Jean-Jacques Rousseau - The Major Political Writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau: The Two Discourses and the Social Contract

J EANJACQUES ROUSSEAU (171278) was a leading Genevan philosopher and political theorist and one of the key figures of the Enlightenment. JOHN T. SCOTT is chair and professor of political science at the University of California, Davis; he has edited or translated several volumes on Rousseau and is coauthor of The Philosophers Quarrel: Rousseau, Hume, and the Limits of Human Understanding.

The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637

The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London

2012 by The University of Chicago

All rights reserved. Published 2012.

Printed in the United States of America

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ISBN-13: 978-0-226-92186-0 (cloth)

ISBN-13: 978-0-226-92188-4 (e-book)

ISBN-10: 0-226-92186-7 (cloth)

ISBN-10: 0-226-92188-3 (e-book)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 17121778.

[Works. Selections. English. 2012]

The major political writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau : the two discourses and the social contract / translated and edited by John T. Scott.

pages. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-226-92186-0 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 0-226-92186-7 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-226-92188-4 (e-book) ISBN 0-226-92188-3 (e-book)

I. Scott, John T., 1963 II. Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 17121778. Discours sur les sciences et les arts. English. 2012 III. Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 17121778. Discours sur lorigine et les fondements de lingalit parmi les hommes. English. 2012. IV. Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 17121778. Du contrat social. English. 2012. V. Title.

B2132.E5 2012

320dc23

2012019388

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

THE MAJOR POLITICAL WRITINGS OF JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

THE TWO DISCOURSES

AND

THE SOCIAL CONTRACT

Translated and edited by

JOHN T. SCOTT

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS

CHICAGO AND LONDON

To my teachers. For my students.

CO NTENTS

C HRONOLOGY

1712

June 28: Jean-Jacques Rousseau born in Geneva.

1728

March 14: Rousseau runs away from Geneva.

1741

December: Approximate time Rousseau arrives in Paris with system of musical notation.

1742

August 22: Rousseau reads his Project Concerning New Signs for Music to the Academy of Sciences.

1743

July: Rousseau leaves for Venice to work as Secretary to the French Ambassador to Venice.

1744

August: Rousseau leaves Venice after quarreling with the Ambassador. Returns to Paris.

1749

JanuaryMarch: Rousseau writes the articles on music for the Encylcopdie.

October: Rousseau visits Denis Diderot, who is imprisoned in Vincennes, and reads the essay topic proposed by the Academy of Dijon on the effect of the restoration of the sciences and the arts on morals.

1750

July: Rousseau awarded the prize by the Academy of Dijon for his essay.

1751

January: Publication of the Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts.

1752

Summer: Successful performance of Rousseaus opera The Village Soothsayer at Fontainebleau.

1753

November: Rousseau begins work on the Discourse on Inequality.

1754

June 12: Rousseau dates the Dedication to his Discourse on Inequality while at Chambry.

August 1: Rousseau regains his Genevan citizenship.

1755

April 24: Publication of the Discourse on Inequality.

1758

October: Publication of the Letter to dAlembert.

1761

January: Publication of the novel Julie, or the New Heloise, which becomes an immediate bestseller.

1762

April: Publication of the Social Contract.

May: Publication of Emile, or On Education.

June 9: The Parlement of Paris condemns Emile. A warrant for Rousseaus arrest is issued. Rousseau flees Paris.

June 19: Emile and the Social Contract are burned at Geneva. A warrant is issued there for Rousseaus arrest.

August 28: Publication of the pastoral letter by the Archbishop of Paris condemning Emile.

1763

March: Publication of Letter to Beaumont, defending Emile against its condemnation by the Archbishop of Paris.

1764

December: Publication of the Letters Written from the Mountain in defense of the Social Contract.

1765

September 6: Rousseaus house at Mtiers, the small Swiss village in which he lived in exile for the previous two years, is stoned by the villagers.

SeptemberOctober: Rousseau lives on St. Peters Island in the middle of Lake Bienne until he is expelled.

December: Rousseau arrives in Paris to meet the philosopher David Hume, who will accompany him to England.

1766

January: Rousseau arrives in England.

JuneOctober: Rousseau quarrels with Hume, and their mutually accusatory correspondence is published.

1767

May 21: Rousseau leaves England for France, where he lives under a pseudonym.

1770

June: Rousseau returns to Paris on the condition that he not publish anything.

December: Rousseau completes the Confessions and gives the first readings of the work. After complaints, he agrees not to give any more readings.

1772

Rousseau finishes Considerations on the Government of Poland, which is not published during his lifetime.

1776

Rousseau attempts to deposit the manuscript of his autobiographical and apologetic work Rousseau, Judge of Jean-Jacques on the altar of Notre Dame Cathedral.

177678

Rousseau works on his autobiographical Reveries of the Solitary Walker, which he leaves unfinished at his death.

1778

July 2: Rousseau dies at Ermenonville, outside Paris.

1794

October 11: Rousseau is reburied in the Panthon in Paris.

I NTRODUCTION

This volume contains translations of the major political works by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, one of the most important and influential thinkers in the history of political philosophy. The purpose of this introduction is to provide context for the reader of the political writings contained in this volume and some guidance in their interpretation. After giving background on Rousseaus life and then his philosophy in general, I discuss the main ideas of each of the writings in this volume: the Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts, the Discourse on the Origin and the Foundations of Inequality among Men, and On the Social Contract. Before doing so, however, let me suggest three broad ways in which Rousseaus thought is pivotal.

First, Rousseau marks a turning point as the first great critic of early modern philosophy and political thought. Rousseau questions the benefits of modern natural science and the doctrine of progress envisioned by Bacon, Descartes, Locke, Newton, and other early modern thinkers and proselytized by his contemporaries during the Enlightenment. What they called progress, he argues, was really decline in terms of virtue and happiness. He criticizes political thinkers such as Hobbes and Locke who promoted a political and social system based on self-interest and mutual dependence. Rather than producing the liberty, prosperity, and softening of mores promised by these thinkers, Rousseau claims that the result was a politics of slavery, inequality, and egoism. The result was not the legitimate and healthy political association of citizens envisioned by Rousseau; it was the corrupt society of the bourgeoisa term Rousseau was perhaps the first to use in the sense we know today.