne seroit pas bon dans la societe Qu'il fut entre les rangs moins d'inegalite. But it would be as foolish would be to emphasise rather to lay any stress the importance to foreshadow Rousseau's 1750 merit our attention duced literary sciences importance, later partly because and obscurities upon this remark as it snippets which appear His writings author masterpieces. on the other Rousseau a celebrity, views. only because their and philosophical et les arts, of those 39 subsequently constitutes widespread his first about the li~k between our historical attention was to form the principal its treatment progress sur les a work of some but even more because - despite - it pro- The Discours hand, is clearly it attracted before and made many faults of the thesis and moral decay which theme of his major works in the period from L1150 to 1156. This is not to say, advanced during Discours points those years sur les sciences which he raised subsequent f in the first offer severe sharply 'Epitre less ideas he form in the that wer.e elaborated all the main more fully in his many of the most crucial have no place for concurring fea- at all I shall In fact, with Rousseau's return instead rather of the essay. the central a Monsieur or even abandoned. but for the moment I should like of the quality vague and obscure. 39. text still he propounded later a few of my own reasons For one thing, the leading while a number of the judgments he made there presently, appraisal all in an incipient et les arts, theory Discours, matter that On the contrary, were soon to be modified to this figure in that writings. ures of the social ~ of course, thesis as Parisot', of the work is certainly I have O.C.II, 392 suggested p. 1140. already, the to �argument seems to be compriced of at about the course and circumstances the suggestion innocence that primitive nations which are artistically morally superior to their that great weight of their easily of life his praise civilisations problem made all of our history centuries thinkers, It is difficult to see how this ages" - this can be reconciled that, that and superstition il falloit une revolution au sens commun.40 40. Discours 41. description - Ibid. 42. Ibid., a great course under several which and from which of "la Barbarie pire how these 393 1141- des premiers He did not explain discontinuities in the path nor how men - apparently et les arts, p. 22 (see pp. 384-385 above). des que l'ignorance of "la simplicite might have occurred, sur les sciences like - a the general tems 1142which Rousseau also drew in the Discours. of our moral history part - to a state ignorance account of an "etat moreover, to the mode pour ramener les hommes with the portrait anywhere in the text, a clear in the first by a reversion of our original under the of his work and, on the he also maintained of medieval barbarism the claims do not tribute by the fact has been interrupted are and third, in particular, civilisations the more intractable was even worse than that premiers But these man in the second part many Enlightenment the claim that have become decadent There is, first, from the counterparts; progress. of untainted theses undeveloped on the one hand, between Rousseau's of primitive other, second, and scientifically accord with one another. discrepancy, distinct progressively state; sophisticated own cultural three of our moral degradation: mankind has declined of his earliest contention least O.C.III, p. 6. �(already in a state of decay - might nonetheless have formed great 'civilisations. \ At the end of his argument Rousseau even launched entirely new thesis to the effect sciences as such but rather the true source of our misfortunes, with the observation artists to build that that their it is not really abuse by ordinary and, indeed, the arts and men which has been he concluded it was the task of great the glorious upon an scientists his work and monuments of the human spirit. S'il faut permettre a quelques hommes de se livrer a l'etude des Sciences et des Arts, ce n'est qu'a ceux qui se sentiront la force de marcher seuls sur leurs traces, et de les devancer: C'est ace petit .nombre qu'il appartient d'elever des monumens a la gloire de l'esprit humain. 4 3 The rest of us lesser than the obscurity mortals, he exclaimed, and mediocrity should aspire to no more to which we have been destined. Pour nous, hommes vulgaires, a qui le Ciel n'a point departi de si gra~ds talens et qu'il ne destine pas a tant de gloire, restons dans n~tre obscurite. 44 For my part, thought I find it difficult these lines appropriate and a defence of the v.irtues to see why Rousseau should have in a critique of ignorance, of the arts innocence, and sciences and common humanity. He is not at all tion he believed decline. clear, either, about precisely the growth of culture His thesis appears to be that had actually what contribumade to our thJLP!:Qgr_ess 9f the arts and 43. Discours sur les sciences et les arts, O.C.III, p. 29. I am fully in agreement with Havens when he notes (p. 248, note 298) that the conclusion of the argument is "inattendue", though ''parfai tement agreable a ses amis, les Encyclopedistes". 44. Discours sur les sciences et les arts, 394 O.C.tII, p. 30. �sciences has been responsible have already shown that were engendered for the debasement of morals, he also supposed that the arts and sciences 1 1 1 by 1 oisivete , 'la vanite', and 'le luxe' of man. - Has the advancement of culture or only its but I effect? Rousseau, been the cause of our corruption, then, whose main concern in the work was to portray the evils which invariably "suivent les Lettres et les 45 Arts", but who equally proclaimed that 11les Sciences et les Arts . l . d oivent .•. eur naissance , . a nos vices 11 , 46 seemed quite unable to make up his mind. Perhaps the principal reason argument is the fact that the work o:f earlier thinkers. central theme was inspired other figures, Discours though that incorporates for the indecisi~eness most of its components were borrowed from By this by ideas I do not mean only that which were first is unquestionably true. The Premier the views of a host of modern and ancient - such as Montesquieu, for instance, Seneca, Plato, Plutarch 47 - whose writings and, above all, and whose commentaries 45. Ibid., p. 19. 46. Ibid., p. 17. its propounded by authors read at length, of Rousseau's and Fenelon, upon the superiority Montaigne, Rousseau of nature 47. From his earliest childhood, Rousseau reflected in his Confessions (0.C.I, p. 9), "Plutarque ... devint ma lecture favorite". The references to Plutarch's Lives throughout his writings are legion - far more numerous than the sixty-eight counted by Marguerite Richebourg [Reichenburg] (see her Essai sur les lectures de Rousseau (Philadelphia 1932], p. 175) who only tabulates the bulk of the passages in which Plutarch is mentioned by name. I suspect, indeed, that there is no other single text which Rousseau consulted more often in the preparation of his own works, and no other author he more frequently cited or invoked by allusion - notwithstanding the fact that he discussed the ideas of Rameau at greater length. According to Havens (p. 63) almost the whole of the argument of the Premier Discours - with one exception - can be found in Plutarch: "Amour de la patrie, courage, vertu, austerite, simplicite, haine du luxe et de l'inegalite, gout des rudes travaux des champs, admiration pour les 'qualites guerrieres' des heros de Sparte et des premiers siecles du vieux Rome, l'exemple meme de ce Fabricius qui eblouissait tant l'esprit de Jean-Jacques des l'instant de son inspiration sur la route de Vincennes, 395 X I �over artifice, or upon the merits of inequality, or the decadence recapitulated fait in his text. cent fois avant 48 [Rousseau) of simplicity, of Diderot des sciences et des arts", certainly correct. But the first not just because other works in a similar Neither are its .Rousseau's Persians remarked that and on this Discours point for example, from several writers, . so most important. that - his from Horace, his sketch between Sparta and Rollin to the derivative of many second-hand drawn essentially among whom Bos suet By pointing lacking for guidance. due mainly to the fact and his contrast les he was is conspicuously of the Germans taken from Tacitus, from Montaigne, contre it is marked by the influence qualities or "on avoit de l'ignorance in the essay is so clearly account of the Scythians, his description 49 were endorsed vein to which Rousseau turned derivative scholarship later l'apologie progres in originality civilisation, or the oppressiveness of the and Athens are probably character the of 1 voila ce qui sortait de ce vieux livre, camarade cheri de son enfance. Presque tout le Discours de Dijon est la." The exceptionJ however also indicated by Havens (see pp. 63-64) - is significant~ for Plutarch , praised the arts and sciences and the world of learning generally. ror an account of Plutarch's influence upon the Premier Discours, see Abraham feller, 'Plutarch and Rousseau's First Discours', PMLA, LIV (1939), ~P- 212-222. For an interpretation of his wider influence upon Rousseau's bought, see especially Georges Pire, 'Dubon Plutarque au Citoyen d~ eneve', Revue de litterature comparee, XXXII (1958), pp. 510-547, and ~ enise Leduc-Fayette, Jean-Jacques Rousseau et· le mythe de l'antiquite ~(Paris 1974), passim .. 48. The best gene.ral accounts of the sources of Rousseau's Discours sur les sciences et les arts are still those of Louis Delaruelle (see 'Les sources principales de J.-J. Rousseau dans le premier discours a l'Academie de Dijon', RHLF, XIX (1912), pp. 245-271) and especially Havens (see pp. 61-82). 49. Essai sur les regnes de Claude et de Neron, Assezat-Tourneux, III, p. 95. 50. With regard to the portrait of the Scythians by Horace, from whom Rousseau also drew his epigraph 'Decipimur specie recti', see Havens, p. 197, note 128 (though Bouchardy [see O.C.III, p. 1245) views this particular connection as only problematic); with regard to Tacitus on the Germans, see Havens, p. 197, note 129; with regard to Montaigne on the Persians, see Havens, p. 195, note 126, and O.C.III, p. 1244; with regard to Bossuet and Rollin on Sparta and Athens, see Havens, pp. 200-201, and O.C.III, pp. 1245-1246. 396 �Rousseau's text I mean rather not only his principal expressed but often to the fact and references clear, there of which the sources is at least that the very words in which he them were borrowed from his authorities. quotations patently ideas to draw attention one passage which is drawn, without acknowledgment, 51 loix and one unattributed transcription Apart from the would have been in the Premier from Montesquieu's from Bossuet's Discours Esprit des Discours sur 52 l'histoire universelle; there are several snatches from Plutarch's 53 54 fr om t h e Essais• o f Montaigne, • L• ~ an d upwards of f'fi teen extracts only a very few of which are accompanied by any mention of their parentage; ed from the very last both Plutarch Les plagiats de J.-J. line of Rousseau's and Montaigne together. Rousseau of 1766 56 text, SS moreover, is adapt- Dom Joseph Cajot 1 s may have been excessively 51. Cf. the passages from the Discours sur les sciences et les arts, O.C.III, pp. 19-20, and the Esprit des loi,:,XXIII.xvii, Oeuvres completes, I.ii, p. 57, compared by Launay in his 'Discours sur les sciences et les arts: Jean-Jacques entre MmeDupin et Montesquieu', in Jean-Jacques Rousseau et son temps, pp. 99-100. Launay's observations (see ibid., pp. 100-101) as to why Rousseau should have refrained from mentioning his source are partly based upon some intriguing but unconvincing speculations about Rousseau's connections with Claude and Louise-Marie-Madeleine Dupin, to whom (that is, MmeDupin) Rousseau was engaged as a secretary at the same time that he composed the Premier Discours and after both husband and wife had undertaken to refute the Esprit des loix. 52. This passage pp. 10 and 1243). pertains to Rousseau's remarks about Egypt (see O.C.III, $ee also Havens, pp. 189-190. 53. See especially ijavens, pp. 199, note 135; 201, note 140; 207, note 160; and 209, note 167; and O.C.III, pp. 12, 14, 15, 17, and 1246-1247. The prosopopoeia of-Fabricius (see O.C.III, pp. 14-15)~ which Rousseau later claimed to have drafted first, was also largely inspired by Plutarch - in this case his 'Life of Pyrrhus'. 54. See especially note 133; 200, note 229, note 232; 230, 0.C.III, pp. 9, 11, 55. Havens, pp. 65; 187, 136; 202, note 145; note 235; 235, note 12-14, 18-19, 22, 24, note 88; 211, note 250; and 1243-1246, See Havens, pp. 66 and 251, note 309; 1 195, note 126; 199, 175; 216, note 189; 236, note 255; and 1248, and 1251-1253. and O.C.III, pp. 30 and 1256. 56. This work incorporates Cajot s 'Observations touchant le [premier] Discours de Rousseau', first published in 1765. With regard to that text see especially Havens, pp. 72-73; 185, note 80; 200, note 137; 202, note 145; 210, note 170; 229, note 232; 231, note 241; 245, note 290; and 249, note 303. 397 �severe - and in most instances the Discours other text sur les sciences Nevertheless, books. Despite ment it is directed Rousseau appears against more weight to his own ideas second Discours striking. sur l'inegalite of nearly all the figures that it does little views already not so much to give It may seem a little should have stirred Rousseau's attacked, friends point could hardly the other, more than reflect not rea ll y express the publication and be more of the text, the ideas it is equally sur les sciences et les the sometimes disparate many precursors. strange, perhaps, so great that a fuss, a work of such poor particularly among the men of the Enlightenment to endorse the essay as 'un discours • aut h entic• an d sincere • h is of the Premier Discours since that both it among the enemies of the who might have been expected regarded in that of the Discours on the one hand, and his critics Enlightenment the claims Rousseau set out to refute advanced by its such between his first whom he mentioned a measure of the mediocrity this and as to find ways of repeating that from of the argu- work in particular, to his sources to this that to warrant For while it is a measure of the brilliance Discours quality that tone and character The dissimilarity with regard fact major writings no other to have turned imputations had been plagiarized it is a disconcerting the polemical which he found in them. - in its et les arts is the only one of Rousseau's suspicions. arts incorrect his views, on de parade' which did b e 1·ie f s. 57 Yet with - the first text that he 57. This point is made admirably by Havens in his 'Diderot and the Composition of Rousseau's First Discourse', Romanic Review, XXX(1939), pp .• 379-380. 398 �signed 'citoyen de Geneve; of the major celebrities reflected that the same flash that 58 - Rousseau almost immediately of his day. his second Discours of illumination became one More than a decade later he and Emile were also inspired by which had ignited the main theme of work in his mind. Tout ce que j'ai pu retenir de ces foules de grandes Verites qui dans un quart d'heure m'illuminerent Sous cet arbre, a ete bien foiblement epars dans Les trois principaux de mes ecrits, Savoir ce premier discours, celui Sur L'inegalite, et Le traite de L'education, Lesquels trois ouvrages sont inseparables et ferment ensemble un meme tout. 59 And while I think makes rather this passage masterpiece, it~ closely of his major works. as well as by design, sur les sciences thesis that to his boldest Emile - it does offer into the way he and his public sition - because together For there Rousseau's et les arts he had propounded advancement of both culture insight the plan of compo- is no doubt but that, principal comprise and most an important envisaged writings an elaboration in 1750 - the thesis, and society it decried 60 too much of an essay which Rousseau elsewhere and at the same time ties original is somewhat misleading after by repute the Discours of the central that is, that the has produced the moral 58. This was no doubt partly to preserve his anonymity during the competition and even afterwards - since the first published edition appeared with the same signature but not his name. On the other hand, and perhaps paradoxically, Rousseau also employed the terms 'citoyen de Geneve', in my view, to establish his republican identity. Already in bis 'Epitre a M. Bordes' (O.C.II, p. 1130) he had exclaimed, "Moi, fier republicain que blesse l'arrogance, Du riche impertinent je dedaigne l'appui", and in his letter to Voltaire of 30 January 1750 - also signed 'Citoyen de Geneve' he had referred to himself again (Correspondance complete, II, p. 124) as "un Republicain [qui) adore la liberte". Leigh makes the interesting point, however (see ibid., p. 126), that Rousseau, who was a conver~ to Catholicism in 1750, knew that he had thereby lost his Genevan citizenship. 59. Rousseau to Malesherbes, X, p. 26. 60. 12 January See pp. 382-383 above. 399 1762, Correspondance complete, �degradation of mankind. elaboration of a thesis whose interconnected I fear that 1 I do not mean to suggest is the same as the construction parts I may have to stress just that here in several places, the proposition which I should like came to develop and refine \ they~ /influence on reading was sparked the notice rather of the Discours by Diderot. precision a coherent are two favourable to Diderot - albeit head when he was struck of the Academie de Dijon, in the text,and which Rousseau freely Diderot's 61. Seep. No fully by the thunder- and his true jolts fired by the critics about the Premier Discours us long. and, in one case, from Plato's dialogue. indirect devised that But these there - references the passage Apology took as its 62 has been It is true that it has even been established of that genius et les arts. need not detain adapted own translation and of whether its main theme was actually brief and what he termed his from 1750 to 1756, of smaller Rousseau of detail, of the genesis which encapsulated But it was in and more sharpness theory in the period sur les sciences This dispute study. text, by the accumulation upon the question I end this and made the views he had propounded in that One of the major controversies focused which I have already that armed Athena sprang from Rousseau's bolt doctrine the Premier Discours and society [ "grand systeme 1161 of ideas of a single to advance next is that surrounding to constitute of culture point, one more time before to put them forward with greater /until this are spread over the corpus of his writings, !the course of the controversy I for a moment that devices source scarcely 431 below. 62. See O.C.III, p. 24 for a citation of a passage from Diderot's Pensees philosophiques (Assezat-Tourneux, I, p. 129). The implicit reference appears in connection with a quotation from Montaigne (see O.C.III, pp. 9, note, and 1243). For a commentary upon the passage most likely drawn from Diderot's translation of the Apology (now in the Fends Vandeul in Paris) see Raymond Trousson, Socrate devant Voltaire, Diderot et Rousseau (Paris 1967), appendix. See also Havens, 'Rousseau's First Discourse and the Pensees philosophiques 400 �betoken an actual of the Premier 63 Voltaire, Discours, that there influence in particular that epurer at all about it until his friends is in fact conversation at that figure is no reason correct. For one thing, of generally were produced several They are, third-hand, decades in short, restatements after highly derogatory partisan that the testimony all their accounts was first of the broached in October 1749 - break with and unreliable, second- For another, Diderot to have given Rousseau the idea of responding in the nothing of a discussion posed by the Academie de Dijon, more than the possibility Romanic Review, XXXIII (1942), and 0.C.III, p. 1253. See Havens, pp. 225-226, and O.C.III, - of Roussea~ which notorious and those but of Diderot' s him. we have from both his writings Diderot produced, come to infuriate evidence 63. Now recollections to the question of Diderot', and 235-236; 64 evidence portraits Rousseau's commentators Rousseau actually of Vincennes negative to absolutely a of Diderot's man who had long since never claimed and Meister, suggested ff. irmative. • to suppose that meeting at the prison in the context Diderot. ' tea h in between the two men in which the subject dramatic of he should answer the had been the case it does not constitute in any event there supporters Morellet, According to these for the work that to The & des Arts a contribue des Sciences in the negative. was in some way responsible tribute - Mmede Vandeul - have all • • 11 y inten • d e d to reply Rousseau h a d origina even if this express about the extent - Marmontel, who proposed to Rousseau that 'Si le retablissement or composition it was finished. has been so much discussion - and his daughter les moeurs' in the conception any more than does the work's is that it was Diderot question played by Diderot who knew nothing only reason Diderot's role and all and with a himself the of Rousseau amounts that when Rousseau pp. 356-359; Havens, pp. 187-188 pp. 21 and 1250-1251. The relevant documents have been considered at length by several scholars on many occasions. See especially F. Vezinet, 'Rousseau ou Diderot?', RHLF, XXXI (1924), pp. 306-314; Krakeur [Crocker], 'Diderot's Influence on Rousseau's First Discours', PMLA,LII (1937), pp. 398-404; Havens, 'Diderot and the Composition of Rousseau's First Discourse'; Trousson, Socrate devant Voltaire, Diderot et Rousseau, appendix; and O.C.III, pp. xxvii-xxx. 64. 401 �had expressed prendrez replied, his enthusiasm about the subject "Vous le parti que personne ne prendra", with Rousseau having 65 ''Vous avez raison". Why these remarks should have been taken to mean that very difficult Rousseau had not thought of the idea himself to understand. of the work itself, claiming Didero1: admitted Thirdly, that if he had wri1:ten it instead, Fourthly, he had said Diderot it was full "J'aurais fait is held a low opinion of "sophismes" tout autre and that chose 11• - in terms which are remarkably 66 similar to those employed by Rousseau at rou.ghly the same time - that it was 67 "l' etincelle qui parti t de Dijon ..• qui l' enflamma", and it is hard to imagine how Rousseau could have been enflamed by an idea which only a few minutes . 68 opposite. incompatible la~er he was persuaded to abandon for the sake of its Finally, of Rousseau's the substance with Diderot's argument is actually own views for much the same reasons, which 65. Refutation de 'L'Homme', Assezat-Tourneux, II, p. 285. This text, which first appeared in Assezat-Tourneux (thou.gh some pages had already been printed in a suppressed volume of the Corresoondance litteraire in 1783), was drafted by Diderot several times between 1773 and 1778. Almost exactly the same lines figure, too, in his Essai sur les regnes de Claude et de Neron (see Assezat-Tourneux, III, p. 98) of 1782, a work which forms the second edition of his Essai sur la vie de Seneoue of 1778. In the first edition Diderot had drawn a savage portrait of Rousseau, thou.gh without mentioning him by name; in the second edition, which appeared after Diderot had had an opportunity to read the first part of Rousseau's Confessions - whose impending publication he had dreaded for some years - the reference is explicit. Rousseau himself recounted the circumstunces of their meeting at Vincennes just very briefly in his Confessions (see O.C.I, p. 351). Both in his letter to Malesherbes of l2 January 1762 (see the Correspondance complete, X, p. 26') and in Rousseau juge de Jean Jaoues (see O.C.I, pp. 828-829) he reflected only upon the vision of a new world which he had had on reading the notice of the Academie de Dijon. 66. Refutation de 'L'Homme', Assezat-Tourneux, II, p. 285. On the unlikely testimony of Grimm, however (see his letter to Gottsched of 25 November 1752, in the CoITesoondance complete, II, pp. 202-203), Diderot had earlier been converted to Rousseau's thesis. 67, Refutation de 'L'Homme', p. 286. Cf. the following passage in Rousseau juge de Jean Jaques, O.C. I, p. 829: "De la vive effervescence qui se fit alors dans son ame sortirent ces etincelles de genie qu'on a vu briller dans ses ecrits durant dix ans de delire et de fieV!'e .... Enflamme par la contemplation de ces grands objets, il les avoit toujours presens a sa pensee." 68. First On this point see also Krakeur, Discours', pp. 402-403. 402 'Diderot's Influence on Rousseau's �69 I have considered already, that a major influence on his part undermine any attempt in the composition to establish of the Discours sur 1 1 inegalite. While this Premier protracted Discours a few short is of small years was concentrated come to full fruition. both his ideas and which thesis, that requires Rousseau raised and more clearly they w~re meant of his confrontations and his literary "Je n 'ai pas toujours of the Discours social sur les sciences theory with powers began to eu le bonheur de in the writings which he conceived • t h eir• in Rousseau made no effort and there very shortly altogether. 6'9. See eh. III, 70. 'Preface the text 72 to all to elaborate f ormu1 ation. • 3nd 7l the rejoinders to his - even among those published had appeared Others and the elements in a coherent in order f"irst to reply were some critiques after et les arts, came to be expressed • h"is views • h re f ine rat h er tan notice which raged for • f ais• ,, , 7 o he proclaime • d in • t h e b est o f t h e vin • d.icacomme Je of his early essay, central of borrowed propositions and it was only in the course that fashion of its of the publication, of his work were more perceptive his detractors tions its For a number of the points argued than the collection penser the dispute following upon the validity the critics to defend, about the genesis consequence immediately more attention. against controversy - which probably he acknowledged more or less escaped his without pp. 110-113. de Narcisse', O.C.II, p. 962. 71. This fact has not been stressed often enough by Rousseau scholars, though it has been noticed before by some commentators, for instance by Ira Wade in his review of the Havens edition of the Discours sur les sciences et les arts (see French Review, XXI (1948), p. 510). According to Wade, however, it is not Rousseau's replies to his critics so much as their remarks against him which "bore fruit in [his] later works". That seems to me a misconceived construction of an essentially correct idea. Rousseau probably overlooked a number of the great many reviews which appeared in 1751 and 1752, not only in France but throughout enlightened Europe generally. Lessing's review of April 1751 in Das Neueste aus de~ 72. 403 �comment, and he greeted Encyclopedie d 1Alembert 1 s Discours - the most celebrated ideas were challenged, Enlightenment among the and a kind of manifesto movement which Rousseau's text preliminaire writings to the in which his of the whole had seemingly condemned - with the words, Jene puis m'empecher de penser avec plaisir que la posterite verra dans un tel monument que vous avez bien pense de moi.73 Six of the attacks levelled against the Premier Discours from all however, insofar as they were met by direct of these attacks - an anonymous work (possibly 1 tals the rest, stand apart rebut- from him. In the first 74 Raynal ) entitled the 'Observations Reiche des Witzes of April 1751, for his attention at all - this despite hostile interest whi~h his work had de Narcisse', O.C.II, pp. 960, note, sur le Discours by qui a ete instance, seems not to have caught the fact that he was aware of the aroused in Germany (see the 'Preface and 1865-1866, and Havens, p. 34). 73. Rousseau to d'Alemhert, 26 June 1751, Correspondance complete, II, p. 160. To be fair, d 1 Alembert had described Rousseau (Encyclop~die, I, p. xxxiii) as "un Ecrivain eloquent & philosophe", but while his remarks were certainly polite and respectful in tone they were much more critical than commendatory in substance. Rousseau was rather selective when contending with his critics, and he hardly deigned to reply at all to some of the attacks against the Premier Discours - for instance those of the ahbe Le Roy and Rene de Bonneval - which he had undoubtedly re.ad. He did, however, continue to defend most of the views he had propounded in his work even after the main controversy about it was concluded, and his letters to Voltaire of 7 September 1755 (see the Corresoondance complete, III, pp. 164-,168) and to Franz Christof Scheyb of 15 July 1756 (see ibid., IV, pp. 26-29) comprise only the most important among the subsequent justifications he produced. To my knowledge just two (both incomplete) collections of the writings addressed to the Discours sur les sciences et les arts have ever been published, the first (the Recueil de toutes les pieces gui ont ete publiees a l'occasion du Discours de M. J.J. Rousseau sur [les sciences et les arts) Gotha, 2 vols.) in 1753, the second (in vol. II of the Launay edition of Rousseau's Oeuvres completes) in 1971. There is also a very useful discussion of the main contributions in Havens {see pp. 34-61). 74. Raynal had sent Rousseau an advance copy of this short essay in his capacity as editor of the Mercure de France, and Rousseau's reply, addressed to Raynal, was in fact printed in the same issue of the journal. 404 �couronne a Dijon' there take appeared into and printed three account. in the Mercure de France main points Firstly, been sufficiently explicit the author for he appeared 1 1 Europe avant le renouvellement worse than that the jargon that and false with regard pas tout cursory of ignorance learning because of luxury la-dessus Thirdly ou etait fro~ his thesis which was it had been dominated Secondly, " 76 to offer by he noted Rousseau "[qui) n'ignore had been too vague and - and perhaps Rousseau had failed for the condition which marked our la situation of scholasticism. in his discussion. which followed point Rousseau had not des sciences 1175 - a state to the question that complained, to "preferer ce qu' il y aurai t a dire he regretted which Rousseau was to about the precise moral decline, truly of criticism in June 1751 - most importantly any practical and had neglected - conclusions to propose a remedy he described. Quelle conclusion pratique peut-on tirer de la these que l'auteur soutient? Quand on lui accorderait tout ce qu 1 il avance sur le prejudice du trop grand nombre de savants ... comme au contraire sur le trop petit nombre de laboureurs; c 1 est, dis-je, ce qu'on lui accordera sans peine: mais quel usage en retirera-t-on? Comment remedier ace desordre, tant du cote des princes que de celui des particuliers?77 The second attack was the 'Reponse' of Poland - no doubt with the assistance de Menoux - published This work contained Rousseau offered 75. Launay, II, 76. Ibid. 77. Ibid. drafted of his confessor in the Mercure de France three a reply. further charges The first p. 69. 405 by King Stanislas v1as Father in September of some substance that ignorance Joseph 1751. to which of vice is �78 not the same as virtue and that the men who inhabited before the advent of our arts but rather Rousseau had drawn an entirely was that hommes sans defaut:s, more t:h an ruption were not at all innocent ferocious, cruel, and ''transportes par des passions 79 The second, which followed directly from the first, violentes". the arts and sciences the world sans desirs, ,,.d, • i ee pour se f aire an and sciences imaginary portrait: sans passions" i·11 usion. II • 80 have not been responsible as has in fact occurred of "des which was nothing The third was that for such moral cor- in human history, for that ment has been brought about by an excess of wealth rather developthan learning. Non, ce n'est pas des sciences, c'est du sein des richesses que sont nes de tout temps la mollesse et le· luxe; et dans aucun temps les richesses n'ont ete l'apanage ordinaire des savants. 81 Sane of these for instance arts appeared the first moreover, 81, Discours sur les avantages des sciences in the same journal who was a historian observations whose in the MercUI-e de France in October 1751, and 1740s and to whom he had addressed - which was printed attacks, Joseph Gautier, of Charles Borde - with whomRousseau had become friendly the early 78. 79. 80. again in the later by the mathematician in the third, own 'Refutation' in the fourth, ideas were to feature which challenged his 'Epitre Rousseau's in Lyon in a M. Bordes' in December 1751. 82 as well,'introduced et des Gautier, a number of critical scholarship - contending, See ibid., p. 73. Ibid., p. 75. Ibid., Ibid., p. 73. p. 74. 82. The essay had already Lyon in June 1751. been read at a meeting of the Academie de 406 �among other things, that he really ought not to have praised the Scythians who wel"e in fact a fierce and savage people which displayed . , 83 that "font horreur a la nature", adding, too, that some of traits the ancient figures, had maintained thesis quite them. that particularly "les belles-lettres the opposite Gautier culture, also made at least of ignorance built a la vertu 1184- a one remark which greatly the author to rankled with of the Premier Discours was who appeared to favour the destruction the burning of libraries, form of barbarism preparent from that which Rousseau had ascribed Rousseau, for he charged that the apologist Seneca, to whom he paid his tribute and a general upon the ruins return of to a rustic of civilisation. L'auteur que je combats est l'apologiste de l'ignorance: il parait souhaiter qu'on brille les bibliotheques; il avoue qu'il heurte de front tout ce qui fait aujourd 1 hui l'admiration des hommes, et qu'il ne peut s'attendre qu'a un blame universel; mais il compte sur les suffrages des siecles a venir. Il pourra les remporter, n'en doutons point, quand l'Europe retomber~ dans la barbarie; quand sur les ruines des beaux arts eplores, triompheront insolemment l'ignorance et la rusticite. 85 Borde, for his part, that Rousseau's portrait reiterated the point of an uncorrupted state first made by Stanislas was simply an illusion, remarking that on est desabuse depuis longtemps de la chimera de l'age d'or; partout la barbarie a precede l 1etablissement des societes; c'est une verite prouvee par les annales de tousles peuples.86 83. Launay, II, p. 95. 84. Ibid., p. 99. In the"Discours sur les sciences et les arts (see O.C.III, pp. 14 and 1246) Rousseau had quoted a passage from Seneca which he actually transcribed from Montaigne. See also Havens, p. 203, note 151. 85. Launay, II, p. 94. 86. Ibid., p. 134. 407 �He also repeated richesses, that the charge that et non des sciences the advancement of culture the same path and that to the decline "nait irnmediatement des 87 et des arts 11, and he contended, too, and the growth of empires follow much the arts of our political luxury and sciences, so far from contributing institutions, perissent infailliblement, [frappes] des memes coups; en sorte que l'on peut observer que les progres des lettres et leur declin sont ordinairement dans une juste proportion avec la fortune et l'abaissement des empires. 88 In addition to these her of further he observed progress agency, claims, objections that since of culture moreover, Borde also put forward a num- which seemed to follow from them. the fall of nations it must be explained and in his view that ultimate Firstly, was not attributable as the effect to the of some other cause could only be political in character. Ces sanglantes revolutions ont-elles done quelque chose de commun avec les progres des lettres? partout je vois des causes purement politiques,89 Secondly, military he maintained prowess of uncivilised barbarian to their that nations Rousseau had been unwise to praise whatever conquests the might have made were due not to their innocence but moral injustice. 87. Ibid., 88. Ibid. , p. 136. 89. Ibid. 90. See ibid., 91. Discours 90 peoples, since the The "qualites guerrieres 1191 which Rousseau p. 137. p. 140. sur les sciences et les arts, 408 0.C.III, p. 24. �had cherished were nothing more than "les moeurs grossieres" judgment of Borde, "des vertus de notre etre". 92 animales a la peu confonnes It was only "une barbarie passee in the dignite de mode", he concluded, de supposer detruire.93 que les hommes ne sont nes que pour se In his Second Discours finally - a text of the attacks published society that in 1753 94 of primitive were remnants of our earlier arisen declared, that from a surfeit can only yield - Borde made this barbarism last by suggesting of individuals of culture. defective et des arts, was to comprise the sixth men more general which now mark the behaviour had des scienees to which Rousseau replied about the savagery the vices sur les avantages point that in civilised rather than attributes Imperfect knowledge, he virtue. Que des connoissances imparfaites produisent des Vertus qui le sont aussi; il n'y a rien la que de conforme a mes principes: nos Sciences sont au berceau, nous tenons a la barbarie par mille cotes: n'avons-nous pas encore des haines de Nations, des Guerres, des Combats singuliers? tant d'ignorance qui nous reste ne peut etre sans beaucoup de vices. 95 The filth a professor attack was the 'Refutation' of anatomy and surgery 92. Launay, II, 93. Ibid., of Claude-Nicolas and permanent secretary Le Cat of the p. 134. p. 140. 1 94. Borde s Second Discours actually dates from 1752, for in August of that year it was read at two meetings of the Academie de Lyon. It was printed in Avignon in the spring of the following year, by which time Borde had had an opportunity to read the 'Preface de Narcisse' and to incorporate a note about it in the published version of his text. 95. Havens, p. 55. 409 �Academie de Rouen - which appeared in the spring work, one of the longest and certainly of the refutations the most deceitful 96 of 1752. In this of the Premier Discours - since Le cat pretended to be a member of the Academie de Dijon who had voted against Rousseau's 97 prize essay - nearly every point raised earlier by the other critics was recapitulated. joli Indeed, Le Cat's conte de fee ... ce siecle Rousseau to distinguish and upon the idea that les sciences special et des arts. first indicate Discours Though Rousseau him. between 'courage' all work there were no new points or inspired and upon the failure produced a rejoinder of substance Nevertheless, reply to the 'Reponse' philosopher For just as the unknown author lenged Rousseau to be specific des sciences Le cat I s troubled prepared case a rebuttal by of - he provided the for the development of his ideas. of the first 'Observations' about the temporal point had chalof our moral Le Cat, in his endorsement of the essay by King Stanislas, decline, challenged subject to 'Refutation' of Stanislas with a whole new front que corrigent in it which either in another 99 he owed a rather sur les avantages Le Cat at roughly the same time - in this Rousseau's that of and 'ferocite•, "le luxe est un abus des richesses et la raison",lOO debt to Borde's 98 d'or", properly focus upon what he tenned "un him to designate to his imputations. precisely which areas of culture Surely Rousseau did not propose to include music among the arts and sciences 96. complete, See the Correspondance were II, which had brought about p. 194, and Havens, p. 48. 97. For the Academy's repudiation of this fraud, see the Correspondance complete, II, append.ice 73, pp. 298-300. 98. Launay, II, p. 168. See also ibid. , p. 163. 99. See ibid. 1 p. 162. 100. Ibid., p. 167. 410 �the debasement of morals, the articles he exclaimed, on music for the Encyclopedie anyone else how us·eful and advantageous humanity and how, at the very least, to his general and the main contributor this must know better subject it must constitute of than has been for an exception thesis. Nous lui demanderons le denombrement precis de ces sciences, de ces arts, objet de ces imputations. Nous esperons qu'il ne mettra point dans la liste la musique, que les censeurs des arts regardent comme une science des'plus futiles .... H. Rousseau connait mieux qu'un autre ses utilites, ses avantages, puisqu'il en fait son etude, puisqu'il s'est charge de remplir cette brillante partie des travaux encyclopediques.101 Rousseau produced his replies to these attacks in various ways His 'Lettre a Raynal' was printed in the 102 Mercure de France in June 1751, bis 'Reponse au roi de Pologne' 103 appeared as a brochure in October 1751, his 'Lettre a Grimm' between 1751 and 1753. ['Reponse a M. Gautier'] 104 month, his 'Derniere 101. 102. was published reponse' in the same format in the same came out together with the first Ibid., p. 93. See note 74 above. 103. See the Corresoondance complete, II, p. 173. The 'Reponse' of King Stanislas had been published anonymously, though there can be no· doubt but that Rousseau knew the identity of its author (see O.C.III, pp. 1257-1.258). In his reply (ibid., p. 56) Rousseau even managed to incorporate the following oblique reference to his adversary: "Il y a en Europe un grand Prince, et ce qui est bien plus~ un vertueux Citoyen, qui dans la patrie qu'il a adoptee et qu'il rend heureuse, vient de former plusieurs institutions en faveur des Lettres. Ila fait en cela un.e chose tres-digne de sa sagesse et de sa vertu. " 104. See the Correspondance comolete, II, p. 175. Rousseau's work was addressed to Grimm on the pretence that Gautier did not really merit a reply. Thus, Rousseau remarked in his text (O.C.III, p. 68), "Jene repliquerai. •• pas a M. Gautier, c'est un point resolu". A decade later, after Rousseau had become estranged from Grimm, he instructed Duchesne to remove Grimm's name from the title-page of the text which would appear in the collected edition of his writings. An early draft of Rousseau's 'Reponse a M. Gautier' survives in Neuchatel Ms R 50 (ancienne cote 7872b). 411 �Discours of Borde in April 1752, separately his a Lecat' 'Lettre in or about May 1752, and his 'Preface a Bordes' lettre 105 was probably drafted though it remained impublished until was printed d'une seconde in the late autumn of 1753, the nineteenth century. 106 Around the end of 1752, moreover, Rousseau also composed a general defence of his ideas in the Premier Discours - which he prefixed his theatrical comedy, Narcisse seven principal altogether rejoinders is nearly which three cri ties by treating managed to address both his respect best advantage. bo!"I'Owedsome of their these Rousseau and tones of discourse to display and his contempt for Gautier to their replied that count period, of his work, moreover, styles cr--der, for instance, Rousseau's during this of writings In these vindications in we can in fact of the text whose arguments they were designed to adopted a number of different sion, - so that to his critics comprise a collection times the length reinforce. 107 to and expresfor Stanislas But just as ideas from one another he ideas as roughly interchangeable, a few of his rebuttals and he even to works in which the rele- vant charges bad not been made. With regard to the historical Gautier, his depth. Rousseau seemed rather He took no notice points that uncomfortable at all had been raised and perhaps of Gautier's by even out of o.bjections to bis 105. A rough draft of part of the 'Derniere reponse' survives in . Neuchatel Ms R ~5 (ancienne cote 7869 - see the Correspondance complete, II, appendice 84, pp. 321-322). 106. ~he 'Preface Geneve Ms fr. 228. Houltou. d'une seconde lettre a Bordes' constitutes part of It was printed for the first time in Streckeisen- 107. For an account of the composition and substance of this play, to which the preface was only added at the last moment, see 0.C.II, pp. 1858-1865. Rousseau may have had some conception of writing it even before 1730 and undoubtedly drafted it several times during the 1730s and aft~rwards. It was first staged at the Comedie Franc;:aise in December 1752. 412 �views about Seneca and the Scythians, briefly history on a few issues 108 dealing he proclaimed scholarship that and erudition were meant to solve, and though he did confront with the interpretation he would not pursue on the grounds that and the questions him of ancient such matters of the problems which they they were meant to clarify, would thus become only more complex and obscure. Les Brochures se transforment en Volumes, les Livres se multiplient, et la question s 1 oublie: c'est le sort des di~putes de Litterature, qu'apres des in-Folio d'eclaircissemens, on finit toujours par ne s~avoir plus ou l'on en est: ce n'est pas la peine de co1lDTlencer.l09 When Gautier, he concluded in turn, that produced his own reply the whole of Rousseau's to Rousseau's 'Reponse' case was nothing more than tme declamation vague, appuyee sur une metaphysique fausse, et sur des applications de faits historiques, 110 qui se detruisent par mille faits contraires. Rousseau, however, took no notice second attack neglect remained unanswered. of detailed announced in his 1 0bservations 1 historical 'Lettre a Raynal'. had challenged retorted his real charge, for Rousseau's For when the author of and Gautier's had in any case already him to specify marked the beginning about the connection further The main reason narrative circumstances that of this precisely of the which historical our moral decline Rousseau aim had been to put forward a general between the progress of the arts been thesis and sciences and 108. See, for instance (in Launay, II, p. 96, and O.C.III, p. 65), the dispute between Gautier and Rousseau with regard to the role played by Carneades in fomenting Cato's suspicions about the merits of Greek philosophy. 109. 1 Reponse a M. Gautier', O.C.III, 110. 'Observations du meme M. Gautier M. Grimm', Launay, II, p. 110. 413 p. 61. sur la lettre de M. Rousseau a �He had not been essentially the decadence of morals. trace the course of any particular concerned to set of events. 111 Il auroit du, disent-ils ... , marquer le ?oint d'ou il part, pour designer l'eooque de la decadence. J'ai fait plus; j'ai rendu ma proposition ~ale: j'ai assigne ce premier degre de la decadence des moeurs au premier moment de la culture des Lettres dans tousles pays du monde, et j'ai trouve le progres de ces deux choses toujours en proportion.112 Rousseau was to pursue in his Discours this sur l'inegalite theme of generality where he later not upon the untainted civilisations the nature man and upon a condition of primeval so remote that 113 features. no historical After the publication became progressively tures, with its adopted that while he gradually past his evidence of human history antiquity. In these years, of our in different cul- upon our most distant is, than by the heroes his fidelity came to be counterbalanced, for the Histoire Rousseau contemporary by savages who had thus far escaped rather that true of the approach Tihicb he set his sights was populated the miseries enthusiasm manifestations sources came to be drawn from an increasingly world - a world that Lives of Plutarch uncover its with the ultimate quality upon of humanity which was could possibly particular and it was a paradoxical times but rather of the Premier Discours more concerned decadence and less focused his attention of ancient research much further generale and sages of to the venerable we might say, by his des voyages of Prevost. 114 As 111. Since the anonymous author of the 'Observations' incorporated a few reflections of "des personnes bien intentionnees" (probably Raynal himself again) who were equally unidentified, Rousseau also included some remarks addressed to these persons in his 'Lettre a Raynal'. 112. fourth 'Lettre a Raynal', O.C.III, pp. 31-32. Cf. the passage in the paragraph of the 'Observations' which appears in Launay, II, p. 69. 113. See eh. III, pp. 225-226. 114. On Rousseau's admiration for Plutarch, see especially note 47 above. With regard to his debt to Prevost, see eh. III, notes 29, 94, 104, and 110. 414 �the divisions perceived between man's nature grew sharper to characterize and his culture and bolder these the argwnents differences the profundity me important state scholarship of his speculative This point joined about the generality of Rousseau's of the ideas and second Discours. a chimera, in charging that illusion. by thesis seems to between the compositions his conception had abstraction the view of our primitive in substance of of a golden age was confused a philosophical Indeed, no more chimerical the short- about the natural tion which Rousseau had advanced was, he protested reponse', theory Borde and Le Cat, for instance, but they had thereby for an historical social and insights. for our understanding Stanislas he put forward were soon to be supplanted of man which he formed in the period his first that also came to be more general, in the course of the development of his early comings of his historical which Rousseau in his condi- 'Derniere than the concept of virtue itself. On m1 assure qu'on de la chimere de encore qu'il y a la chirnere de la In his 'Lettre a Lecat' est depuis long-terns desabuse l'Age d'or. Que n'ajoutoit-on long-terns qu'on est desabuse de vertu? 115 Rousseau replied been put to him by the author that he did not in fact superior wards; "pire 115. on the contrary, que l' ignorance 'Derniere 11 of the 'Observations' regard to the renaissance the centuries of arts 116 reponse', yet again, But his critics O.C.III, which had first by reiterating of medieval and sciences he maintained • to a question barbarism as which had come aftersuch a state had misconceived was his aim p. 80. 116. 'Lettre a Lecat', ibid., p. 101. Cf. the passage from the Discours sur les sciences et les arts, ibid., p. 6 cited on p. 393 above. 415 �when they imagined that order to identify he had juxtaposed the features or resuscitated. past and present of a be~ter world which might be copied His arguments had been designed to establish causes of our corruption hut not to plead for the rescue innocence. 'Reponse au roi de Pologne' 'Preface Both in his de Narcisse' Rousseau observed that ne revient a thesis jamais Rousseau took great he was the apologist "Un peuple and this to adhere throughout his life. offence accusation at Gautier's was 118 that who appeared to believe that our 119 should be crushed and our libraries burnt. "Quand un peuple est une fois 'Preface of our lost a people which had once to a virtuous state. 117 la vertu 11 , he exclaimed, to which he continued Above all, culture a the and in his been degraded could never return vicieux epochs in of ignorance corrompu a uncertain point", he asked in the de Narcisse', soit que les sciences y aient contribue·ou non, faut-il les bannir ou l'en preserver pour le rendre meilleur ou pour l'empecher de devenir pire? C'est une ... question dans laquelle je me suis positivement declare pour la negative.l20 We must not plunge Europe back into a state in his 'Reponse au roi de Pologne', well as in the 'Derniere ing the indeed, obliteration the destruction reponse', and in each of these he insisted of our libraries, of society of barbarism, that academies, he contended two works, as he was not advocator universities, itself. 117. 'Preface de Narcisse', O.C.II, pp. 971-972. The passage 'Reponse au roi de Pologne' is cited in eh. III, p. 229. 118. 119. See eh. III, pp. 229-231. Seep. 407 above. 120. 'Preface da Narcisse', or, O.C.II, 416 p. 971. from the �Jene proposois point de bouleverser la societe act"1Jell.e, de bruler les Bibliotheques et tous les livres, de detruire les Colleges et les Academies: et je dois ajouter ici que je ne propose point non plus de reduire les hommes a se contenter du simple necessaire.121 Rousseau was impressed which his critics had raised, ciently of their persuaded features of his theory. connection between virtue uncultured men of antiquity brutal and fierce agreed that there in their by the force of some of the objections and in at least two cases he was suffi- cogency to modify and even abandon certain Stanislas had challenged and ignorance and had maintained whom he had praised behaviour than innocent was a good deal of truth in this Ste.nislas modest, and pure. bad outlined - whereas the other the more and benign. contention, Rousseau and he between two forms of which only one was odious and terrible reasons of the that were really proposed to accommodate it by drawing a distinction of ignorance, his account - for the was reasonable, L 1Auteur attaque ... les louanges que j 1 ai donnees a l'ignorance .... Jene nie point qu'il ait raison, mais je ne crois pas avoir tort. Il ne faut qu'une distinction tres-juste et tres-vraie pour nous concilier. Il y a une ignorance feroce et brutale, qui nait d'un mauvais coeur et d'un esprit faux; une ignorance criminelle ... qui multiplie les vices ••. cette ignorance est celle que l'Auteur attaque ••.• Il y a une autre sorte d'ignorance raisonnable ... \llle ignorance modeste, qui nait d 1 un vif amour pour la vertu ... une douce et precieuse ignorance, tresor d'une ame pure .... Voila l'ignorance que j'ai louee.122 Yet since Rousseau did not attempt to explain how the difference between 121. 'Derniere reponse', O.C.III, p. 95. The comparable passage in the 'Reponse au roi de Pologne' appears in ibid., pp. 55-56 (see eh. III, p. 229). In the 'Preface de Narcisse' it appears in O.C.II, p. 972. 122. 'Reponse au roi de Pologne', 417 O.C.III, pp. 53-54. �these all two kinds of ignorance convincing, ascribing . l earning. and in his later the moral innocence writings his reply was not at he was rnore hesitant of primitive rnen to their about mere lack of 123 He regarded tary might have arisen Borde's comments about his emphasis upon the mili- • prowess of b arbarians he attempted distinction to meet this - this conquest, e.3 • .f. icant, 124 an d t h ough even .more signi point by drawing another on the other - he allowed that so worthy of our admiration he proposed that lame time between a commitment to war for the sake of on the one hand, and a willingness of liberty, rather as hunters, they should be stricken whose contributions than the achievements to fight soldiers labourers, were not generally and shepherds, from the list to humanity were essentially of artists for the defence and of persons more commendable and rnen of letters. Quel snectecle nous presenteroit le GenPe humain compose un-i crnement de laboureurs, de soldats. de chasseurs. et de bergers?I~S Un spectacle infiniment plus beau que celui du Genre humain compose de Cuisiniers, de Poetes, d'Imprimeurs, d'Orphevres, de Peintres et de Musiciens. Il n'y a que le mot soldat qu'il faut rayer du premier Tableau. La Guerre est quelquefois un devoir, et n 1 est point faite pour etre un metier. 123. That had not even been his intention in the Premier Discours, he protested in a note of the 'Reponse au roi de Pologne' (ibid., p. 54): "Si j'avois dit qu'il suffit d'etre ignorant pour etre vertueux; ce ne seroit pas la peine de me repondre; et par la meme raison, je me croirai tres-dispense de repondre moi-meme a ceux qui perdront leur terns a me soutenir le con'traire. 11 124. ln his 'Fragment biographique' (O.C.I, p. 1114) reflected that Borde alone among all the critics of his "savoit penser et ecrivoit bien ... il publia non centre autres, mais centre mon sentiment deux discours pleins vues et tres agreables a lire". 125. ~• Cf. Borde's first Discours Launay, II, p. 134. sur les avantages 418 Rousseau later Premier Discours moi comme les d'esprit et de des sciences et des �Tout homme doit etre soldat liberte; nul ne doit l'etre d 'autrui.126 pour la defense de sa pour envahir celle Following Borde 1 s criticism, however, Rousseau never again portrayed the ideal of military in the shining valour in the Premier Discours. "reputation guerriere" and "vertu themselves 11127of the ancient militaire sur l'inegalite all wars as criminal, combatants he had employed There he had remarked upon the glorious Romans, but in the Discours portray colours murderous, and afterwards execrable, he was to and - for the - pointless. Les Guerres Nationales, les Batailles,les meurtres, les represailles ... font fremir la Nature et choquent la raison .... Les plus honnetes gens apprirent a compter parmi leu~s devoirs celui d'egorger leurs semblables; on vit enfin les hommes se massacrer par milliers sans savoir pour·quoi.128 While Rousseau thus made a few concessions attacks he turned other major charges development of his theory. to the claims of Stanislas man was attributable it also applies Borde - that causes. d'Alembert, - factors and Borde that of an "objection that factors such as the customs of different 'Derniere 127. Discours reponse', 0.C.III, sur les sciences and - again made by to political Rousseau acknowledged considerable" several of than learning, was due ultimately 'Reponse au roi de Pologne' to the effect 126. the moral degradation to the statement of nations use in the true of his replies to an excess of wealth rather the decline the significance to more productive This is particularly to his response In his in the face of these which he ascribed apart peoples, to from the sciences their climate, p. 82. et les arts, 0.C.III, p. 23. 128. Discours sur l'inegalite, ibid., pp. 178-179. See also the passages from the second Discours disc_ussed in eh. III, pp. 189-191, and Havens, pp. 44 and 205-206. 419 �laws, economies, tion of their and governments - must all particular moral traits, problems which d'Alembert have figured in the fonna- and he remarked that had raised in this the manner required much con- sideration. Jene dois point passer ici sous silence une objection considerable qui. m'a deja ete faite par un Philosophe: N'est-ce point, me dit-on ... , ~ climat 1 au temperament ... a l'oeconomie du gouvernement 1 aux Coutumes 1 aux Loix 2 a toute autre cause gu'aux Sciences gu'on doit attribuer cette difference qu'on remargue quelquefois dans les moeurs en diff4rens pays et en diff4rens terns? Cette question renferme de grandes vues et demanderoit des eclaircissemens trop etendus pour convenir a cet ecrit.129 It is true that he also observed that a full but there critics discussion of such matters could lead him "trop loin can be no doubt of the fact that he began to address which these points, to his notice. himself substantial , 130 to his to the "eclaircissemens - was itself and social upon the nature 'Derniere which he had earlier 131 11 ... etendus" and Borde as well, brought For far more than ever before he came to set his sights effect In his in his replies and those of Stanislas upon the economic, political, dence in his 'Reponse au roi de Pologne' reponse', agents which must have had a and history of our corruption. for instance, he noted that condemned as the principal due largely to the decline luxury - cause of our decaof agriculture in the modern world. 129. 'Reponse au roi de Pologne', O.C.III, pp. 42-43. It is interesting to note that in this passage Rousseau credits d'Alembert with a rather more ample and detailed objection than he had actually made. For in his Discours preliminaire to the Encyclopedie (I, p. xxxiii) d'Alembert had only asked Rousseau to consider whether "la plupart des mawc qu'il attribue aux Sciences & aux Arts ne soot point dusa des causes toutes di.:rf'erentes, dont 1 1 enumeration seroi t aussi lo~e que delicate". 130. 'Reponse au roi de Pologne', O.C.III, p. 43. See also p. 428 below. 131. See pp. 387-388 above. See also the following passage from the 'Reponse au roi de Pologne', O.C.III, p. 51: "Le luxe corrompt tout; et le riche qui en joUit, et le miserable qui le convoite." 420 �Le luxe peut etre necessaire pour donner du pain aux pauvres: mais, s'il n'y avoit point de luxe, il n'y auroit point de pauvres. Il occupe les Citoyens oisifs. Et pourquoi y a-t'il des Citoyens oisifs? Quand l'agriculture etoit en honneur, il n'y avoit ni misere ni oisivete, et il y avoit beaucoup moins de vices. 132 Again in the 'Derniere Narcisse', moreover, property as a principal history of mankind. reponse' he drew attention source cept entailed, their and slaves largely most primitive of these must already of private two works he dealt which the practical de which have marked the and with the brutal in order to challenge state in the 'Preface to the significance of the miseries In the first with the concept of ownership between masters and soon afterwards division of the earth of that application Borde's thesis have been fierce mainly that conmen in and aggressive. Avant que ces mots affreux de tien et de mien fussent inventes; avant qu'ilyeut de cette espece d'hommes cruels et brutaux qu'on appelle maitres, et de cette autre espece d'hommes fripons et menteurs qu'on appelle esclaves; avant qu'il y eut des hommes assez abominables pour oser avoir du superflu pendant que d'autres hommes meurent de faim; avant qu'une dependance mutuelle les eut tous forces a devenir fourbes, jaloux et traitres; je voudrois bien qu'on m'expliquat en quoi pouvoient consister ces vices, ces crimes qu'on leur reproche avec tant d'emphase. 133 In the 'Preface upon the fact superior de Narcisse', that on the other the moral attributes hand, he concentrated rather of the savage were markedly to those of the European because savages were unscathed by the 132. 'Derniere reponse', O.C.III, p. 79. Rousseau had been rather less forthright in his views about agriculture in the Discours sur les sciences et les arts (see ibid., pp. 26-27). In the Discours sur l'inegalite, on the other hand (see the passages discussed in eh. III, pp. 215-216), he later maintained that the rise of agriculture had contributed to our corruption. 133. 'Derniere reponse', O.C.III, 421 p. 80. �habitual vices of greed, envy, and deception world caused men of property which in the civilised to scorn and to milke enemies of one another. Un Sauvage est un homme, et un Europeen est un homme. Le demi philosophe conclut aussitot que l'un ne vaut pas mieux que l'autre; mais .... P.armi les Sauvages ... l'amour de la societe et le soin de leur communedefense soot les seuls liens qui les unissent: ce mot de propriete, qui coute tant de crimes a nos honnetes gens, n'a presque aucun sens parmi eux: ils n'ont entre eux nulle discussion d' interet qui les divise; rien ne les porte a se tromper l'un l'autre ...• Je le dis a regret; l'homme de bien est celui qui n'a besoin de tramper personne, et le Sauvage est cet hanme-la.134 In these two passages les sciences directed et les arts, anywhere in Rousseau's against the critics then, we find the first writings of the thesis expound in the :form o:t a challenge which he was later factors been described Narcisse', as well. The evils befor-e by many figures, all causes, and the essential our vices stem ultimately at the role played by of contemporary society be reflected but while others bad perceived 1.mcovered its the problem be had in fact truth he had learnt O.C.II, 422 by 1753 not from our nature but rather Je sais que les declamateurs ont dit cent fois tout cela; mais ils le disoient en declamant, et moi je l.e dis sur des raisons; ils ont ape~u le mal, et moi j'en decouvre les causes, et je fais voir surtout une chose tres-consolante et 'O'es-utile en montrant que tous ces vices n'appartiennent Ras tant a l 1homme, qu'a l'homme mal gouverne.13 'Preface de Narcisse', Ibid., p. 969. had in the 'Preface from the ways in which we have been badly governed. 134. 135. to - on that occasion to Locke' e theory Rousseau now began to look more closely was that major statements ,, - in the Diecours sur l ' inegali te.,, o:r property political of his Discours sur pp. 969-970,.note. de �He was to make the sarne point 'Economie pol._itique I again about two years later where he remarked that longue ce que le gouvernement les fait once more in the following etre". 136 decade in the Lettre Beaumont where he proclaimed lised "les peuples that the counterfeit in the sent a la He was to stress a Christophe behaviour it de of civi- men was caused by notre ordre social, qui, de tout point contraire a la nature que rien ne detruit, la tirannise sans cesse, et lui fait sans cesse reclamer ses droits.137 And around 1770 he was to reflect of this principle had already had been stationed witnessed defects plan to treat been apparent in Venice nearly the dire consequences of that in his Confessions city's thirty for its that the truth to him at the time that years earlier, when he had people which followed from the government and when he had also conceived the subject • • to ea 11 t he I nst1tut1ons at length he the in a work which for awhile he was . 138 po 1·1t1ques. A Venise j'avois eu quelqu'occasion de remarquer les defauts de ce Gouvernement si vante. Depuis lors, mes vues s 1etoient beaucoup etendues par l 1 etude historique de la morale. J'avois vu que tout tenoit radicalement a la politique, et que, de quelque fa9on qu'on s'y prit, aucun peuple ne seroit jamais que ce que la nature de son Gouvernement le feroit etre.139 136. O.C.III, p. 251. 137. o.c.Iv, 138. See eh. II, p. 966. p. 81. 139. O.C.I, p. 404. In Emile, Livre IV (O.C.IV, p. 646, note) Rousseau portrayed the government of Venice as "tirannique", and in the Contrat social, where he commented upon the nature and character of its political institutions in some detail, he described the republic as "depuis longtems un Etat dissout" (III.v, O.C.III, p. 407, note) whose ruling council was "un Tribunal de sang, horrible egalement aux Patriciens et au Peuple ... qui, loin de proteger hautement les loix, ne sert plus, apres leur avilissement, 423 �In the 'Preface de Narcisse', then, we find the first idea whose elaboration in several to occupy a major part of Rousseau's between the compositions he addressed himself our political of the central life of the first and in different and works. on several themes of the Discours forms was moreover, to the moral effects other occasions, fragment about liberty of an In the years and second Discours, to problems pertaining relations example in this contexts statement too, which clearly of as for anticipates one sur 1 1 inegalite. Ce n'est que dans la vie solitaire qu'on peut trouver la liberte et l'innocence. et l'on doit tenir pour certain que l'epoque du premier etablissement des societes a ete celle de la naissance du crime et de 1 1 esclavage. Depuis que le monde a des maitres la corruption est devenue generale ainsi que la servitude. et c 1 est celle-ci qui a amene a l'autre. 140 With regard history least to the contribution of our moral decline partly made by wealth Rousseau soon showed himself in accord with the ideas of Stanislas some 1.mlcnowndate in the mid-1750s he was later directly to this and riches problem in a short 'Discours to be at and Borde. to address in the At himself sur les richesses' in which he denounced those pretendus sages, vils adulateurs de l'opulence, plus vils detracteurs de la pauvrete ... qui savent prudemment accommoder la philosophie au gout de ceux qui la paient.141 qu'a porter dans les tenebres des coups qu'on n 1 ose appercevoir" (IV.v, ibid., pp. 454-455). See also Rousseau's illustrations from Venetian history in the chapter (III.x, ibid., p. 421, note) of the Contrat social entitled 'De l 1 abus du gouvernement, et de sa pente a degenerer'. For the contrast which he drew between the republics of Venice, on the one hand, and Geneva, on the other, see the Contrat social, IV.iii, ibid., pp. 442-443. The most notable of the dispatches pertaining to this subject which he drafted when he was secretary to the French ambassador in Venice appears in O.C.III, pp. 1075-1077 (see also·ibid., p. ccliii). 140. Pichois-Pintard, p. 42. 141. Launay, II, p. 331. The 'Discours sur les richesses 1 comprises the bulk of Neuchatel Ms R 31 (ancienne cote 7855). It was first published in an edition by Felix Bovet in the Revue suisse in 1853. 424 �But already dates in a fragr.ient from around 1753 he asserted a manifestation that on 'Le luxe, of his desire the introduction that the cupidity to set himself the vice of poverty of its arts' which of man was largely above his neighbours, of gold in human affairs accompanied by the inequality issued le commerce et les had been unavoidably distribution and the predatory so from which there humiliation then of the poor by the rich. Des !'instant que l'usage de 1 1 or a ete connu des h(ommes) ils se sont tous efforces d'en amasser beaucoup et les succes ont du naturellement repondre aux divers degres d'industrie et d'avidi~e des concurrens, c 1 est a dire etre fort inegaux. Cette premiere inegalite jointe a !'avarice et aux talens qui l'avoient produite a du encore augmenter par sa propre force; car un des vices des societes etablies c'est que la difticulte d'acquerir croit toujours en raison des besoins et que c'est le superflu meme des riches qui les met en etat de depouiller le pauvre de son necessaire. 142 Yet if we are to recognise lation that of riches this trary, in the moral corruption has been the principal Rousseau declared and poverty are relative of inequality actually in his cause of our decline. 'Reponse au roi so that the crucial the degree of the inequality Rousseau set that to inequality, possible is available. in the Premier de Pologne', and extent cases which prevails rather than the It was in this fashion the genealogy by wealth, of luxury and indolence, is that of vices and he now proposed of our corruption which was then followed wealth in all Discours, in the dismal order the rise On the con- factor about the task of rearranging he had portrayed of place of mankind we must not suppose terms which depend upon the nature in society, amount of wealth pride the part that has been played by the accumu- which that should be granted which in turn made which then gave rise to the 142. O.C.III, p. 522. This fragment, which forms a part of Neuchatel Ms R 30 (ancienne cote 7854) was first published in Streckeisen-Moultou. 425 �arts, on the one hand, and sciences, on the other. dit ... que le luxe fut ne des Sciences", "Je n'avois pas he protested, mais qu'ils etoient nes ensemble et que l'un n'alloit gueres sans l'autre. Voici comment j'arrangerois cette genealogie. La premiere source du mal est 1 1 inegalite; de l'inegalite sont venues les richesses; car ces mots de pauvre et de riche sont relatifs, et par tout ou les hommes seront egaux, il n'y aura ni riches ni pauvres. Des richesses sont nes le luxe et l'oisivete; du luxe sont venus les beaux Arts, et de l'oisivete les .Sciences.143 Here, then, was a new version which placed the arts of the argument of the Premier Discours and sciences last - and not first, as his critics supposed. At least part views is apparent that mentally learned of the arts of vices our desire of culture to distinguish the respect of others has been responsible in human history rather else society. of public unless and compatriots. so that shares to establish de Pologne', 426 O.C.III, sense an cannot t:ruly of talent equal. 'Reponse au roi the arti- in this Moral virtue individual of our as our wish to command of our attempts esteem. of For an expression has prompted us to manufacture of advanced societies, Rousseau contended, it is funda- than the achievements to excellence is only a fulfilment unequal distribution 143. that and instruments civilisation roughly and sciences from our neighbours It is not so much our devotion exist, where he suggested has been above all ourselves of Rousseau's de Narcisse' and evils for learning modification men which undermine our morals in civilised our pursuit facts for this from the 'Preface while the progress for a whole train will of the reason pp. 49-50. are �Le gout des lettres annonce toujours chez l.ll'lpeuple un commencement de corruption qu'il accelere trespromptement. Car ce gout ne peut naitre ainsi dans toute une nation que de deux mauvaises sources que l 1 etude entretient et grossit a son tour, savoir l'oisivete et le desir de se distinguer .... Dans l.ll'l Etat bien constitue tousles citoyens sont si bien egaux, que nul ne peut etre prefere aux autres comme le plus savant ni meme comme le plus habile. 144 The only sa:feguard which we had ever had against he remarked in the 'Reponse au roi de Pologne', egalite" - now irredeemably source de toute arts vertu". and sciences feeling 145 critics of his Discours therefore, 'Observations' had criticised Rousseau had there neglected morals of men in their prevalent in the upon which Rousseau sur l'inegalite. replies et les arts Discours to draw a proper state to the led him toward of argument that and beyond. the first most primitive et for distinction and economic lines was to pursue in the second Discours de l'innocence Rousseau's sur les sciences social, premiere of much the same factitious in the Discours these respects, the more political, Hence our craving to dominate in politics was to focus his attention was "cette - "conservatrice was a manifestation as the desire In all lost corruption, The author partly he of the because comparison between the and the morality which was today. Il aurait du ... en remonant a cette premiere epoque faire comparaison des moeurs de ce tempsla avec les notres.146 144. 'Preface de Narcisse', O.C.II, p. 965. 145. 'Reponse au roi de Pologne', O.C.III, p. 56. In the Discours sur l'inegalite, of course, Rousseau was later to argue that the physical inequality of men in the natural state was col.ll'lterbalanced not by their moral equality but by the absence of morals. 146. II, 'Observations sur le Discours p. 69. 427 qui a ete couronne a Dijon', Launay, �To this objection Rousseau replied in his 'Lettre! C'est ce que j'aurois fait un volume in-quart:o.147 In his 'Reponse au roi de Pologne', Rayna.J.', encore plus au long dans moreover, in connection with his C0111111ents about the importance of the obscure but profound relations which join together the nature of government and the customs and man- ners of citizens, research Rousseau intimated on that subject that he was already and would consider it further undertaking on another occasion. Il s'agiroit d'examiner les relations tres-cachees, mais tres-reelles qui se trouvent entre la nature du gouvernement, et le genie, les moeurs et les connoissances des citoyens; et ceci me jetteroit clans des discussions delicates .... De plus ... ce soot des recherches bonnes a fa.ire a Geneve, et clans d'autres circonstances.1 4 8 !!he first major occasion the publication Rousseau's troversy was to arise just over of the 'Reponse au roi de Pologne', "recbel'Ches bonnes a faire", about the Premier Discours, atter two years when the seeds of sown largely during the con- were to become the harvest of the Discours sur l'inegalite. Yet though Rousseau was to embark upon a treatment moral degradation critics along a wider social path, in his replies the contrary he continued and he consistently to uphold his initial and culture, views as causal agents. thesis On throughout the reaffi.rmed the claims which he had made in his prize essay about the interconnections luxury, to the of the Premier Discours be did not abandon his earlier about the importance of the arts and sciences dispute, of man's between vanity, sloth, even while extending his argument to accommodate 147. O.C.III, p. 32. 148. 'Reponse au roi de Pologne', 428 ibid., p. 43. See also ibid. • p. 1261. �other Thus, for instance, factors. put forward his ideas his original text, in his 'Derniere reponse', he in much the same terms that he had employed in focusing chain of h1.1111an corruption particularly upon the set of links in the which encompasses science and letters. La vanite et l'oisivete qui ont engendre nos sciences, ont aussi engendre le luxe. Le gout du luxe accompagne toujours celui des Lettres, et le gout des Lettres accompagne souvent celcl du luxe: toutes ces choses se tiennent assez fidelle compagnie~ parce qu'elles sont l'ouvrage des memes vices. 14 In the course of the next several of his philosophy spectacles much further, years he was to develop this above all and of art conceived Le Cat could imagine in his as spectacle, 'Refutation' music was to be exempted from Rousseau's disillusioned after the publication of the following year. more dismayed to read the chapters langues about the relation moral decline But if of 1752 that the field charges, in of he was to be sadly sur la musigue No doubt be would have been even in the £ssai sur l'origine des between our musical advancement and our drafted For in Rousseau's as a section early social of the theory the harmonic music by which men have come to be enthralled the mode.rn world has its political tain in general. of the Lettre which Rousseau initially Discours sur l'inegalite. senseless sur l~s of 1758, in which he condemned the role of the theatre, particular, franxoise in his Lettre aspect institutions a like morales•~ just as the debased by which they have come to be captivated con- "cal.cul des intervalles". By the beginning de Narcisse', own "relations in of 1753, with the completion of his 'Preface Rousseau had produced a work in which the principles of 149. 'Derniere reponse', ibid., p. 74. Cf. especially the passages from the Discours sur les sciences et les arts cited on pp. 387-388 above. �his early social with greater les arts. theory were drawn together clarity and coherence Rousseau himself than ever before than in the Discours was to make this he appeared to have a much higher text better opinion which it was meant to buttress - certainly sur les sciences claim in his Confessions, of the 'Preface' et and than of the and defend. Dans la Preface qui est un de mes bons ecrits, je commen~ai de mettre a decouvert mes principes un peu plus que je n'avois fait jusqu'alors.150 By the autumn of 1753, when he drafted a Bordes' l'inegalite central - itself 151 probably this very soon supplanted - Rousseau reflected that theme of the Premier Discours to which he would thereafter the 'Preface all d'une second lettre by the Discours his writings comprised a distinct sur around the system of ideas adhere so long as he remained convinced that system was founded upon truth and virtue. Ce triste et grand Systeme, fruit d'un examen sincere de la nature de l'homme, de ses facultes et de sa destination, m'est cher, quoiqu'il m'humilie; car je sens combien il nous importe qui l'orgueil ne nous fasse pas prendre le change sur ce qui doit faire notre veritable grandeur, et combien il est a craindre qu'a force de vouloir nous elever au dessus de notre nature nous ne retombions au-dessous d'elle .... Mais quant au Systeme que j'ai soutenu, je le defendrai de toutte ma force aussi longtemps qui je demeurerai convaincu qu'il est celui de la verite et de la vertu.152 150. Confessions, O.C.I, p. 388. Grimm, however (Correspondance litteraire, IC2), pp. 321-322), thought the 'Preface' "outree" and "pas trop 1:i'oime ... si vous en exceptez quelques pages dignes de ... Montesquieu". 151. See eh. III, note 1, and the Correspondance complete, II, pp. 232-233. In connection with some remarks of Borde in his Second Discours sur les avantages des sciences et des arts to the effect that natural inequality provides a foundation for political and civil inequality, Leigh makes the interesting suggestion that ''Rousseau devait prendre le contre-pied dans son second Discours, qui sera la vraie reponse a celui de Borde". 152. 'Preface d'une second lettre a Bordes', O.C.III, p. 105. On the following page Rousseau refers twice again to his "Systeme" and even his "Systeme vrai mais affligeant". I disagree sharply, however, with Roger Masters (see his Political Philosophy of Rousseau, pp. 206-207 and 248), who interprets these passages as support for the claim, which I take to be misleading anyway, that "there is no reason to assume that Rousseau's fundamental philosophic position changed radically between the publication of the First Discourse ... and the appearance of the Emile and Social Contract". In the light of Jean-Jacque:ts replies to his critic~have tried to show here that after 1750 his position did change in a number of important �In his 'Fragment biographique' he even suggested that his own but rather which dates from the mid-1750s, moreover, 153 the system which he had uncovered was not in fact that of human nature itself. J'etudiois l'homme en lui meme et je vis voirenfin dans sa constitution le vrai la nature qu'on n'a pas manque d'appeller quoique pour l'etablir je ne fisse qu•o ce que je montrois qu I il s'atoi t donne. 1 ou je crus Systeme de le mien er de l'homme 4 5 It was ''mon grand systeme", pertaining to the period he noted in a passage of the dispute of his Confessions about his Premier Discours - "[unJgrand systeme" whose elements he was then engaged in assembling bit by bit. J'en jettois quelque chose sur le papier a l'aide d'un livret blanc et d'un crayon que j'avois toujours dans ma poche. 155 Near the end of his life philosophy as based upon just Rousseau came to regard one great principle - in effect, Nature has made man happy and good while society and depraved. of "cette 156 doctrine", In his early primitive All of his works culminating writings condition he observed tutions bind us to a life that writings made less has made him miserable in Emile were an illustration to show that must have been in a far better society, he had tried oppressive that in Rousseau juge de Jean Jaques. he had attempted contemporary the whole of his mankind in its state than that of in which we now pay our homage to the very instiof pennanent to explain despair; how the evils if our understanding in his later of our world might be of them was improved; and ways and develop in some unheralded directions, so that, as Borde himself put it in his Second Discours (p. 3), Rousseau's original "paradoxe ingenieux" came to be superseded by the unveiling of "un systeme decide". 153. See eh. IV, note 28, and O.C.I, 154. O.C.I, 155. Confessions, 156. Rousseau juge de Jean Jaques, p. 1836. p. 1115. ibid., p. 368. ibid., 431 p. 935. �throughout that his works he had been dedicated deception and illusion to the task of overcoming which made us look upon our plight it were also the only goal worthy of our respect as if and admiration. Suivant demon mieux le fil de ses meditations, j'y vis par tout le developement de son grand principe que la nature a fait l'homme heureux et bon mais que la societe le deprave et le rend miserable. L'Emile en particulier ... n'est qu'un traite de la bonte __ _ originelle de l'homme, destine a montrer comment le vice et l'erreur, etrangers a sa constitution, s'y introduisent du dehors et l'alterent insensiblement. Dans ses premiers ecrits il s'attache davantage a detruire ce prestige d'illusion qui nous donne une admiration stupide pour les instrumens de nos miseres et a corriger cette estimation trompeuse qui nous fait honorer des talens pernicieux et mepriser des vertus utiles. Par tout il nous fait voir 1 1 espece h\Mlaine meilleure, plus sage et plus heureuse dans sa constitution primitive, aveugle, miserable et mechante a mesure qu'elle s'en eloigne. Son but est de redresser l'erreur de nos jugemens pour retarder le progres de nos vices, et de nous montrer que la ou nous cherchons la gloire et l'eclat~ nous ne trouvons en effet qu'erreurs et miseres.1 51 There is much in this in Rousseau's writings - that passage illuminates his major works to be elaborations passage nevertheless his early parts and later points were they all designed "le developement and transformed of a single - either to social in the very texts principle. at the same time, whose substance be later regarded about the Premier Discours nor - to follow was extended as illustrations Rousseau did not really - with the question between For the various moments of conception In particular, 1750s generally difference thought. assembled de son grand principe", in the dispute of the early - at their it elsewhere theme, and yet the to a significant were not all like the way in which he conceived of a central equally contributions of his "doctrine" - and in others contend or in his writings posed by the anonymous 157. Ibid., pp. 934-935. In his first Discours and Emile, inseparable works which form "ensemble un meme tout ... j 'aurois expose tous les abus de Nos institutions", Rousseau had already remarked in his letter to Malesherbes of 12 January 1762 (Correspondance complete, X, p. 26). 432 �author of the 'Observations'. from the thesis In his evil What practical about the corruption 'Derniere reponse' and had tried a remedy he left its could one draw of morals which Rousseau had advanced? Rousseau replied to locate conclusion only that sources. The task he had seen the of searching for to others. J'ai vu le mal et tache d'en trouver les causes: D'autres plus hardis ou plus insenses pourront chercher le remede.158 In fact, in his however, later praises works. that very task In the Lettre of a form of art of debased; principles for their as festival right social according mutual advantage by Rousseau himself he was to sing rather of the participants in the Contrat of political together sur les spectacles - conceived in which the moral sentiments instead was to be undertaken than spectacle his later elected years, to leave with freedom. then, he was to devise rather than their important period place in the question 'grand systeme' configurations raised of development, not with its remedy. In these 'oisivete' loom larger, mainspring of the evolution the formation with its of culture. years perhaps, early above all Discours, and implications the other In the with the with its the principles What I have tried he had writings. genesis - but of 'inegalite' than any of the rest of society, of did not occupy a crucially of his nature writings about the Premier of our moral corruption, and patterns might still to the question from 1750 to 1756 Rousseau was concerned particular of common despair; In the major theoretical in the controversy for the problems which that a set to which men might be brought Rousseau was to turn unanswered - the one as the as the central to establish and here factor is that 158. 'Derniere reponse', O.C.III, p. 95. Cf. Rousseau's 'Mon Portrait', O.C.I. p. 1120: "Je suis observateur et non moraliste: Je suis le Botaniste qui decrit la Plante. C'est au medecin qu'il appartient d'en regler l'usage." See also the passage from the 'Reponse au roi de Pologne' cited in eh. III, p. 229. 433 - might be uplifted and in Emile he was to show how a plan of moral education be made compatible the in it was �in the course of the controversy et les arts that Rousseau came to formulate much more coherent original text, during and sophisticated so that study of culture background, therefore, account of the degeneration My principal plot by focusing elements established early problems. To establish For that theory truth that were designed to solve. contexts to the host of in which they figured. theory as particular the nature in which his argu- If these arguments they do so only insofar and his endorsement formulations as of the views of a coherent set of of these problems and the sense of 'pour savoir is just les choses, as indispensable is to our historical il faut savoir to our philosophical tation of ideas as it either case it is not merely our best guide but the only reliable that I about them we must always bear in mind the often that proposition of problems which the above all, of the ideas of one writer join together painstaking the institutions study has been to unravel of a systematic statements in which an - plot. with reference, of another Rousseau's of history of specific social on on the other of the particular controversies his critique in this sur l'inegalite, an account of his meaning must always be ments were formulated, comprise the elements With that des langues, philosophy upon the variety in the light Enlightenment sur 1 1 origine of morals through objective to show that new way. of his most mature deliberations forms the central of Rousseau's have tried in a than he had done in his again in an entirely an intricate and culture principles came to be the Discours the one hand, and the Essai society fashion the products years providing these sur les sciences by the end of 1753 he was ready to turn to the and society the following each text about the Discours we have. 434 understanding le detail'. interpre- of them, and in guide � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource PhD Thesis Subject The topic of the resource <strong>Title: </strong>Rousseau on Society, Politics, Music and Language - An Interpretation of His Early Writings<br /><strong><br /></strong> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Robert Wokler Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1987 Description An account of the resource <strong>Abstract:</strong> This study is focused upon a variety of specific problems which I believe the early writings of Rousseau were designed to solve. Most of the works that are discussed here were drafted by Rousseau between 1750 and 1756, and I shall argue that a proper grasp of this fact about their temporal proximity is important to an understanding of the conceptual relations which underlie them. I hope to show that any accurate account of Rousseau's meaning must incorporate a careful examination of the context in which his ideas were developed, and I shall therefore be concerned very largely with the manner in which his writings were conceived as replies to arguments that were produced by other thinkers. The first chapter is devoted to an account of some mistaken interpretations of Rousseau's meaning. We often confuse our own beliefs about the contemporary significance of certain ideas with the sense which their authors originally intended they should have, and in this chapter I consider a number of misconceptions of that kind, as well as some mistaken correctives to them, which have appeared in Rousseau studies. The views of C.E. Vaughan and Robert Derathe, in particular, are discussed with reference to these problems. The second chapter is concerned with the influence of Diderot upon Rousseau and especially with the intellectual debt which Rousseau owed to Diderot's article 'Droit naturel'. The 'Economie politique' and the Manuscrit de Geneve are shown to exhibit the influence of Diderot in two quite different ways, and the conceptions of the 'volonté generale' of the two figures are compared in the light of the differences between their accounts of the natural society of mankind. In the third chapter the arguments of the <em>Discours sur l'inegalité</em> are examined in connection with the ideas of several other figures from whom Rousseau drew some inspiration or against whom he raised some objections in that work. The chapter opens with a challenge to the thesis that the second Discours bears the stamp of Diderot's influence, and it continues with several sections, which are concerned with the historical, anthropological, linguistic, and political views of Buffon, Condillac, and Hobbes and Locke, respectively, while two final sections describe Rousseau's account of the transformation of natural into social man. The fourth chapter compares a number of ideas about the nature and origin of music which were put forward by Rameau and Rousseau. It traces the course of their controversy about this subject through the writings of both thinkers, and in the case of Rousseau it is addressed especially to his articles on music in the <em>Encyclopedie</em>, his <em>Lettre sur la musique françoise</em>, his <em>Examen de deux principes</em>, and his <em>Essai sur l'origine des langues</em>. It also attempts to establish that the <em>Discours sur l'inegalité</em>&nbsp;at first contained a section about the genesis of music which Rousseau eventually incorporated in the <em>Essai sur l'origine des langues</em>. The chapter, moreover, offers an interpretation of the place of music and language in the general context of Rousseau's social theory, and it provides a critique of several accounts of tbe historical relation between the <em>Essai</em> and the second <em>Discours</em> which have neglected that common feature of their meaning. The final chapter is concerned with the&nbsp;<em>Discours sur les sciences et les arts</em> and with the writings which Rousseau produced between 1751 and 1753 in defence of that text against its critics. I argue there that while the first <em>Discours</em> is the most shallow and least original of all of Rousseau's major works, the controversy which followed its publication helped him to focus his ideas about culture and society much more sharply than he had done before. I try to show that Rousseau's replies to the detractors of the <em>Premier Discours</em> constitute a refinement of his views along the paths which he was then to pursue further in the <em>Discours sur l'inegalité</em>&nbsp;and the <em>Essai sur l'origine des langues</em>, and I conclude with some reflections about the systematic nature of his early social theory as it was developed in the period between his composition of the first and second <em>Discours</em>. The appendix consists of an annotated transcription of the manuscript on the origins of music and language discussed at length in chapter IV. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://s127526803.onlinehome.us/wokler/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Robert Wokler</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Garland Publishing, Inc., New York & London Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 520 + vii pages. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Chapter 5: The Critique of Culture and Society in Rousseau's Early Writing Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Robert Wokler Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1987 Description An account of the resource pp. 379-434 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Garland Publishing, Inc., New York & London Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context IHA/Wokler/632 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Institute of Intellectual History, University of St Andrews Rousseau