rousseau letter to d'alembert summary

In the next book of The Spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu specifically illustrates how the theatre appeals to our natural morality: In our theaters we watch with pleasure when a young hero shows as much horror on discovering his step-mother's crime as he had for the crime itself; in his surprise, accused, judged, condemned, banished, and covered with infamy, he scarcely dares do more than make a few reflections on the abominable blood from which Phaedra is descended; he abandons what he holds most dear [] to give himself up to the vengeance of the gods, a vengeance he has not deserved. 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. 2 Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert, Geneva, in Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Letter to d'Alembert and Writings for the Theater [hereafter Letter], in The Collected Writings of Rousseau, edited by Roger D. Masters and Christopher Kelly, 13 vols (Hanover, NH, 19902010), X, 241. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC BY license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 51 Muralt's name does not appear in indexes of Montesquieu's works, including the Penses; neither does it appear in Catalogue de la bibliothque de Montesquieu la Brede, edited by Louis Desgraves (Geneva, 1954) nor in Robert Shackleton, Montesquieu: A Critical Biography (Oxford, 1961). 35 Theseus is the only character in the play to use the word tratre, which occurs on six different occasions in the work, all concentrated in the first and second scenes of Act 4 and all applied to Hippolytus. No longer, as in the Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, was Geneva depicted as a model republic but as one that had been taken over by twenty-five despots; the subjects of the king of England were said to be free by comparison with the victims of Genevan tyranny. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. 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. 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. They imagine that a foreigner who speaks to them is looking for a leg-over. For me, in the 'Letter to d'Alembert' Rousseau is on the side of prejudice, with his vehement moralising, and also a type of violence, always bordering on an exaggerated aggressiveness that is almost useless. Jean Jacques Rousseau (n. 28 iunie 1712, Geneva, Republica Geneva (d) - d. 2 iulie 1778, Ermenonville, Picardia, Frana) a fost un filozof elveian, scriitor i compozitor, unul dintre cei mai ilutri gnditori ai Iluminismului.A influenat hotrtor, alturi de Voltaire i Diderot, spiritul revoluionar, principiile de drept i contiina social a epocii; ideile lui se . 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. An example is how the Letter itself is open and expressive in style, while the content of the Letter is about this openness. 1758 marked a break with many of the Enlightenment philosophers; his Letter to d'Alembert attacked d'Alembert's article in the French Encyclopedia on Geneva. Spirit, 6.2, 74. Mchten Sie Encyclopedie: Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1754; Copper engraving from: Diderot & d'Alembert 'Encyc kaufen? But after quoting a passage from D'Alembert's letter, Rousseau writes that it is imperative to discuss the potential disasters that a theatre could bring. Montesquieu's own partiality to the gaiety of French society in particular becomes manifest when he defends it against anyone who would propose that it be restricted and reformed: One could constrain its women, make laws to correct their mores, and limit their luxury, but who knows whether one would not lose a certain taste that would be the source of the nation's wealth and a politeness that attracts foreigners to it?Footnote27. Rousseau worked as a clerk to a notary, and then was apprenticed to an engraver. Although Montesquieu nowhere explicitly refers to France in this discussion, he reveals its identity if not through his depiction of a society that exults in a striking une joie dans la vivre, where men and women mingle together freely, then certainly through his use of the first-person plural.Footnote23 Nature, Montesquieu says, has given us a vivacity capable of offending and one apt to make us inconsiderate. In this manner, one sees that Rousseau's engagement with Voltaire in his Letter is matched by a subtle, yet substantial, engagement with Montesquieu. In it Rousseau speaks to . 21 Diana J. Schaub, Erotic Liberalism: Women and Revolution in Montesquieu's Persian Letters (Lanham, MD, 1995), 11314. Rousseau came under increasing attack, in print and in practice, from the French monarchy, Voltaire and many others. [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. Rousseau was the least academic of modern philosophers and in many ways was the most influential. for a customized plan. Discount, Discount Code 20 Montesquieu, Persian Letters, letter 28, 79. He concludes that as a result of his new reflections, he embraces a conclusion directly opposed to the one I drew from the first, namely, that when the people is corrupted, the theater is good for it, and bad for it when it is itself good.Footnote81 Rousseau reaches this conclusion immediately after he transmits, without naming his source, Montesquieu's description of French society: Rousseau allows the point that in certain places [the theatre] will be useful for attracting foreigners [utiles pour attirer les trangers],Footnote82 just as Montesquieu argues that the politeness of a society attracts foreigners to it [une politesse qui attire chez elle les trangers].Footnote83 Moreover, whereas Montesquieu declares that the society of women spoils mores and forms taste [la socit des femmes gte les murs, et forme le got],Footnote84 Rousseau admits that the theatre, where women are made the preceptors of the public,Footnote85 is useful for maintaining and perfecting taste [pour maintenir et perfectionner le got] when decency is lost.Footnote86 Rousseau yet again deploys Montesquieu's ideas when he says that a theatre can be useful for increasing the circulation of money [pour augmenter la circulation des espces], just as Montesquieu says that the prominent place of women and their tastes in society constantly increases the branches of commerce [on augmente sans cesse les branches de son commerce].Footnote87 Rousseau borrows and transmits all of these points of Montesquieu. 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. for a group? For a discussion of those who opposed the theatre in France in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, see Jonas Barish, The Antitheatrical Prejudice (Berkeley, CA, 1981), 191220. The particular play that Montesquieu selects for praise in this regard is Racine's Phaedra, which enacts many of Montesquieu's teachings and elicits the very sentiments he finds valuable. Letter to M. D'Alembert on Spectacles (French: Lettre a M. d'Alembert sur les spectacles) is a 1758 essay written by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in opposition to an article published in the Encyclopdie by Jean d'Alembert, that proposed the establishment of a theatre in Geneva. His Government of Poland and Constitutional Project for Corsica offer practical proposals for political reform in his time. 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. He states that though men have their vices, like drinking, they are far less harmful to society than women's vices. This edition seeks to uncover the originality and complexity of Rousseau's argument in a text that seems to reprise traditional religious . Whereas it was the Calvinists who opposed the theatre in Geneva, it was the Jansenists who were vociferous critics of the theatre in France, both before and during Montesquieu's time; Montesquieu is almost certainly referring to their opposition here. As the Letter progresses, Rousseau comes to agree with Montesquieu that theatre, and hence the manners and mores that a people possesses, can be a decisive influence on the way of life of a given people. 2. Dartmouth College Press. 12 Forman-Barzilai, Emergence of Contextualism in Rousseau, 438, 442, 448, 45354; Pamela K. Jensen, Rousseau's French Revolution, in The Challenge of Rousseau, edited by Eve Grace and Christopher Kelly (Cambridge, 2012), 23052 (231, 238, 245); Mostefai, Le citoyen de Genve, 5, 8082, 90. . This extension of the empire of women is against natural order. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. Montesquieu's captivating depictions of the sociability that the French theatre can engender was surely an obstacle for Rousseau's opposition to its influence in Geneva. 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. He posits that Rousseau had in mind Montesquieu's analysis of duels in Spirit, 28.2024; see Coleman, Rousseau's Political Imagination, 83 note 9. According to Montesquieu, it is exactly this tenderness [tendresse] that illustrates the power of the theatre over human beings.Footnote56 This softening of the mores, which Montesquieu sees as so valuable for producing human attachments, Rousseau finds unworthy of true men who will embrace and fulfil the duties of their polity.Footnote57 Thus, while Montesquieu uses Phaedra as an illustration of how theatre serves to eliminate moral ambiguity by reminding us of our natural morality, Rousseau uses the play to demonstrate drama's subversion of citizenship. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. We thank Matthew Mendham who, as commentator, offered insightful remarks on that occasion. Some six years later Saint-Preux returns from his travels and is engaged as tutor to the Wolmar children. 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. It offered a critique of d'Alembert's article on Geneva in the Encyclopdie. While Rousseau and Montesquieu dispute the goodness of theatre and the desirability of women's active role in society, they agree on something much more fundamental. [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. He argues that the presence and authority of women in public spaces corrupts the male youth, turning them effeminate and void of patriotic passion. The letter attracted remarkable attention; over four hundred articles and pamphlets were written in response to it. Wed love to have you back! Dieses exklusive Werk zusammen mit anderen einzigartigen kuratierten Kunstwerken finden Sie nur hier! In the Letter, Rousseau rejected the traditional notion of male politicians being responsible for moral reform, and thought it was women's responsibility. 69 Letter, 328 (5: 95). When the hospitality of Mme dpinay proved to entail much the same. Il ne peut pas se taire aprs ce qu'il a dj fait, il faut parler au public. 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. Jean-Jacques Rousseau In 1758, Jean Le Rond d'Alembert proposed the public establishment of a theater in Genevaand Jean-Jacques Rousseau vigorously objected. [6], The Letter begins by Rousseau establishing the respect he has for his friend D'Alembert. 1758 marked a break with many of the Enlightenment philosophers; his Letter to d'Alembert attacked d'Alembert's article in the French Encyclopedia on Geneva. 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. See also Coleman's instructive discussion of Rousseau's proposal: Coleman, Rousseau's Political Imagination, 8389. He writes that the actor is someone who is artificial, performs for money, subjects himself to disgrace, and abandons his role as a man. creating and saving your own notes as you read. Therefore, the substantial difference in their perspectives on theatre in France is that whereas Montesquieu identifies theatre as improving French morals and manners, Rousseau simply maintains that it can slow the rate of further debauchery. 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. to start your free trial of SparkNotes Plus. 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. His reforms revolutionized taste, first in music, then in the other arts. 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]. 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. 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. After formally renouncing his Genevan citizenship in 1763, Rousseau became a fugitive, spending the rest of his life moving from one refuge to another. Whereas The Social Contract is concerned with the problems of achieving freedom, mile is concerned with achieving happiness and wisdom. At the end of The New Eloise, when Julie has made herself ill in an attempt to rescue one of her children from drowning, she comes face-to-face with a truth about herself: that her love for Saint-Preux has never died. 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. Montesquieu on the French Theatre and Sociability in the, 3. As these two leading figures of the Enlightenment argue about censorship, popular versus high culture, and the proper role . You can view our. Maloy follows Eric Nelson in reading Montesquieu as favourable to the ancient republics generally and to their land reforms particularly. 65 Letter, 311 (5: 74). 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. And indeed, Rousseau does seem to have recovered his peace of mind in his last years, when he was once again afforded refuge on the estates of great French noblemen, first the Prince de Conti and then the Marquis de Girardin, in whose park at Ermenonville he died. It was in England that Rousseau found refuge after he had been banished from the canton of Bern. The Enlightenment was a diverse movement, represented in France by writers such as Voltaire, Diderot and the authors of the Encyclopdie. First, Montesquieu describes them as timide, a term which Rousseau adopts. By entering your email address you agree to receive emails from SparkNotes and verify that you are over the age of 13. Rousseau devotes many pages to explaining the methods the tutor must use. 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. Despite strikingly different conclusions, it is not only their use of similar terms when describing the theatre in general and Phaedra in particular that suggests Rousseau has Montesquieu's arguments in mind while responding publicly to d'Alembert. In his own name, Montesquieu asserts as much, declaring in his preface his belief that, amidst the infinite diversity of laws and mores, human beings were not led by their fancies alone. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born in Geneva on June 28, 1712; his mother died on July 7. In this different context religion plays a different role. An obstreperous critic of the theatre, Rousseau presents its stories not as clarifying and correcting humanity's moral compass, but rather as obscuring it. SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. [] Look at most of the plays in the French theater; in practically all of them you will find abominable monsters and atrocious actions, useful, if you please, in making the plays interesting and in giving exercise to the virtues; but they are certainly dangerous in that they accustom the eyes of the People to horrors that they ought not even to know and to crimes they ought not to suppose possible []. 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. Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine. 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