Rousseau's Counter-Enlightenment: A Republican Critique of the Philosophes

by Garrard, Graeme

• ISBN13: 9780791456040
• ISBN10: 0791456048
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-01-01
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr

Summary

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.

Author Biography

Graeme Garrard is Lecturer in Political Philosophy and European Thought at Cardiff University.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
Abbreviations	xiii
Introduction	1	(10)
The Enlightenment Republic of Letters	11	(18)
The Party of Humanity	11	(8)
The Virtue of Selfish Sociability	19	(10)
Philosophe, Madman, Revolutionary, God: The Many Faces of Jean-Jacques Rousseau	29	(12)
Introduction	29	(1)
Rousseau and the Philosophes	30	(5)
The Invention of the ``Revolutionary'' Rousseau	35	(5)
Conclusion	40	(1)
Unsociable Man: Rousseau's Critique of Enlightenment Social Thought	41	(14)
Introduction	41	(1)
From Contract to Community	42	(3)
Natural Order, Social Disorder	45	(8)
Conclusion	53	(2)
Rousseau's Counter-Enlightenment Republic of Virtue	55	(14)
Introduction	55	(1)
Extending amour-propre	56	(3)
Statecraft as Soulcraft	59	(5)
Rousseau's ``Manly'' Republic	64	(3)
Conclusion	67	(2)
On the Utility of Religion	69	(14)
Introduction	69	(3)
The Religious Basis of Morality	72	(4)
The Union of Church and State	76	(7)
Dare to Be Ignorant!	83	(20)
Introduction	83	(1)
Messieurs de l'Encyclopedie	84	(3)
``A Sweet and Precious Ignorance''	87	(5)
The Light Within	92	(9)
Conclusion	101	(2)
The Worst of All Possible Worlds	103	(14)
The Cautious Optimism of the Philosophes	103	(3)
Rousseau's Optimism about the Past	106	(5)
Rousseau's Pessimism about the Future	111	(4)
Conclusion	115	(2)
Conclusion	117	(4)
Notes	121	(34)
Bibliography	155	(24)
Index	179