Jean Jacques Rousseau, “Discourse on the Moral Effects of the Arts & Letters” (1750) Translated by G.D.H. Cole for Everyman, originally 1913, new edition in 1973.
[This guide for Rousseau’s first discourse is especially intended for those who will read the second discourse and Rousseau’s The Social Contract. Rousseau’s Social Contract is motivated in great part by errors he finds in the social contract theories of predecessors Hobbes and Locke. Rousseau’s version of this political theory is published 12 years after this first discourse on arts and letters, but even here we can see some important themes in his approach. One significant difference between the early Rousseau and his predecessors is the former’s distrust of the power of reason, a faculty that both Hobbes and Locke champion. Rather than conceive of morality in terms of rules derived through or discoverable through reason, the early Rousseau harkens back to an older approach to understanding morality: virtue and vice insofar as these contribute to or inhibit humans from realizing genuine happiness. It is useful to consider Rousseau’s discussion here in light of Plato’s discussion of the parts of the soul, justice and happiness as expressed in his Republic. Even if you are not familiar with Plato’s Republic, you can get a good start on understanding Rousseau’s political philosophy by attending to Rousseau’s language in this first discourse to get a sense of what traits Rousseau regards as virtues and which as vices, and what aspects of human nature are most important for persons to achieve genuine happiness.]
Title Page and Preface from Rousseau: Note from the title page that this essay won an essay contest posed by the Academy at Dijon, France. Note the question posed for the contest: “Has the restoration of the arts and sciences had a purifying effect upon morals?”
1. [Preface, Para. 2] Given his remarks in paragraph 2 (and the quotation Rousseau offers on his title page from Ovid), do you suppose Rousseau will answer the question of the contest in the affirmative or the negative?
The Discourse
1. [Para 2-3] Rousseau suggests that many readers will interpret his essay as an attack on the sciences. How does Rousseau characterize the point of his essay in contrast?
2. [Para 4] A just claim enjoys its most advantageous situation under what condition, according to Rousseau? [Compare his answer with Locke’s view of the chief disadvantage or ‘inconvenience’ facing individuals in the state of nature—Second Treatise, Chapter Two, § 13.]
The First Part
1. [Para 1-3] Rousseau suggests that a few hundred years before his essay (a footnote to the text aligns this with the emergence of Scholasticism), Europe was in a ‘state still worse than ignorance’. What do you suppose Rousseau means by a state worse than ignorance? [Compare Rousseau’s view here with Socrates as rendered routinely by Plato as professing ignorance while still being reputed to be the smartest man in Athens—how can the latter claim be true if Socrates is right in claiming to be ignorant? Also, there is a bit of irony in the fact that Socrates is instructive, since Socrates hails from a society Rousseau generally regards unfavorably, though Socrates is exceptional—see paragraphs 22-29, including Rousseau’s observation of Socratic ignorance.]
2. [Para 3] What is the ‘principal advantage of an intercourse with the Muses’? [Compare this with the effect of taste and manners, part of what Rousseau means by the arts & sciences, in paragraph 6.]
3. [Para. 4] An ornament is something that is intended to be pleasing though as an accessory to something else that is primarily functional. What does Rousseau characterize as an ornament to society? What function does society primarily seem to serve?
4. [Para. 5] What do government and law provide in society? How are government and law related to slavery? What effects on persons do the arts, literature, and sciences have regarding government and law? How are liberty and civilized people related, according to Rousseau?
5. [Para. 5] Why do you suppose that Rousseau says that while the arts, literature and sciences are less despotic than government and law, they are nonetheless MORE powerful?
6. [Para. 6] Rousseau is fond of formulating striking expressions, such as ‘happy slaves’. Presuming that what is essential to being ‘civilized’ is a society’s practice of the arts, literature and sciences, why does Rousseau think civilized people are happy slaves? What does happy seem to mean for Rousseau? What is slavery? [Again, Plato’s Socrates is instructive here: compare Rousseau’s discussion here with Socrates’ exchange with Cephalus in Book One of Plato’s Republic, especially 329 a-e.]
7. [Para. 7] The distinction between appearance and reality is a theme throughout much philosophy. How is this distinction related to Rousseau’s prescription for happiness?
8. [Para. 10-12] In comparing past virtuous ages with modern life, Rousseau remarks that human nature was not appreciably better in one age than the other. Nonetheless, in virtuous ages, people found their security differently: on what did security depend in past virtuous ages?
9. [Para. 15] What is Rousseau’s explicit answer to the question that prompted his award winning essay?
Paragraphs 16 – 31 contain a series of illustrations of the effects on society of both cultivating and resisting the arts and sciences characteristic of civilization.
10. [Para. 30] There is a distinction between practicing virtue and studying it. Which is more important for happiness? How are the arts & sciences, do you suppose, connected to this distinction?
11. [Para. 33] Rousseau asks whether or not the cultivation of arts and sciences have produced for humans at least one beneficial insight, and he suggests one. What is this?
The Second Part: While the first part of the essay examines historical evidence for Rousseau’s thesis, the second part is devoted to an analysis of what the particular arts and sciences produce.
1. [Para. 1] In general, what is the origin of the arts and sciences?
2. [Para. 2] In contrast to the ‘barren speculation’ that Rousseau seems to think characterizes the philosophical activity of his day, what appears to be the essential motives and activities of a good life?
3. [Para. 3-4] Why do you suppose Rousseau distinguishes between successfully acquiring the truth about the objects of the arts and sciences, and the usefulness of that truth? What do you think Rousseau thinks is the relationship between truth and its usefulness? Is one more important than the other and, if so, which appears to be more valuable in Rousseau’s theorizing?
4. [Para. 7-10] What is the relationship between the arts and sciences on the one hand and, on the other, luxury?
5. [Para. 8] What is the relationship between money and morality (and/or between money and character)?
6. [Para. 9-10] What is the risk in the artist’s desire for applause (or reputation, the pleasure Plato’s Socrates associates with the spirited part of the soul)?
7. [Para. 11] How does humans relationship with the gods evolve over time, according to Rousseau? [Recall that Adiemantus supplements Glaucon’s challenge to Socrates in Book II of the Republic by pointing out that the Ring of Gyges must effectively shield an unjust person’s actions not just from other persons but also from the gods; only then can we tell whether someone is just for its own sake rather than for the consequences the gods might arrange for just and unjust action.]
8. [Para. 12-16] Rousseau examines the connection between science and military virtue. What is Rousseau’s conclusion about the relationship between these two?
9. [Para. 17-19] What is the relationship between learning the sciences and a person’s moral qualities? [Note that Rousseau seems to have no qualms about treating education as aiming at the development of moral character. For Rousseau’s view about education’s proper orientation, consider the footnote to paragraph 19 in which Rousseau comments on Spartan, Persian and Median education.]
10. [Para. 20] To what does Rousseau attribute the corrupting influence of education characteristic of modern civilized society? [Note the subject matter of Rousseau’s Second Discourse.]
11. [Para. 21] Identify two consequences Rousseau discerns of modern educational emphasis on the arts and sciences.
12. [Para. 25] After criticizing some of the main theses of his contemporary philosophers (para. 24), Rousseau takes on the value of the art of printing, which enables the transmission of the literary arts to future generations. What is Rousseau’s view of the value of printing technology?
13. [Para. 25] With what sort of life does Rousseau associate human happiness in discussing the art of printing?
14. [Para. 26] Rousseau does seem to acknowledge that Francis Bacon, Rene Descartes, and Isaac Newton were legitimately geniuses, and their accomplishments raised the ‘glory of human understanding’. What interesting educational fact does Rousseau point out about these geniuses?
15. [Para. 26] What lesson about instructing men is to be applied to the task of governing them, according to Rousseau?
16. [Para. 27] What is it that prevents the learned from making great objects of their studies and prevents princes from doing great actions, and keeps ordinary people mean, corrupt, and miserable?
17. [Para. 28-30] At the end of the essay, Rousseau advises how and how not ordinary persons (i.e., non-geniuses and non-rulers) ought to pursue happiness, and how they are to understand virtue in the pursuit of happiness through true philosophy. What does Rousseau recommend?