Contents
In philosophy, Rousseau proclaimed the famous “man is by nature good.” In politics, he dreamed of a just society governed on the basis of a “social contract”. And finally, in literature, he gave life to one of the most beautiful French novels – “Julia, or New Eloise.”
Recently I was re-reading Rousseau’s Confessions, and as I closed the book, I wondered: can one be called a “teacher of life” someone who did such a poor job of arranging his own life? This native of Geneva left a career as a craftsman, which could have brought him prosperity, and devoted himself to writing, which never made him happy. He abandoned his five children. He was timid, touchy, often ashamed of himself, constantly afraid of not being liked by someone, and completely incapable of, as we would put it now, “putting yourself down”. His emotional maturity remained a big question: he called his wife “aunt”, and his mistress – “mom”. Not a plowed field for a psychoanalyst! To top it off, at the age of 45, his suspiciousness and vulnerability turned into a persecution mania. For twenty years he considered himself the victim of a conspiracy of his own friends.
Learn life from Rousseau? Maybe it’s better to feel sorry for him? And yet … His weaknesses and mistakes were the reverse side of sensitivity – a character trait that was developed in him to the limit. Sensitive people in our time may seem ridiculous, mannered, naive and even stupid, but meanwhile, real sensitivity is a rare and precious quality. It is a necessary condition for conscientiousness and susceptibility, immediacy and the ability to empathize. We agree that it is worth learning.
His dates
- 28 June 1712: born in Geneva. The mother died 10 days later. He was raised by his father and aunt, then by his uncle.
- 1724-1725: in apprenticeship with a notary, then with an engraver.
- 1728: first meeting with Madame de Varence; works as her secretary. She becomes his mother, friend and lover.
- 1742: teaches music and copies sheet music; meets Diderot and the encyclopedists.
- 1745: converges with the illiterate seamstress Teresa Levasseur; she bore him five children. All of them were placed in an orphanage.
- 1750: writes “Discourse on the Arts and Sciences”, which won an essay competition announced by the Dijon Academy of Sciences.
- 1756: Begins work on The New Eloise.
- 1757: Beginning of a quarrel with Diderot and his friends.
- 1762: The Social Contract and Emil are printed.
- 1766: begins to write “Confession”.
- 2 July 1778: dies at Ermenonville.
- 1794: Rousseau’s remains are transferred to the Paris Pantheon.
Keys to Understanding
To be is to feel
Feelings allow you to experience real joy from your own existence. Born in an age of rationalism, Jean-Jacques was happy only when something made him worry, shudder with horror or delight, inflame or become enraged. Strong feelings gave him a sense of resonance with himself, and he repeatedly admitted that he “reveled” in them. Behind these experiences is not only the cult of one’s “I”; it is also a certain way of being in the world, making a person accessible to another.
Merging hearts
For Rousseau, with his romantic experience of the world, “to live is to love.” Other people often cause tenderness in him, he seeks intimacy with them. “Love and friendship are the two idols of my heart.” Hence his dislike of conflict and argument: “I can’t hate.”
natural education
“NOT THAT PERSON LIVED MOST OF ALL, WHO CAN COUNT MORE YEARS, BUT THE ONE WHO FELT LIFE MOST.”
Innate, natural kindness is most clearly present in a child, and for this reason alone the child is closest to Rousseau’s ideal. In addition, “the child has his own, special ability to see, think and feel; there is nothing more stupid than trying to replace their skill with ours. The task of the educator is to protect children from the influence of an improperly organized society and to grow up a harmonious personality in solitude, and for this, first to educate feelings, and only then the mind.
The need to believe
A Protestant, then a Catholic, then again a Protestant Calvinist, Rousseau was distinguished by a certain anti-clericalism and was by no means a lover of theological disputes, but felt a deep need to believe. “Inner feeling” convinces us of the existence of God, and for “heartfelt faith” in it, nothing is required except sincerity and the ability to pray, not repeating ready-made formulas, but contemplating nature, which directly tells us about the Creator. A personal, warm, tolerant religion based on admiration for the world.
Taste for simple things
Rousseau eschews pomp, fuss, salons and social conversations, and treats money condescendingly: “None of my main inclinations has anything to do with things that can be bought.” What does he love? Quiet modest life, village, simple food, music, singing, reading books, walking, loneliness. Preferences that attract many of us in the XNUMXst century with its fuss and speed, mania for efficiency and overconsumption, isolation from nature…
About it
Books by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- “Julia, or New Eloise”, Fiction, 1968.
- “Pedagogical essays”, Pedagogy, 1981.
- “Confession. Walks of a lonely dreamer. Discourse on the sciences and arts. Reasoning about inequality”, AST, 2004.