Philosophy of Jean Jacques Rousseau

Life and Works

Born in Geneva in 1712, Rousseau led an errant and tormented life. At sixteen, while apprenticed to an engraver, he ran away and wandered to Savoy. He found shelter, first, with the pastor at Confignon and later, in Annecy, with Madame de Warens, who remained his patroness for many years. In 1741 he went to Paris, where he was obliged to earn his living as a copyist of music, as a tutor, and a secretary. In 1750 he took part in an open contest sponsored by the Academy of Dijon, succeeded in winning the prize, and rose to fame in Europe.

Leaving Paris in 1756, he retired to Montmorency, where he wrote his two masterpieces, the Social Contract and Emile. Instead of bringing him the fame he expected, these two works evoked the opposition of civil and ecclesiastical authorities, and Rousseau was forced to go into exile.

He went first to Switzerland, and then to England, where he was a guest of David Hume. Estranged from Hume by suspicions and petty quarrels, he returned to Paris in 1770; he died of apoplexy in Ermenonville in 1778. A Calvinist, Rousseau was early in life converted to Catholicism, only to abandon it and to return to Protestantism.

Doctrine

Rousseau is truly the most original figure of French Illuminism, of which he was not only a protagonist but also a severe critic. He possessed the characteristics common to the Illuminati; namely, a great faith in reason, and a deep-rooted desire to bring history, tradition, and society to trial.

On the other hand, he was suspicious of the arts and sciences, of those very things which were believed to be the greatest achievements of Illuminism and considered the paramount factors of civilization and happiness.

As far as Rousseau is concerned, the growth of culture produces an increase of indigence and corruption. The source of true human values is not the intellect but sentiment, which is possessed equally by all. Hence his continuous refrain was: "Let us return to nature." But what does Rousseau mean by nature?

In his earlier writings Rousseau identified nature with the primitive state of savage man. Later, especially under the criticism of Voltaire, Rousseau took nature to mean the spontaneity of the process by which man builds his personality and his world. Nature thus signifies interiority, integrity, spiritual freedom, as opposed to that imprisonment and enslavement which society imposes in the name of civilization.

Hence, to go back to nature means to restore to man the forces of this natural process, to place him outside every oppressing bond of society and the prejudices of civilization. Rousseau developed these concepts in his two masterpieces, the Social Contract and Emile.

The "Social Contract"

This work contains Rousseau's political thought. The problem which he proposes to solve is this: Society implies distinction between sovereign and subjects, with the submission of the latter to the former. How is it possible, in a society so composed, to preserve equality and liberty in the subjects? Liberty comes to man from nature, and belongs to every associate of society as an inalienable right.

Rousseau resolved the question by distinguishing between "the general will" and "the will of all," giving to this latter a meaning opposite the former. "The general will" is the expression of the humanity immanent in every man, and for this reason such a will is inalienable, universal and uniform in every man. "The will of all," on the contrary, is the expression of particular interests, of egoism; it is the font of all inequalities. According to Rousseau, liberty consists in the spontaneous coordination of the "general will" and the "will of all."

Primitive man was free because, without being forced, he submitted his individualistic interests to the exigencies of his humanity. The social contract has not changed this condition, for men, making such a contract, intended to fuse the general of all associated persons by a "pactum unionis" (and not by a "pactum subjectionis," as Hobbes maintained), in such a manner that their liberty might be conserved even in society. It is this "general will," and not any particular group or person, which is invested with sovereignty.

Laws are just in so far as they express this general will. Thus every associated person, by obeying the general will and the laws that flow from it, does nothing more than obey himself. Hence hi is still free and feels his entire dignity as a free man, even in the society of which he forms a part.

"Emile"

In this work Rousseau offers an example of what he thinks education, in accordance with the spontaneity of nature, should be. He says that nature is good, and hence an education in keeping with the properties of nature will also be good, unless this process is destroyed by outside prejudices. The pupil has to feel himself free in developing his activities. The educator may never impose his will upon the pupil by precepts. His work should consist in preparing the fittest external conditions for the free unfolding of the activities of his pupil.

In keeping with his principle that culture and the sciences are causes of evil and corruption, Rousseau wants Emile, the hero of his work by that name, to learn only those notions that will be necessary to his practical life. Thus he will learn a trade, that of carpenter. Moral education must start with the burgeoning of reason, and its norms will be learned, not from the precepts of the educator but from the reflections of the pupil himself. Emile's religion will be a natural one, that is, belief in God as He reveals Himself in His works. Only when his education is completed can Emile enter society, for only then will he be able to avoid its dangers and enjoy its benefits.