Rousseau: 'The Discourses' and Other Early Political Writings (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought) (v. 1) [Paperback]

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Author), Victor Gourevitch (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521424453 | ISBN-13: 978-0521424455 | Publication Date: July 24, 1997

The work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau is presented in two volumes, which together form the most comprehensive anthology of Rousseau's political writings in English. Volume I contains the earlier writings such as the First and Second Discourses. The American and French Revolutions were profoundly affected by Rousseau's writing, thus illustrating the scope of his influence. Volume II contains the later writings such as the Social Contract. The Social Contract was publicly condemned on publication causing Rousseau to flee. In exile he wrote both autobiographical and political works. These volumes contain comprehensive introductions, chronologies, and guides to further reading, and will enable students to fully understand the writings of one of the world's greatest thinkers.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...Gourevitch serves Rousseau and hence students very well." Pamela K. Jensen, Review of Metaphysics

Book Description

The work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau is presented in two volumes, together forming the most comprehensive anthology of Rousseau's political writings in English. Volume I contains the earlier writings such as the First and Second Discourses.The American and French Revolutions were profoundly affected by Rousseau's writing, thus illustrating the scope of his influence. This volume contains a comprehensive introduction, chronology and guide to further reading, and will enable students to fully understand the writings of one of the world's greatest thinkers.

Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (July 24, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521424453
• ISBN-13: 978-0521424455
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #30,539 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Review of Cambridge's Rousseau, Volume One, February 20, 2010

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Ryan S. Mease "scott.godwin" (Chicago, IL, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rousseau: 'The Discourses' and Other Early Political Writings (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought) (v. 1) (Paperback)

This is a solid translation. It contains the two critical dialogues of Rousseau's early career, as well as other minor works that reveal more corner of Rousseau's ever-interesting imagination. Furthermore, the work is supplemented by a great introduction, both on the themes of the work and on its terminology. Indeed, the volume contains a sort of glossary before the translations, speaking to each of the most important words within these works. One complaint: I don't like the physical, material aspect of this translation (or Cambridge in general). These sharp blue books have a tough and unyielding 'soft'cover, which really makes holding the book open difficult.

6 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essay, The Chain of Free Will, March 12, 2005

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Fan Wang - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rousseau: 'The Discourses' and Other Early Political Writings (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought) (v. 1) (Paperback)

B1 refers to the 'the Discourses', B2 refers to the "Social Contract" by Rousseau

"Man are born free, but everywhere they are in chains."
What a glorious line! Who would not want to shake off the chains and be free? The question is, what kinds of freedom is Rousseau talking about, and where is the source of the evil chain?

Rousseau talks about two kinds of freedom, the freedom to act and the freedom to enjoy the fruits of action, both of which serve the goal of the preservation of life. The freedom to act is called "free will"; it differentiates men from animals and is directed by one's desires.

In the state of nature, the "free will" of men allows them to find creative sources of subsistence as the environment changes, and each is free to enjoy the fruits of their labor because he has labored independently. In civil society, however, men must labor together and share their produces. Under these new conditions, "free will" will lead men to excessive desire which result in the usurpation of the others' freedom to enjoy the fruits of their labor. The loss of the freedom to enjoy puts the life of every member of the society under danger, and hence, in the civil society, "free will" has contributed negatively to its goal of the preservation of life.

The chain of life, therefore, is in fact "free will", which was beneficial for the preservation of life in the state of nature, but detrimental to this goal in the civil society. Hence, for the civil society to achieve its end of preserving life, each individual must give up their "free will" and succumb their freedom to act to the general will of the society.

Survival-the Goal of Life

Rousseau frequently repeats that preservation of life is the most fundamental goal of man's actions. He writes,

"Man's first sentiment was that of his existence, his first care is that for his preservation." (B1, p161)
And,
"His (man's) first law is to attend to his own preservation, his first cares are those he owes himself..." (B2, p42)
As the first "care" and "law" of life, and the "first sentiment", the desire for survival is the singular progenitor to all other desires in life, and in the state of nature, will always trump all other interests in life. One might say that there are higher goals in life beyond mere survival. Indeed there are, however, if one does not survive, those higher goals of life could not exist either.

The mechanism by which men strive for survival is to act according their "free will". Rousseau writes,
"I see in animal nothing but an ingenious machine to which nature has given senses in order to wind itself up and, to a point, protect itself against everything that tends to destroy or to disturb it. I perceive precisely the same thing in the human machine, with this difference that Nature alone does everything in the operations of the Beast, whereas man contributes to his operations in his capacity as a free agent..." (B1, p140)
Here, Rousseau again emphasizes that the "ingenious machine" of animals and men share the goal of protecting their beings, however, the means to achieve this goal is different in that man are equipped with a different mechanism, their free will, to achieve this end. This different mean will turn out to be men's advantage of animals in survival.

Free Will-the Advantage

On the same page as the previous quote, Rousseau goes on to point out the disadvantage the Beast, which does not have free will. He writes,

"...as a result the Beast cannot deviate from the Rule prescribed to it even when it would be to its advantage to do so...Thus a Pigeon would starve to death next to a Bowl filled with the choicest meats, and a Cat atop heaps of fruit or of gain, although each could very well have found nourishment in the food it disdains if it had occurred to it to try some..." (B1, p140)

The Pigeon could not adapt to new environments as conditions changed since it has been programmed to act in only one way. This restricts Pigeons to places where they can find certain kinds of food. If their population grows to the extend that their restricted locales can no longer supply all the Pigeons with sufficient food, many pigeons will die away; if a natural disaster destroys all their habitats, then all pigeons will have to face death.

On the other side, since men have "free will", they are not limited by their current conditions. Unlike the pigeon, the savage man could eat whatever he comes across and learn what food is beneficial or poisonous through experience. Rousseau writes,
"Men...raise themselves to the level of the Beasts' instinct, with this advantage that each species has but its own instinct, while man perhaps having none that belongs to him, appropriates them all, feeds indifferently on most of the various foods which the other animals divide among themselves, and as a result finds his subsistence more easily than can any one of them." (B1, p1350)

The freedom must not only be limited to what kinds of food savages could eat but also their flexibility regarding lodging, sleeping and everything else that contribute to their survival. This flexibility allows men to survive anywhere and during any environmental changes; it consequently allows men to spread their seeds to the whole world. This is how "free will" contributes to the preservation of lives, and one must not misunderstand preservation as static-preservation is both directed toward those who are living and those who are young and those who have not been borne. Human's unique ability to preserve itself insures that it can grow and multiple.

Free Will and Desires

Free will allows men to out-survive other animals, but free will itself is not an action but a process; it is the specific acts that a man wills that allow him to adapt. To will one action instead of another is to prefer one solution above another, and to have preference is to have desires for one thing more than another. For the purpose of the preservation of life, in the state of nature, a man must desire for what is to his survival. Hence, the goal of desires is to direct one's actions to what is beneficial for his survival. (Animals also have desires, however, the difference is: while both a man and a cat desire to eat, only the man can desire about how to eat.) Rousseau writes,

"I could...show that in all Nations of the world, progress of the Mind proportioned itself exactly to the needs, which Peoples received from Nature, or to which circumstances subjected them, and consequently to the passions, which inclined them to satisfy these needs." (B1, p142)

These "passions" of men, are the desires of men. Hopefully, through the "progress of Mind", a man can learn more and more about what is to beneficial for his survival needs through experiences and make better actions based on free will.
There remains, however, a gap between desire and what is beneficial for the body. There is an apple, but how will a person actually learn that he should desire the apple? This takes place with the mechanism of pleasure and pain, which God equipped man with. Although Rousseau does not talk about it directly, but for his system to work, pleasure and pain must be the markers of experiences, distinguishing between what is good for one's survival and what is not. For example, when a hungry man eat three apples after he has not eaten for three days, his agony of hunger will decrease; he has learnt that apples will make him feel less pain, and hence, the marker of pleasure is mentally attached to the image of an apple. Rousseau writes,

"The passions, in turn, owe their origin to our needs, and their progress to our knowledge." (B1, p142)

Indeed, the real form of this knowledge is an index mental association between events and pleasures and pain.
Pleasure as the indication of goodness works out very well in the state of nature when everyone only has command over the limited goods which he gains through his own labor, however, the indications cause troubles in the civil society.

The Change

A change in environment and condition brings upon a challenge never before faced by men-their independent labor can no longer guarantee their survival. It might be that the weather used to allow hunting during all seasons, but suddenly winter turned dreary and cold and hunters must hunt enough during summer so that there would be enough food reserved for winter. This doubling of work, sadly, was too much work for one man. Forced by their memory of hunger from the last winter, the hunters begin working together with one another. They must now act uniformly. Maybe one wants to hunt at 5pm and the other wants to hunt at 4pm, but there can only be one time. Hence, the two have succumbed their original freedom and force to their union. As Rousseau writes,

"Now, since men cannot engender new forces, but only united and direct those that exist, they are left with no other means of self-preservation than to form, by aggregation, a sum of forces that might prevail over those obstacles' resistance, to set them in motion by a single impetus, and make them act in concert. (B2, p49)

This decision to bind together, like every other decision man makes, was based on man's ability to choose based on desires his "free agent".

The Problem

From the perfect state of natural freedom, man freely chose to form society after they have been forced by necessity to abandon their old way of independent life.

This lose of independence, however, is horrible because it made it easy for one group to usurp another's freedom to enjoy his labor. Rousseau writes the misery of... Read more ›