rousseau letter to d'alembert summaryrousseau letter to d'alembert summary

[4], If a theatre is established it will change the maxims and prejudices of Geneva, for better or worse, and the best way to deal with this is simply prevention, Rousseau argues. Spirit, 6.2, 74. Rousseau restates many of his predecessor's insights and observations, including the importance of mores and the juxtaposition of French and English society, in order to oppose critical aspects of Montesquieu's thought and influence. This work made final Rousseau's public break with most of the philosophes. Muralt does not use the verb attirer to describe France's effect on foreigners as do both Montesquieu and Rousseau. In 1758, Jean Le Rond d'Alembert proposed the public establishment of a theater in Genevaand Jean-Jacques Rousseau vigorously objected. While he surely discerns the vices of commercial peoples, he also points out the positive transformative power of commerce in bringing peace and understanding among peoples; see Spirit, 20.1, 338. See also Thomas, Negotiating Taste in Montesquieu, 8182. The place seems to breed affection.Footnote20, Nevertheless, Montesquieu's description of these theatrical relations of the French in the Persian Letters, while in part satirical, bears an important resemblance to his description and praise of a people who possess a sociable humour in Book 19 of The Spirit of the Laws. It is also problematic, according to Rousseau for women and men to be working together as actors and actresses. 45 For Rousseau's association with Geneva both before and after the composition of the Letter, see Richard Whatmore, Against War and Empire: Geneva, Britain and France in the Eighteenth Century (New Haven, CT, 2012), 5497. Instead of a civil religion, Rousseau here outlines a personal religion, which proves to be a kind of simplified Christianity, involving neither revelation nor the familiar dogmas of the church. 49 Bla Kapossy, Iselin contra Rousseau: Sociable Patriotism and the History of Mankind (Basel, 2006), 68. If he'll but speak, I now will hear.Footnote38 Thus, Racine dramatically reinforces Montesquieu's teaching regarding criminal proceedings by staging the pain inflicted on particular individuals by flawed procedures. to start your free trial of SparkNotes Plus. Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Voltaire's propensity to organise theatrical performances at his residence in Les Dlices, just outside the city but within Geneva's territory, had occasioned concern among the pastors and the Consistory in 1755; see Graham Gargett, Jacob Vernet, Geneva, and the Philosophes (Oxford, 1994), 11520. Rousseau worked as a clerk to a notary, and then was apprenticed to an engraver. 13 Maurice Cranston, Jean-Jacques: The Early Life and Work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 17121754 (Chicago, IL, 1991, first published in 1982), 21315. Through the theatre, the members of the audience are reminded of their natural sentiments, because their feelings and reactions to the dramatic action confirm whether or not the characters on stage act in accord with natural morality.Footnote43 Of course, there is a discrepancy between the account of the theatre in the Persian Letters and that in The Spirit of the Laws: in the former, Rica describes attendees largely ignoring the action on stage because they are so consumed in their personal dramas, whereas in the latter, the attendees learn a moral lesson as they observe the performance. He explains that he terms prejudices not what makes one unaware of certain things but what makes one unaware of oneself.Footnote44 Through our feelingsthat is, through emotional responses to the actions on stage, the theatre reminds people that despite their integration into societies sustained by a multiplicity of political, civil, and religious codes, a natural human core still remains. The principle of the theatre is to please, it is not, Rousseau argues, functional because the characters are always distant from man. However, Rousseau was later to write in his autobiography, Confessions, that "in all of Europe [Discourse on Inequality] found only a few readers who understood it, and of these none who wished to talk of it." Though the actor is not necessarily malevolent with his talents of deception, Rousseau goes on, the seductive, manipulative nature of acting could potentially be used by actors to do harm in society outside of the theatre. This is a civil law, Montesquieu proclaims pointedly, that punishes natural defense.Footnote39 After asserting that natural defense demands that the accused be confronted by witnesses in a criminal proceeding, the chapters go on to provide examples of how civil laws can interfere with familial relations. Julie was published in 1761 and soon becomes one of the best-selling works of the century. By placing this particular discussion of Phaedra and what occurs in our theaters in the second of two successive chapters devoted to the topic of civil laws that are contrary to natural law, Montesquieu underscores the moral importance of the theatre for a society. When d'Alembert approached Montesquieu to contribute to the Encyclopdie, he volunteered to submit in lieu of d'Alembert's requested pieces on democracy and despotism a single entry devoted to Taste, and his corpus testifies to his sustained interest in art and aesthetics.Footnote15 Montesquieu focuses his attention on theatre in particular a handful of times in The Spirit of the Laws and once in the Persian Letters. on 50-99 accounts. It may be considered to portray Rousseau's vanity, narcissism and biases, but the text could also be thought of more positively; as expressive, lyrical and austere. In other words, it is easier to not have to deal with corrupted morality and have to change the laws accordingly. Having long regarded Voltaire as an additional target of Rousseau's criticism in the Letter, the scholarship has largely ignored the extent to which Rousseau also engages with and responds to Montesquieu in this particular work. 4. Even though there are other forms of entertainment in Geneva that exemplify bad manners, Rousseau claims that none of these areas are more destructive to the people's good taste than the theatre. Rousseau's essay critiqued the immorality of the Parisian theater and argued that a theater in Geneva would have a similarly corruptive effect on their society. Thus, an examination of Rousseau's discussion of theatre together with its relation to women and morality reveals that he is employing distinctly Montesquieuian terms and themes in order to engage and challenge his predecessor. 10 See John N. Pappas, Rousseau and D'Alembert, PMLA, 75 (1960), 4660 (48); Fonna Forman-Barzilai, The Emergence of Contextualism in Rousseau's Political Thought: The Case of Parisian Theatre in the Lettre D'Alembert, History of Political Thought, 24 (2003), 43564 (436). Further, he praises the type of morality that can be conveyed through theatrical spectacle, claiming that moral lessons are more effective in this form because they speak directly to the passions. 46 In speaking of their thought generally, Larrre notes that whereas Rousseau agrees with Montesquieu about the difference between the monarchical and republican conditions of women, he does not agree with his normative assessment of these conditions; see Catherine Larrre, Jean-Jacques Rousseau on Women and Citizenship, History of European Ideas, 37 (2011), 21822 (218). D'Alembert here refers to a chapter, entitled A Fine Law, in Book 20 of The Spirit of the Laws, which contains Montesquieu's only mention of Geneva in the work; see Charles-Louis Secondat de Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws [hereafter Spirit, in the format of book.chapter, page(s)], translated and edited by Anne M. Cohler, Basia C. Miller, and Harold S. Stone (Cambridge, 1989), 20.16, 348. Register to receive personalised research and resources by email. GREAT Thus, [i]n the theater we congratulate ourselves for our moral sensitivity while remaining isolated from irksome involvement with our fellows; see Christopher Kelly, Rousseau and the Case for (and Against) Censorship, in Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Critical Assessments of Leading Political Philosophers, edited by John T. Scott, 4 vols (New York, NY, 2006, first published in 1997), IV, 20122 (209). Many scholars have identified the decisive influence of Montesquieu's treatment of the ancient city in Rousseau's thought more generally, but have not yet fully explored the role that Montesquieu's treatment of the theatre plays in Rousseau's Letter. Moreover, the double entendre he deploys here should not be overlooked, as he also illustrates that men's social interactions with women unleash the power of commercial exchange: Fashions are an important subject; as one allows one's spirit to become frivolous, one constantly increases the branches of commerce [on augmente sans cesse les branches de son commerce].Footnote25 Thus, both women and commerce foster the communicability and nurture the adaptability of a given people.Footnote26. Rahe explains that it is not simply the case that the two thinkers were opposedtheir thought is much more entwined: For the arguments that Rousseau deployed against enlightenment and commercial society and those that he presented on behalf of ancient Sparta [] were for the most part borrowed from Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws; see Rahe, Soft Despotism, 77. In 1758, Jean Le Rond d'Alembert proposed the public establishment of a theater in Genevaand Jean-Jacques Rousseau vigorously objected. The most immediate result of Rousseau's vision that day in 1749 was the Discourse on the Sciences and Arts. Indeed, Rousseau, who elsewhere can be quite critical of England's political life,Footnote66 in this particular instance undertakes to defend the English by arguing that the social separation of the sexes in England does not, in fact, diminish individual happiness but rather deepens the profundity of society and therefore fosters a truer pleasure: Thus both [sexes], withdrawn more into themselves, give themselves less to frivolous imitations, get more of a taste for the true pleasures of life, and think less of appearing happy than of being so.Footnote67 Rousseau thus maintains that with the exception of family life, the two sexes ought to come together sometimes and to live separated ordinarily.Footnote68 But this separation is certainly not observed in France: The society of the two sexes, having become too usual and too easy, has harmed both men and women in his view, as the general spirit of gallantry [galanterie] stifles both genius and love.Footnote69 Men, he says, are affected as much as, and more than, women by a commerce [commerce] that is too intimate; they lose only their morals, but we lose our morals and our constitution [constitution].Footnote70 He urges sardonically: Imagine what can be the temper of the soul of a man who is uniquely occupied with the important business of amusing women.Footnote71 Finally, he elaborates on the harm that such frequent social interactions have on women: They are flattered without being loved; they are served without being honored; they are surrounded by agreeable persons but they no longer have lovers; and the worst is that the former, without having the sentiments of the latter, usurp nonetheless all the rights.Footnote72. The New Eloise, being a novel, escaped the censorship to which the other two works were subject; indeed, of all his books it proved to be the most widely read and the most universally praised in his lifetime. Rousseau adhered to the belief that restrictions and censorship are often justified to maintain civil order. Youve successfully purchased a group discount. Rousseau's Letter to d'Alembert on the Theatre offers an important discussion of the relation of the arts to the health of a political community. 30 Montesquieu's view was quite common at this time; see Mostefai, Le citoyen de Genve, 4763. In this context, he declares: Men, rascals when taken one by one, are very honest as a whole; they love morality; and if I were not considering such a serious subject, I would say that this is remarkably clear in the theaters; one is sure to please people by the feelings that morality professes, and one is sure to offend them by those that it disapproves.Footnote29. Quotations from d'Alembert's uvres, cited as "D'Al.," refer to the Belin edition (Paris, 1821) in five volumes.The edition of Voltaire's Correspondence is . Of course, Rousseau is willing to harness female society in such a manner only in the already corrupt society of France. Rousseau writes that the theatre, at first glance, is a form of amusement. His father, Isaac Rousseau, was a watchmaker. [3], D'Alembert himself was moved by the response, even intimidated. Allan Bloom makes the claim that Voltaire persuaded d'Alembert [] to insert a passage (which Rousseau insists Voltaire himself wrote) in an otherwise laudatory presentation suggesting that Geneva should have a theatre; see Allan Bloom, Introduction, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Politics and the Arts: Letter to M. D'Alembert on the Theater, translated by Allan Bloom (New York, NY, 1960), xi-xxxiv (xv). 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