Jean-Jacques Rousseau:Lecture 2

PHIL 1003

2009-10

DOI = thought experiment

• A meditation, not a fact-finding mission;

• Conducted during long, solitary walks in the woods.– “Let us begin by setting aside all the facts….”– “…hypothetical and conditional reasonings”;– “elucidate the Nature of things [rather] than

show their genuine origin” (DOI, Exordium).

DOI Frontispiece

“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).

Big Hair, 18th century-style

We live in the opinion of others

Various enslavements:• Status items;

– Watches– Bags– Phones

• Spend money we don’t have;

• Run to our chains – jobs? – bank loans?– Credit card debt?

Designer handbags:

Our Slavery

• “…man, who had been free and independent, is now…subjugated by a multitude of new needs”;

• “rich, he needs [others’] services; poor, he needs their help”;

• “Laws…gave the weak new fetters and the rich new forces…[they] transformed a skillful usurpation into an irrevocable right” (DOI, II.33).

What’s left? Empty appearances!

• “…everything being reduced to appearances, everything becomes factitious and play–acting…

• …we have nothing more than a deceiving and frivolous exterior, honor without virtue, reason without wisdom, and pleasure without happiness…” (DOI, II.57).

We enable our own oppression:

‘Citizens let themselves be oppressed only so far as they are swept up by blind ambition and…come to hold Domination dearer than independence, and consent to bear chains so that they might impose chains in turn’ (DOI II.51).

Civilized misery

• “…the Citizen, forever active, sweats, scurries, constantly agonizes…he works to the death, even rushes toward it in order to be in a position to live…He courts the great whom he hates, and the rich whom he despises; he spares nothing to attain the honor of serving them…” (II.57).

The final word on inequality

• Prelude to Marx:

“…it is manifestly against the Law of Nature, however defined, that...a handful of people abound in superfluities while the starving multitude lacks necessities” (II.58).