Jean-Jacques Rousseau:Lecture 1

PHIL 1003

2009-10

Final remarks on slavery

Penal servitude• Forced labour as

punishment• Locke & Rousseau (?)• Based on a finding of guilt• Rule of law followed? • Questionable examples:

– gulag (USSR), – laogai (China),– concentration camps (Nazi

Germany).

Chattel Slavery• Domestic servants• Field hands• Skilled labour

Helotage• Communities in bondage

to another group• E.g. the helots to the

Spartans• Helots were hunted for

sport once a year.

Who was Jean-Jacques Rousseau? (1712-1778)

• 1712: born in city of Geneva• Son of a watchmaker• Mother dies at his birth; raised

by father• No formal education• Apprenticed to an engraver,

but escaped;• Wandering life until his 30’s• 1750-62: writes major works• 1762: goes into exile to escape

prosecution for ideas on religion and politics

• 1767: returns to France incognito

• 1778: dies near Paris

Rousseau’s major works

Title Date Subject

DSA 1750 Sci/arts correlate w/ moral decay

Village Soothsayer

1752 Peasant opera; Italian style

Disc…Inequality 1755 Origins of inequality in society

Julie, or the new Heloise

1761 Novel extolling family values

Emile 1762 Pedagogicyto produce best man/citizen

Social Contract 1762 Political reform

Confessions 1782 Autobiography

1750: Landmark Year

• Vision on the road to Vincennes; – question for prize essay: “whether the

restoration of the Sciences and Arts has contributed to the purification of morals.”

• Rousseau formulates his vision:– “I could no longer see any greatness or

beauty except in being free and virtuous, superior to fortune and men’s opinion, and independent of all external circumstances” (Confs., Bk 8).

Discourse on the Origins

Of Inequality among Men

(1754)

Dedication to Geneva

• “Citizen of Geneva” (DSA and DOI title pages)• Geneva = republic (vs absolutist France)• Virtuous vs Parisian decadence• Advocates elected magistracy of merit (vs

purchased offices in France):– similarities to Chinese concept;– uses elections of the best and most virtuous instead

of exams (DOI, Epistle, par. 11);– Cf. Athenian rotation system.

Paris versus Geneva

Paris (modern Athens)• Corrupt• Unnatural• Weak• Citizens dominated by

opinions of others• Complex and large:

officials, taxes, rules• Concern w/ status• Lack of genuine relations

among people.

Geneva (modern Sparta)• Virtuous: time for

unfortunate, Fatherland and friends (DSA, II.37)

• No theatre• Defense of homeland• Simplicity• Small• Non-aggressive• Rousseau’s ideal.

Discourse = thought experiment

• A meditation, not a fact-finding mission;

• Conducted during long, solitary walks in the woods.– “…hypothetical and conditional reasonings”;– “elucidate the Nature of things [rather] than

show their genuine origin” (DOI, p.132, [6]).– “Let us begin by setting aside all the facts….”

DOI Frontispiece: what does it mean?

“The Philosophers who have examined the foundations of society have all felt the necessity of going back as far as the state of Nature,

But none of them has reached it” (132).

None of them has stripped man naked.

‘All that is challenging in The Social Contract

had previously appeared in the Discourse on Inequality…

(Confs., Bk 9).

Hobbes and Locke on S of N

• Hobbes: – man is by nature fearful, contentious; – state of nature = war of all against all.

• Locke: – man is by nature capable of sociability before

he enters into society, • e.g. contract b/w a Swiss and an Indian in the

woods of America;

– protection of property is reason to form governments.

Rousseau vs Hobbes and Locke

• Both are wrong:– Man is naturally peaceable and isolated;– Man is not naturally sociable; – he must become so, through a long and

complicated development;– Inequality, exploitation and arbitrary rule =

outcome.

Where does inequality come from?

Is it natural?

Unnatural?

What is inequality?

• Physical, – by nature; very slight.

• Political:– Very great;– caused by amour-propre [vanity], human

institutions, e.g. property: “this is mine”;– social problems resulting from inequality:

• Few rule many; i.e. rich rule poor• Exploitation of most of humanity by the few.

“Once Peoples are accustomed to Masters,

they can no longer do without them” (CUP ed. 1997, 115, [6]).

“To be and to appear became two entirely different things,

and from this distinction arose ostentatious display, deceitful cunning, and all the vices that follow in their wake” (DOI, pt. II, par. 27).

Savage vs social man

• “…the Savage lives within himself; social man, always outside himself, is capable of living only in the opinion of others and… derives the sentiment of his own existence solely from their judgment…” (DOI, II.57).