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 Philosopher
of the Month
June
2003 - Jean Jacques Rousseau
Terri
Collier
One
of the most enigmatic thinkers of the 18th century, Jean-Jacques
Rousseau's colourful life and consistent defiance of social conventions
are reflected in his political writings. He was born in Geneva in
1712. His mother died in childbirth and his father, a watchmaker,
left his son to the care of relatives when he was exiled from the
city for brawling in 1722. As a young man Rousseau was forced to
take several menial positions, but through self-education and the
patronage of wealthy women he established himself as a talented
musician and intellectual. In Paris in 1645 Rousseau first made
the acquaintance of Diderot and the Paris encyclopedistes.
Thus began his uneasy relationship with enlightenment thought.
In
1750 Rousseau wrote his Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts
for a competition at the academy of Dijon, in which he
established the themes which he was to develop in much of his subsequent
political philosophy. The competition had asked for an essay on
the impact of the arts and sciences on human morals. Rousseau argued
that these were merely the seductive characteristics of a modern
society in which mankind had lost his natural liberty and entered
a moral decline. Rousseau equated virtue with innocence which once
lost could never be regained.
The
controversy surrounding this essay established Rousseau's place
in the intellectual life of Paris. His contemptuous distaste for
the mannered salons in which philosophical debate was conducted,
however, resulted in his remaining something of an outsider. In
1755 he published the Discourse on the Origin of Inequality.
His arguments that the institution of private property was the prime
source of all moral corruption presented a direct challenge to the
modernist doctrines of Locke, Grotius and Pufendorf. The encyclopedistes
understood the romanticism of Rousseau's developing position as
anti-enlightenment and broke their connections with him.
Rousseau's
greatest and most influential work The Social Contract was
published 1762. The earlier Discourses had established a
problem. Natural man, he believed, had been innocent but unfulfilled
and incapable of morality. The process by which morality might be
achieved was the same process which seemed inevitably to corrupt
and degrade him. Since the return to innocence was impossible, how
was man best to live in society? In The Social Contract Rousseau
presented his answer. His account of the social contract differs
radically from earlier contract theories in that when individuals
contract to enter society, each makes that contract simultaneously
with the others and with himself. Each is a part of the sovereign
which he is contracted to obey. From the isolated selves of individuals
a collective entity is formed which can both legislate for and embody
its individual members. Most significantly, freedom is changed by
the act of contract. Before contracting, man's freedom lies in pursuing
his individual interests, afterwards freedom consists in obeying
the general will.
Probably
the most elusive and criticised aspect of Rousseau's political philosophy,
the general will is that policy or action which will be to
the greatest benefit of the society as a whole. This can be discovered
only when the citizens act as members of the sovereign, setting
aside their personal interests or sectarian affiliations. This is
a normative concept in that the general will is that which
the sovereign assembly of citizens ought to decide. For Rousseau
the general will is not created by the sovereign but discovered
by it. His political philosophy centres on developing political
institutions that facilitate discovery of and adherence to the general
will. The resulting state is one that is regarded by Rousseau's
critics as totalitarian. Since freedom consists in obedience to
the general will, those who do not obey must be 'forced to
be free'. Membership of interest groups is forbidden and the legislator
is extremely powerful. However, Rousseau insisted that the object
of political right must be liberty and equality, and it is to these
ends that his philosophy was directed.
Despite
his pessimistic view of society and his hope that a revolutionary
age could be prevented, a decade after his death Rousseau's writings
inspired many of the leaders of the French revolution. The same
characteristic zeal that had led the encyclopedistes to reject
Rousseau's philosophy has been found inspirational by many who have
shared his sense of outrage at the inequalities present within their
own societies. Fidel Castro is said to have carried a copy of The
Social Contract throughout his days as a revolutionary. And
despite the undisciplined character of his work, philosophers such
as Kant and Hegel acknowledged their debt to Rousseau.
Suggested
reading
The Social Contract, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality,
Emile, The Confessions (autobiography), Jean Jacques Rousseau
(various editions)
A
new philosopher of the month will be featured mid July 2003
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