Jean-Jacques Rousseau - Works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The Collected Works of

JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

(1712-1778)

Contents

Delphi Classics 2017

Version 1

The Collected Works of

JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

By Delphi Classics, 2017

Collected Works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

First published in the United Kingdom in 2017 by Delphi Classics.

Delphi Classics, 2017.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 978 1 78656 089 6

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40, Grand-Rue, GenevaRousseaus birthplace in 1712. Geneva was at that time a city-state and a Protestant associate of the Swiss Confederacy.

A plaque at the birthplace

Geneva, 1602

Geneva today

Translated by G. D. H. Cole

The French first edition of Discourse on the Sciences and Art appeared in 1750, published by Barillot & fils, with the first English translation being released the following year by W. Owen. The work was written in response to a 1749 advertisement in an issue of Mercure de France , which offered a reward from the Academy of Dijon for an essay on the relationship between the arts and sciences and morals. The author had seen the advertisement while he was visiting his friend, Denis Diderot, in prison. Diderot, who was a philosopher and editor of the Encyclopdie , was imprisoned at Vincennes between July and November 1749 as his writings about religion and morality were considered to be offensive and dangerous. Rousseau asserted that he was immediately inspired and enthused by the subject of the advertisement and he felt compelled to craft a response.

Rousseau had various jobs during his twenties and thirties, including a period as a tutor in Lyon and serving as a secretary to the French ambassador to Venice. While living in Venice, he developed a lifelong passion for Italian opera, although he found working for the government to be a frustrating and dispiriting experience. The philosophers essay answers the question Has the restoration of the Sciences and the Arts Contributed to the Purification of Morals? He argues that humankind is not happier or more virtuous in modern times, but miserable and debased by a corrupt society that breeds selfishness and servitude. He believes that the things humankind is taught to admire are ultimately responsible for its degradation and suffering. Rousseau argues that it is less a case of the arts and sciences causing the corruption of society and more that a prior morally corrupt order has allowed the arts and sciences to have a further corrupting effect.

1750 French edition

Denis Diderot by Louis-Michel van Loo, 1767. Diderot (1713-1784) was a philosopher and art critic, who became a prominent figure during the Enlightenment and is best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the Encyclopdie along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert.

A DISCOURSE

WHICH WON THE PRIZE AT THE ACADEMY OF DIJON IN 1750, ON THIS QUESTION PROPOSED BY THE ACADEMY:

HAS THE RESTORATION OF THE ARTS AND SCIENCES HAD A PURIFYING EFFECT UPON MORALS?

Barbaras his ego sum, qui non intelligor illis. OVID.

The following pages contain a discussion of one of the most sublime and interesting of all moral questions. It is not concerned, however, with those metaphysical subtleties, which of late have found their way into every department of literature, and from which even our academic curricula are not always free. We have now to do with one of those truths on which the happiness of mankind depends.

I foresee that I shall not readily be forgiven for having taken up the position I have adopted. Setting myself up against all that is nowadays most admired, I can expect no less than a universal outcry against me: nor is the approbation of a few sensible men enough to make me count on that of the public. But I have taken my stand, and I shall be at no pains to please either intellectuals or men of the world. There are in all ages men born to be in bondage to the opinions of the society in which they live. There are not a few, who to-day play the free-thinker and the philosopher, who would, if they had lived in the time of the League, have been no more than fanatics. No author, who has a mind to outlive his own age, should write for such readers.

A word more and I have done. As I did not expect the honour conferred on me, I had, since sending in my Discourse, so altered and enlarged it as almost to make it a new work; but in the circumstances I have felt bound to publish it just as it was when it received the prize. I have only added a few notes, and left two alterations which are easily recognisable, of which the Academy possibly might not have approved. The respect, gratitude and even justice I owe to that body seemed to me to demand this acknowledgment.

Here I am, a barbarian, because men understand me not.

Decipimur specie recti. HORACE.

The question before me is, Whether the Restoration of the arts and sciences has had the effect of purifying or corrupting morals. Which side am I to take? That, gentlemen, which becomes an honest man, who is sensible of his own ignorance, and thinks himself none the worse for it.