Rousseau's Counter-Enlightenment , livre ebook

207

pages

English

Ebooks

2012

Écrit par
Graeme Garrard

Publié par
State University of New York Press

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207

pages

English

Ebooks

2012

Lire un extrait

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus

Publié par

State University of New York Press

Date de parution

01 février 2012

Nombre de lectures

EAN13

9780791487433

Langue

English

Arguing that the question of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's relationship to the Enlightenment has been eclipsed and seriously distorted by his association with the French Revolution, Graeme Garrard presents the first book-length case that shows Rousseau as the pivotal figure in the emergence of Counter-Enlightenment thought. Viewed in the context in which he actually lived and wrote—from the middle of the eighteenth century to his death in 1778—it is apparent that Rousseau categorically rejected the Enlightenment "republic of letters" in favor of his own "republic of virtue." The philosophes, placing faith in reason and natural human sociability and subjecting religion to systematic criticism and doubt, naively minimized the deep tensions and complexities of collective life and the power disintegrative forces posed to social order. Rousseau believed that the ever precarious social order could only be achieved artificially, by manufacturing "sentiments of sociability," reshaping individuals to identify with common interests instead of their own selfish interests.

Preface

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Introduction

1. The Enlightenment Republic of Letters

The Party of Humanity
The Virtue of Selfish Sociability

2. Philosophe, Madman, Revolutionary, God: The Many Faces of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Introduction
Rousseau and the Philosophes
The Invention of the "Revolutionary" Rousseau
Conclusion

3. Unsociable Man: Rousseau’s Critique of Enlightenment

Social Thought
Introduction
From Contract to Community
Natural Order, Social Disorder
Conclusion

4. Rousseau's Counter-Enlightenment Republic of Virtue

Introduction
Extending amour-propre
Statecraft as Soulcraft
Rousseau’s "Manly" Republic
Conclusion

5. On the Utility of Religion

Introduction
The Religious Basis of Morality
The Union of Church and State

6. Dare to Be Ignorant!

Introduction
Messieurs de l’Encyclopédie
"A Sweet and Precious Ignorance"
The Light Within
Conclusion

7. The Worst of All Possible Worlds

The Cautious Optimism of the Philosophes
Rousseau’s Optimism about the Past
Rousseau’s Pessimism about the Future
Conclusion

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Voir

Publié par

State University of New York Press

Date de parution

01 février 2012

Nombre de lectures

EAN13

9780791487433

Langue

English

ROUSSEAU’S COUNTER-ENLIGHTENMENT

SUNY series in Social and Political Thought Kenneth Baynes, editor

ROUSSEAU’S COUNTER-ENLIGHTENMENT

A Republican Critique of thePhilosophes

Graeme Garrard

STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

Cover illustration: Anonymous print of Rousseau and Voltaire boxing, c. 1760–1770. Reproduced courtesy of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

For information, address State University of New York Press, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207

Production by Cathleen Collins Marketing by Jennifer Giovani

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Garrard, Graeme, 1965– Rousseau’s counter-Enlightenment : a republican critique of the Enlightenment / Graeme Garrard. p. cm. — (SUNY series in social and political thought) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–7914–5603-X (alk. paper) — ISBN 0–7914–5604–8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 1712–1778. 2. Enlightenment—France. 3. France—Intellectual life—18th century. I. Title. II. Series. B2137 .G27 2003 194—dc21 2002021242

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To Jeanette Shannon

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Contents

Preface Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction The Enlightenment Republic of Letters The Party of Humanity The Virtue of Selfish Sociability Philosophe, Madman, Revolutionary, God: The Many Faces of Jean-Jacques Rousseau Introduction Rousseau and thePhilosophes The Invention of the “Revolutionary” Rousseau Conclusion Unsociable Man: Rousseau’s Critique of Enlightenment Social Thought Introduction From Contract to Community Natural Order, Social Disorder Conclusion Rousseau’s Counter-Enlightenment Republic of Virtue Introduction Extendingamour-propre Statecraft as Soulcraft Rousseau’s “Manly” Republic Conclusion

vii

ix xi xiii 1 11 11 19

29 29 30 35 40

41 41 42 45 53 55 55 56 59 64 67

viii

Contents

On the Utility of Religion Introduction The Religious Basis of Morality The Union of Church and State Dare to Be Ignorant! Introduction Messieurs de l’Encyclopédie “A Sweet and Precious Ignorance” The Light Within Conclusion The Worst of All Possible Worlds The Cautious Optimism of thePhilosophes Rousseau’s Optimism about the Past Rousseau’s Pessimism about the Future Conclusion Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

69 69 72 76 83 83 84 87 92 101 103 103 106 111 115 117 121 155 179

Preface

n his posthumously published notesThe Will to Power, Friedrich I Nietzsche (1844–1900) traces what he calls the still-unresolved “prob-lem of civilization” back to the conflict between Rousseau (1712–1778) and Voltaire (1694–1778) that began in the middle of the eighteenth cen-1 tury. For Nietzsche, the “aristocratic”homme civiliséVoltaire defended civilization as a great triumph over the barbarism of nature, whereas the vulgar plebeian Rousseau—“beyond a doubt mentally disturbed”— inspired the revolutionary overthrow of all social orders in the name of 2 the natural goodness of man. Voltaire felt “the mitigation, the subtleties, the spiritual joys of the civilized state,” unlike Rousseau, whose idealized conception of nature led him to cast a “curse upon society and civiliza-3 tion.” Nietzsche believed that this clash was decisive not only for Voltaire personally, but for European civilization as a whole. With it, Voltaire ceased to be a mere “bel esprit” and man of letters and became “the man of his century” whose intense envy and hatred of Rousseau spurred him 4 on to the heights of greatness. Nietzsche thought that Rousseau simulta-neously provoked Voltaire into effectively creating the Enlightenment as we now know it and banished the spirit of the Enlightenment by conjuring 5 its nemesis, the French Revolution. Nietzsche’s antisocial Rousseau, like Voltaire’s (on which it is obvi-6 ously based), is a crude caricature. The clash between Voltaire and Rousseau was never really over the abstract question of which is prefer-able: society or the state of nature? (Even if that is how Voltaire viewed it.) Rousseau was very far from believing that it is either possible or desir-able to return to a presocial “state of nature.” But Nietzsche was defi-nitely on to something important in presenting Rousseau’s confrontation with Voltaire as a decisive moment in the debate over the nature of civi-lization that emerged in France in the second half of the eighteenth cen-7 tury. He correctly identified the moment when “the problem of civilization” first emerged as a major theme in eighteenth-century French

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