See, for example, Clifford Orwin, Rousseau's Socratism, The Journal of Politics, 60 (1998), 17487 (180); J. S. Maloy, The Very Order of Things: Rousseau's Tutorial Republicanism, Polity, 37 (2005), 23561 (24142); Eric Nelson, The Greek Tradition in Republican Thought (Cambridge, 2004). [2], In the Letter, Rousseau rejected the traditional notion of male politicians being responsible for moral reform, and thought it was women's responsibility. From 1742 to 1749, Rousseau lived in Paris, barely earning a living by teaching and by copying music. 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. Elizabeth Fallaize - 1999 - Sartre . Despite drawing very different conclusions regarding the choice worthiness of sociability, commerce, and gentleness that theatre fosters than does Montesquieu, Rousseau makes essentially identical assessments and observations regarding its influence in shaping public opinion and the way in which spectacle in general contributes to the mores and manners of a given society. 11 Paul A. Rahe, Soft Despotism, Democracy's Drift: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Tocqueville, and the Modern Prospect (New Haven, CT, 2009), 120. While serving as secretary to M. and Mme Dupin, he studied and took notes on Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws in order to aid his employers in writing their rebuttals of the work.Footnote13 Rousseau credits his predecessor throughout his corpus.Footnote14. He continues that a European spirit of gallantry that one can say was little known to the ancients grew out of this desire to please women. 28 Spirit, 19.8, 311 (2:560). Rousseau considers this play to be a work of genius, but it is, of course, morally backwards. Therefore, theatres are of little use. But even that highly placed friend could not save him in 1762 when his treatise mile; ou, de leducation (Emile; or, On Education) was published and scandalized the pious Jansenists of the French Parlements even as The Social Contract scandalized the Calvinists of Geneva. Marshall goes on to suggest that Rousseau's discussion of vanity, amour-propre, is inherently theatrical: the moment that people are aware they must present themselves for others, a theatrical consciousness is fostered such that the character and attributes that a person possesses become indistinguishable from what they seem to be.Footnote58 Rousseau laments that the introduction of theatre in an incorrupt society will induce people to substitute a theatrical jargon for the practice of the virtues.Footnote59 Of course, before Rousseau had offered this analysis, Montesquieu had comically depicted the tendency of social interactions to foster theatrical affectationseven theatrical masksin Rica's mistaken but understandable conflation of the actors and the audience in his description of the theatre in the Persian Letters. Sometimes it can end up there. 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. Maloy follows Eric Nelson in reading Montesquieu as favourable to the ancient republics generally and to their land reforms particularly. Remarkably, in his Letter to d'Alembert, Rousseau himself transmits this same assessment of the women in England, employing the very adjective that Montesquieu applies to them: English women are gentle and timid [timides].Footnote65 Nevertheless, where Montesquieu perceives this as having lamentable consequences for the English, Rousseau finds admirable results. Not by chance, one of his "potpourris" includes a copy of the letter, rewritten by Voltaire's Secretary J.-L. Wagnire (BV 11- 208). Mchten Sie Encyclopedie: Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1754; Copper engraving from: Diderot & d'Alembert 'Encyc kaufen? Despite being treated unfairly, Hippolytus adheres to a steadfast set of moral principlesand the playwright makes sure that the audience is aware of this. 50 Kapossy, Iselin contra Rousseau, 39. Rousseau was the eighteenth-century's greateast admirer, even idolator, of Sparta. He felt, moreover, a strong emotional drive toward the worship of God, whose presence he felt most forcefully in nature, especially in mountains and forests untouched by human hands. 19 Montesquieu, Persian Letters, letter 28, 79. Thus, consideration of Rousseau's Letter helps to establish the formative character of the elder's thought on that of the younger. Similarly, Susan Okin notes that Rousseau held to his ''reactionary'' ideas 10) Bookreader Item Preview [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. He first tries to sway Geneva away from the idea of theatre by suggesting that it is not economically feasible, and that the population is too low to support a theatre. [4], Rousseau turns to the topic of love, which, he says, is in the realm of women. For Montesquieu, this appeal to natural morality is why viewers find the play such a moving and pleasurable an experience. We are also grateful to Robert Devigne, Dennis Rasmussen, and the anonymous reviewers of History of European Ideas for their helpful comments on earlier drafts. 16 Spirit, 4.8, 41. Despite laws and historical examples that attempt to overcome or deny those natural feelings, theatre offers the assurance that they continue to exist or can be recalled. It was the first of Rousseau's writings to be translated into Russian. Nevertheless, Montesquieu's pleasing depiction of polite French society and his praise of theatre's support for natural morality could very well abet that transmission which Rousseau resists. Rousseau's relationship to the Enlightenment was not a simple one. It greatly deceives itself; it is free only during the election of the members of Parliament. In Emile, Rousseau refers to the illustrious Montesquieu, but criticises him for being content to discuss the positive right of established governments, and not treating, therefore, the principles of political right. Towards the end of the afternoon, everyone assembles and goes to perform in a sort of show [une espce de scne], called, so I have heard, a play [comdie]. 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). Scholars now refer to Rousseau's use of Montesquieu's depiction of the ancient republics and the virtue which they inculcated. In order to resist this very appeal in the name of Geneva's singular and austere republican life, Rousseau adopts Montesquieu's maxims: pursue change slowly and cautiously, as even small changes to a people's way of life can inadvertently contain the seeds of radical transformation and unintended consequences. References to the French, when cited, for this and the Persian Letters appear in parentheses and are drawn from Charles-Louis Secondat de Montesquieu, uvres compltes de Montesquieu, edited by Roger Callois, 2 vols (Paris, 19491951). Rousseau's Depiction of the Theatre and his Unnamed References to Montesquieu in the, http://artflsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.4:599.encyclopedie0513, http://dictionnaire-montesquieu.ens-lyon.fr/index.php?id=436, http://ouclf.iuscomp.org/articles/montesquieu.shtml, Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing & Allied Health. 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. Dans le Commerce continuel qu'il y a entre les deux Sexes, il se fait comme un change de Caractre, qui les fait un peu droger l'un & l'autre; see Muralt, Lettres, 229. Rahe broaches the possibility that Rousseau's deep reflection on Montesquieu's Spirit, which his work for the Dupins afforded him, was the catalyst for Rousseau's illumination that occurred on the road to Vincennes when he was travelling to visit his imprisoned friend Denis Diderot; see Rahe, Soft Despotism, 7377. Rousseau too offers this very contrast in his treatment of the theatre in his Letter to d'Alembert, but in the case of English society, where Montesquieu raises objections, Rousseau offers praise. By focusing on his belief in the natural order and harmony of traditional sex roles and community, Rousseau writes to convince D'Alembert, and the public of Geneva, that a theatre is a threat to an ideal, natural way of life. In a text directed toward representation, he thus makes semblance, imitation, a category worthy of moral judgement: that is the . His reforms revolutionized taste, first in music, then in the other arts. 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. He reasons that even if comedy writers write a play that is morally acceptable, the audience will not find it funny. It develops the Romanticism that had already informed his writings on music and perhaps did more than any other single work of literature to influence the spirit of its age. Here is a lecture on Rousseau's Letter to D'Alembert. Scholars have pointed to Montesquieu's influence on Rousseau's work generally. 4. The theme of The New Eloise provides a striking contrast to that of The Social Contract. Eloge de D'Alembert mais Rousseau a quand mme des devoirs. By entering your email address you agree to receive emails from SparkNotes and verify that you are over the age of 13. They eventually became lovers, and des Warens persuaded him to convert to Catholicism. The younger thinker also heeds the admonition of the elder that any change must be undertaken with full knowledge of its consequences and hence with supreme care. As a result, he advises that the greatest part of the penalty should be the infamy of suffering it.Footnote34 Furthermore, in Racine's depiction, Theseus is enraged at Hippolytus precisely because he regards his son's action as treasonous,Footnote35 and Montesquieu warns repeatedly that outrage at this particular crime can result in atrocious punishments for the guilty and innocent alike.Footnote36. Comments. Overall, the population of Geneva agreed with the Letter. Rousseau endeavours quite extensively in the Letter to counter the appeal of commerceboth economic and socialas Montesquieu depicts its pleasing character and salutary effects in The Spirit of the Laws. Emphasis added. On Rousseau's awareness of these apparent paradoxes, see Jean-Jacques Rousseau, "Letter to D'Alembert on the Theatre," in Politics and the Arts, trans. We wish to acknowledge the generous support of the Faculty Research and Awards Committee, the Undergraduate Research Fund, and the Department of Political Science at Tufts for the award of grants in support of this project. For example, Rousseau elaborates on the moral results of Muralt's claim that theatre perverts the relationship of things. Rousseau rarely acknowledges the extent to which Montesquieu's writings influenced his political and moral thought, but study of his Letter reveals the great degree to which Rousseau builds his case from and in response to Montesquieu's observations and ideas. Although he debated extensively with critics of his earlier work, First Discourse, Rousseau never mailed his replies to the major critics of Discourse on Inequality, Charles Bonnet (writing as Philopolis) and Charles Le Roy (writing as Buffon). Careful consideration of Rousseau's Letter in light of Montesquieu's Persian Letters and Spirit of the Laws reveals a much more pervasive influence, however. Want 100 or more? 8 Letter, 254. Alternate titles: Lettre dAlembert sur les spectacles, Letter to Monsieur dAlembert on the Theatre, Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Years of seclusion and exile of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He considered women, by virtue of their nature, to be the primary agents of moral reform, and that the success of the state depends on the harmony within private, domestic life. They appreciate the routines of country life and enjoy the beauties of the Swiss and Savoyard Alps. We thank Matthew Mendham who, as commentator, offered insightful remarks on that occasion. His father, Isaac Rousseau, was a watchmaker. Letter to Monsieur dAlembert on the Theatre. However, tragedies are not as dangerous as comedies, because the characters more closely resemble French citizens. His First Discourse, on the Arts and Sciences, won first prize in a competition run by the Dijon Academy, and he had an opera and a play performed to great acclaim. He had no formal education, but read widely in ancient and modern authors, inspired initially by his father's collection of books. 6 Rousseau authored many of the entries related to music in the Encyclopdie as well as the article Economie, in Encyclopdie, ou dictionnaire raisonn des sciences, des arts et des mtiers, etc., edited by Denis Diderot and Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert; see University of Chicago, IL: ARTFL Encyclopdie Project (Spring 2013 Edition), edited by Robert Morrissey, http://artflsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.4:599.encyclopedie0513 [accessed 18 June 2014]. For a more comprehensive discussion of Rousseau's relationship to Muralt, see Kapossy, Iselin contra Rousseau, 3976; Charles Gould, Introduction, in Muralt, Lettres, 997 (8795). GREAT [3] D'Alembert's article in support of the theatre was influenced by Voltaire, who not only was against censorship, but frequently put on theatrical performances at his home outside of Geneva. At points in his Letter to d'Alembert Rousseau borrows Montesquieu's images and sometimes his very language, adapting them to his purpose in condemning the establishment of a theatre in small and virtuous Geneva.Footnote45 Thus, Rousseau accepts many of Montesquieu's claims regarding French society and its form of sociability. Montesquieu's description of a gentle and joyful societal existence could very well foster admiration beyond the borders of France, and thus spread the very mores from which Rousseau endeavours to protect Geneva. Rousseau refers to ancient Sparta, where the most virtuous and appreciated women were those who were modest and generally not spoken about. [4], He extensively discusses playwright Molire's work, and uses the play Le Misanthrope to exemplify a comedy in which the audience derives immoral pleasure. That minimal creed put Rousseau at odds with the orthodox adherents of the churches and with the openly atheistic philosophes of Paris, so that despite the enthusiasm that some of his writings, and especially The New Eloise, excited in the reading public, he felt himself increasingly isolated, tormented, and pursued. 14 For example, in Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality among Men, Rousseau takes issue with an illustrious Philosopher, evidently Montesquieu, on the timidity of human beings in the state of nature; see Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Second Discourse, in Collected Writings, III, 21. for a group? Rousseaus view that drama might well be abolished marked a final break between the two writers. When Geneva was so threatened with the possibility of embracing such French mores, Rousseau engaged directly with the very authority whom d'Alembert invokes. Rousseau could never entertain doubts about God's existence or about the immortality of the soul. Those methods involve a noticeable measure of deceit, and although corporal punishment is forbidden, mental cruelty is not. He also attached great importance to conscience, the divine voice of the soul in man, opposing this both to the bloodless categories of rationalistic ethics and to the cold tablets of biblical authority. Isaac left Geneva after an argument in 1722; Rousseau nevertheless had a high opinion of his father, referring to him in the dedication to Discourse on Inequality as "the virtuous Citizen to whom I owe my life." Rousseau was the least academic of modern philosophers and in many ways was the most influential. Charting Rousseau's influence is hard, simply because it was so vast. If the play is a comedy, for example, the content is undermined, and if it is tragic, the heroic ideals are exaggerated and placed out of the reach of man. Christopher Kelly elaborates on a different aspect of Rousseau's critique of the theatre's moral obscurity, noting that whatever theatre does teach us about sympathy or morality towards one another, this emotional identification or fellow feeling is less pleasant once outside the performance hall because it demands that one take the trouble to help. Rousseau '' Letter To D' Alembert''; Politics & The Arts [ Allan Bloom] Bookreader Item Preview You are not required to obtain permission to reuse this article in part or whole. Yet in the Letter his encomia cross from enthusiastic to the fervid. It is about people finding happiness in domestic as distinct from public life, in the family as opposed to the state. Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership. [1] Rousseau relates the issue of a theatre in Geneva to the broader social context, warning of the potential the theatre has to corrupt the morality in society. Paul Rahe captures the general influence of Montesquieu on Rousseau most powerfully: the very features of classical republicanism that had occasioned such misgivings on Montesquieu's part were the features that Rousseau found most attractive.Footnote11 Other scholars, who focus more intently on the Letter, discern Montesquieu's influence in Rousseau's formulation that some practices, including the theatre, can be appropriate and even wholesome for some societies while noxious for others, as well as in his insistence that mores are crucial in determining what types of laws and institutions a given people can tolerate and maintain.Footnote12 Despite these important insights, the scholarship has neglected to document the degree to which Rousseau's Letter is an extended meditation on Montesquieu's thought generally and Book 19 of The Spirit of the Laws particularly. Cody Valdes provided perspicacious editorial assistance. Rousseau's letter can help to understand the distinction between lived-in culture and theoretical political order. 3099067 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." Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. Muralt offers a similar critique in his comments on France. Rousseaus attack on the theater proved to be an important turning point in his career as he decisively broke withother Enlightenment thinkers over questions of religion, gender, and contemporary social culture. 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. The work is famous for displaying Rousseau's charismatic rhetoric and digressive tendencies, all with his personal experience woven into the text. As these two leading figures of the Enlightenment argue about censorship, popular versus high culture, and the proper role . In subjecting the type of sociability that a theatre engenders to finely-grained analysis, Rousseau offers examples and language remarkably akin to those that Montesquieu employs in The Spirit of the Laws, yet he uses Montesquieu's teaching in order to oppose some of the very assertions his predecessor makes. Jean-Jacques Rousseau's passionate attack on inequalities political, social, and economic, his critique of reigning governments in the name of democracy, and his questioning of the authority of science or philosophy in defense of moral virtue shook the century of Enlightenment and the aftershocks are still felt today. In resisting such influence, Rousseau counters many of Montesquieu's specific arguments and judgements. Corrections? The accents of nature [les accents de la nature] cause this pleasure; it is the sweetest of all voices.Footnote31, Montesquieu's praise of Racine's Hippolytus, whom he describes as being accused, judged, condemned, banished, and covered with infamy, underscores the fact that to his mind this blameless young man is the victim of a judicial procedure that failed to disclose his true innocence. He makes it clear that the growth of society, reason, and language makes man capable of amazing things, but at the same time, such growth will "ruin" him. Rousseau was particularly opposed to the adoption of French mores in Geneva; see Whatmore, Against War and Empire, 50, 59. Among them, Le Devin du village was the most popular French opera of the eighteenth . [3], In post-modern thinking, there has been renewed interest and appreciation for Rousseau's Letter to M. D'Alembert on Spectacles, with the acceptance since Rousseau's time of utopian and primitivist elements in political thought. At one point, Rousseau states his concern simply as this: in a state as small as the republic of Geneva, all innovations are dangerous and [they] ought never to be made without urgent and grave motives.Footnote79 This passage mirrors Montesquieu's teaching throughout The Spirit of the Laws, which he encapsulates in its preface: changes can be proposed only by those who are born fortunate enough to fathom by a stroke of genius the whole of a state's constitution.Footnote80 Thus, with an inflection borrowed from Montesquieu, Rousseau warns any would-be proposer of improvements to Geneva that even seemingly small and well-intentioned, but ill-considered, changes can have significant deleterious consequences. Dont have an account? The Scottish philosopher David Hume took him there and secured the offer of a pension from King George III; but once in England, Rousseau became aware that certain British intellectuals were making fun of him, and he suspected Hume of participating in the mockery. An example is how the Letter itself is open and expressive in style, while the content of the Letter is about this openness. 77 Rousseau proposes an alternative to the tribunal Louis XIV established to settle conflicts regarding honour without recourse to violence, which he argues would be much more effective as it would harness honour to quell the violence arising from perceived dishonour; see Letter, 6774. 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 . Free trial is available to new customers only. Rousseau initially declares at the beginning of the Letter that theatre only serves to intensify rather than change established morals, positing that drama would be good for the good and bad for the vicious.Footnote73 He ultimately revises his position, however, as he embraces Montesquieu's views both of the fundamental importance of mores in a given society and of the fact that different societies require different mores as well as different laws and institutions.Footnote74 This change of orientation occurs when Rousseau seems to adopt verbatim Montesquieu's formulation that mores and manners can be effectively changed not through direct legislation but less obtrusively through the introduction of other mores and manners, or via public opinion: matters of morals and universal justice are not arranged, as are those of private justice and strict right, by edicts and laws.Footnote75 This is nearly identical to Montesquieu's advice to the legislator in 19.14: when one wants to change the mores and manners, one must not change them by the laws [] it would be better to change them by other mores and other manners.Footnote76 Rousseau's discussion of the possible elimination of duels in France through the force of public opinion provides his readers with an example of spectacle appealing to amour-propre in such a way as to mitigate vice.Footnote77 Indeed, Rousseau declares in this context: I am convinced that we will never succeed in working these changes without bringing about the intervention of women, on whom men's way of thinking in large measure depends.Footnote78 Thus, not only does Rousseau confirm Montesquieu's teaching regarding the importance of mores, but he also expressly adopts Montesquieu's very conclusion regarding the importance of female society in effecting their change. 65 Letter, 311 (5: 74). Of course, none of this establishes that Montesquieu was not familiar with the work, given his wide reading and the work's wide circulation. Coleman's insight is intriguing in part because Montesquieu's discussion of duelling occurs in Spirit, 28.22, where Montesquieu declares that women are quite enlightened judges of a part of the things that constitute personal merit; see Spirit, 28.22, 561. In making this case in Letter to d'Alembert, Rousseau engages Montesquieu's thought by confirming some aspects of his predecessor's reflections while challenging others, frequently adopting Montesquieu's very language in order to counter the trends his predecessor's work might promote. In Paris, as in Geneva, they ordered the book to be burned and the author arrested; all the Marchal de Luxembourg could do was to provide a carriage for Rousseau to escape from France. 2. 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