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L Éclairissement
’
The French Revolution
session ii
The Enlightenment

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

L Éclairissement
’
The French Revolution
session ii
The Enlightenment

A Philosopher giving a Lecture on the Orrery in which a lamp is put in place of the Su!
painting by Joseph Wright of Derby, ca 1766


René Descartes; 1596!1650


Cartesianism

• the ﬁrst principle: doubt
• 1641!Meditations on First Philosophy!!”innate ideas”
• cogito ergo su"
• deductive system building
• analytic or Cartesian geometry: the union of algebra and geometry
• x,y coordinates, y=mx +b "the equation for a straight line# &c.


Thomas Hobbes; 1588!1679


the state of nature and its laws

• two proofs for the equality of men in the state of nature
• three principal causes of quarrel: competition, di"dence & glory
• “Hereby it is manifest, that during the time men live without a common power to
keep them a# in awe, they are in that condition which is ca#ed war; and such a
$ar, as is of every man, against every man….and which is worst of a#, continual
fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty,
brutish, and short.”

• right of nature, jus naturale, vs. law of nature, lex naturalis
• ﬁrst law: seek peace, but failing that, by a! means we can, to defend ourselves

• second law: that a man be wi!ing when others are so too...to lay down this right to a! things; and
be contented with so much liberty against other men, as he would a!ow other men against himself


the covenant "social contract#
The only way to erect such a common power, as may be able to defend
them from the invasion of foreigners, and the injuries of one another,
and thereby to secure them in such sort, as that by their own industry,
and by the fruits of the earth, they may nourish themselves and live
contentedly; is to confer all their power and strength upon one man, or
upon one assembly of men, that may reduce all their wills...unto one
will…. This is more than consent, or concord; it is a real unity of them all,
in one and the same person, made by covenant of every man with every
man, in such manner, as if every man should say to every man, I authoris"
and give up my right of governing myself, to this man, or this assembly of men, o#
this condition, that thou give up thy right to him, and authorise a! his actions i#
like manner. This done, the multitude so united in one person, is called a
COMMONWEALTH, in Latin CIVITAS. This is the generation of
that great LEVIATHAN, or rather to speak more reverently, of that
mortal god, to which we owe under the immortal God, our peace and
defence.

Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, CHAPTER XVII, 1651


Two major phenomena...are of prime signiﬁcance for Hobbes and all the
$political% thinkers who follow him: the Reformation and the Scientiﬁc
Revolution.

Both of these complex movements stem from the breakup of the
medieval order. Both took shape in the intellectual climate of discovery
which the printing press and the voyages to the New World fostered.
Both were bitterly resisted as intolerable changes to the status quo. Both
ushered in the condition which we take for granted in America: no one
“owns” the truth; ultimately, the individual is responsible for his own
beliefs. The awesome power represented by knowledge is not a state
monopoly administered by the state religion. Hobbes became an
enthusiastic student of “the new learning.” He discussed his views with
such luminaries as Galileo and Francis Bacon. His e&ort to develop
theories of human behavior which didn’t require a theological foundation
and his willingness to engage in academic disputes earned him the
epithet of “father of atheists.”

James Powers, Justice & Power; A Primer in Political Philosophy, p. 15


Newton and Locke


THE MATHEMATICAL
PRINCIPLES
OF NATURAL
PHILOSOPHY
Newton’s own
copy
Newton and Locke

1687


Nature and Nature’s Laws lay hid in Night,
God said “Let Newton be” and a! was ligh$
Alexander Pop"


the transitional figure
• physicist, mathematician, astronomer,
natural philosopher, alchemist, and
theologian

• 1687!his Principia is the most influential
book in the history of science

• besides the law of universal gravitation, he
formulated the three laws of motion which
would dominate mechanics until Einstein

• he also built the first reflecting telescope and
formulated a theory of color based on
observing the function of a prism

Sir Isaac Newton
• he simultaneously, but independently,
1643!1727 developed calculus with Gottfried Leibniz


the gravitational effect of two objects varies directly with the product of
their masses and inversely to the square of their distance


Newton’s Laws of Motion

I. Absent an outside force, objects
in motion will stay in motion,
those at rest, will remain at rest

II. f=ma "where f=force, m=mass
and a=acceleration#

III.Whenever a ﬁrst body exerts
a force f on a second body, the
second body exerts a force !f on
the ﬁrst. f and !f are equal in
magnitude and opposite in
direction
Or, if you prefer, Laws I & II in Latin


Newton’s telescope
a replica

a triangular prism dispersing light

part of the
discussion
formulating
calculus
a page from the Principia


“If I have seen further it is by standing on
the shoulders of giants.”

in a letter to Robert Hooke, 1676


During the second half if the seventeenth century the Scientiﬁc
Revolution continued to sweep before it the...Aristotelianism of the late
medieval scholastics. John Locke read avidly about the latest discoveries
and newest experiments. His faith in man’s potential for reasonableness
ﬁlls every page of the Of Civil Governmen$. As Newton sought laws
which would bring order and predictability to the physical universe,
Locke sought a constitutional balance in England which would bring
order to the political scene.

Powers, Justice & Power, p. 22


Locke’s Political Theory

• the ﬁrst treatise, against Filmer, is little
read today

• he was Britain’s Bossuet, advocating
divine right of kings as a hedge against
revolution and civil war

• the Second Treatis% or Of Civil
Government, contains the doctrines of
natural law, natural rights, and the right
to revolution which Je#erson will copy
almost verbatim into the Declaration
of Independence


CHAP II !! OF THE STATE OF NATURE

• ...$e must consider what state men are natura#y
in, and that is, a state of perfect &eedom to order
their actions and dispose of their possessions and
persons, as they think ﬁt, within the bounds of th%
law of nature; without asking leave, or depending
on the wi# of any other ma!

• A state also of equality, wherein a# the power and
jurisdiction is reciprocal, on one having mor%
than another; there being nothing more evident,
than that creatures of the same species...b%
equal...without subordination or subjectio!

• The state of nature has a law of nature to gover!
it, which obliges every one: and reason, which is
that law, teaches a# mankind, who wi# bu'
consult it, that being a# equal and independent, no
John Locke
1632!1704 one ought to harm another in his life, health,
liberty, or possessions


CHAP III !! OF THE STATE OF WAR

...And here we have the plain di&erence between the state of nature and
the state of war, which however some men have confounded, are as far
distant, as a state of peace, good!will, mutual assistance and preservation,
and a state of enmity, malice, violence and mutual destruction, are one
from another. Men living together according to reason, without a
common superior on earth, with authority to judge between them, is
properly the state of nature. But force, or a declared design of force,
upon the person of another, where there is no common superior on earth
to appeal to for relief, is the state of war: and it is the want of such an
appeal gives a man the right of war even against an aggressor, though he
be in society and a fellow!subject...


CHAP IX !! OF THE ENDS OF POLITICAL SOCIETY
...The great and chief end, therefore, of men’s uniting into
commonwealths, and putting themselves under government, is the
preservation of their property $deﬁned previously as including life,
liberty and material goods%. To which in the state of nature there are
many things wanting.

First, There wants an established, settled, known law, received and
allowed by common consent to be the standard of right and wrong…

Secondly, In the state of nature there wants an known and indi&erent
judge…

Thirdly, In the state of nature there often wants power to back and
support the sentence when right, and to give it due execution…

Thus mankind, not withstanding all the privileges of the state of nature,
being but in an ill condition while they remain in it, are quickly driven
into society….


CHAP XIX !! OF THE DISSOLUTION OF GOVERNMENT
...The reason why men enter into society is the preservation of their
property; and the end why they choose and authorize a legislative, is,
that there may be laws made and rules set, as guards and fences to the
properties of all the members of the society: to limit the power and
moderate the dominion of every part of the society: for since it can never
be supposed to be the will of the society that the legislative should have
a power to destroy that which everyone designs to secure by entering
into society...whenever legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the
property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary
power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are
thereupon absolved from any farther obedience, and are left to the
common refuge, which God hath provided for all men, against force and
violence. Whensoever therefore the legislative shall transgress...and
endeavor...an absolute power over the lives, liberties, and estates,...the
people have a right to resume their original liberty and by the
establishment of a new legislative "such as they shall think ﬁt# provide for
their own safety and security, which is the end for which they are in
society….


CHAP XIX !! OF THE DISSOLUTION OF GOVERNMENT

...But it will be said, this hypothesis lays up a ferment for frequent
rebellion. To which I answer.

First, no more than any other hypothesis: for when people are made
miserable, and find themselves exposed to the ill!usage of arbitrary
power...the same $i.e., rebellion% will happen….He must have lived but a
little while in the world, who has not seen examples of this….

Second, I answer, such revolutions happen not upon every little
mismanagement in public a&airs. Great mistakes in the ruling part, many
wrong and inconvenient laws, and all the slips of human frailty, will be
borne by the people without mutiny or murmur. But if a long train of
abuses, prevarications and artifices, all tending the same way, make the
design visible to the people, and they cannot but feel what they lie under,
and see whither they are going; it is not to be wondered, that they should
then rouse themselves, and endeavor to put the rule into such hands
which may secure to them the ends for which government was at first
erected...

Locke on Reason and Education
• 1690!in this work Locke argued against
Descartes’ doctrine of “innate ideas” and
replaces it with the theory of the mind as a
tabula rasa $blank slate%

• “all knowledge begins with the senses” !! a
foundation concept for the philosophy of
empiricism

1690


Locke on Reason and Education
• 1690!in this work Locke argued against
Descartes’ doctrine of “innate ideas” and
replaces it with the theory of the mind as a
tabula rasa $blank slate%

• “all knowledge begins with the senses” !! a
foundation concept for the philosophy of
empiricism

• he also wrote on education, arguing that it
should be practical rather than “classical”
and open to women and the lower classes;
attention should be paid to the child’s
physical needs, discipline should be based on
esteem and disgrace rather than rewards and
punishment
1690


Scientific Revolution & Enlightenment Compared

• both impact how people view their world
• both begin with the educated few and then di#use out to the Many
• the Scientific Revolution is much more focused on the work of learned
specialists, astronomers, physicians, artisans in the field of optics, &c…
the so!called “hard sciences”

• the Enlightenment opens the findings of the new science into broader
fields and a#ects more people’s lives more deeply , i.e., applied science
and the “soft sciences” e.g., political science, sociology, psychology

• the Agricultural Revolution "first three quarters of the 18th century#

• the Democratic Revolution "last half of the 18th century#

• the Industrial Revolution "last quarter of the 18th century on#


Aufclärung


Artist
Joseph Wright of Derby
Year
1768
Type

Aufclärung
Oil!on!canvas
Dimensions
183'cm ('244'cm "72'in
('94!'in#
Location
National Gallery, London, England

An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump


Central Ideals of the Enlightenment

•Reason
•Nature
•Progress
•Liberty
•Equality


its scope
•temporal
•geographic
•political
•economic
•social
•means of dissemination


the 17th and 18th century co&eehouse
“penny universities”

• co#ee, chocolate or tea!!a penny a cup
• no alcohol, hence rational conversations
• “no man of any station need give his place to a
ﬁner man”

• if one should swear, he would have to forfeit
twelve!pence

• if a quarrel broke out the instigator would
have to stand his victim to a cup of co#ee

• no criticism of the state, religion or the
scriptures, no games of chance

• books and newspapers are available

French Enlightenment


French Enlightenment

painting in 1728

Republic of Letters
Towards the end of the eighteenth century, the editor of Histoire de la République des Lettres
en Franc", a literary survey, described the Republic of Letters as being:

In the midst of all the governments that decide the fate of men; in the bosom
of so many states, the majority of them despotic ... there exists a certain realm
which holds sway only over the mind ... that we honour with the name
Republic, because it preserves a measure of independence, and because it is
almost its essence to be free. It is the realm of talent and of thought.

The ideal of the Republic of Letters was the sum of a number of Enlightenment ideals: an
egalitarian realm governed by knowledge that could act across political boundaries and
rival state power. It was a forum that supported "free public examination of questions
regarding religion or legislation"…. The people who participated in the Republic of
Letters, such as Diderot and Voltaire, are frequently known today as important
Enlightenment ﬁgures. Indeed, the men who wrote Diderot's Encyclopédi" arguably
formed a microcosm of the larger "republic".
Wikipedia


Allegorical frontispiece of the Encyclopédie, 1772

Detail from the frontispiece. The work is laden with
symbolism: The ﬁgure in the centre represents truth
) surrounded by bright light "the central symbol of
the enlightenment#. Two other ﬁgures on the right,
reason and philosophy, are tearing the veil from truth.


Denis Diderot; 1713!1784
• born a provincial bourgeois, he was sent to the Lycée
Louis!le!Grand in Paris

• 1732!MA in philosophy, abandoned theology for law

• 1734!dropped his studies to become a writer, his
father disowned him and he led a bohemian life for
the next decade

• 1742!befriended Rousseau

• 1750!commenced his major project, the Encyclopedia,
for the next twenty years he experienced controversy,
drudgery, persecution and desertion of friends

• ignored by the establishment, his ruined eyesight and
poverty were ﬁnally relieved by the patronage of
painted by Jean!Honoré Fragonard Catherine the Great
1769


Les Encyclopédistes
most famous of the more than 140 contributors
"## = number of articles written, when known

• Étienne Bonnot de Condillac!philosopher and epistemologist, psychology and philosophy
of the mind

• Jean le Rond d’Alembert!"1,309# co!editor with Diderot, mathematician and physicist

• Baron d’Holbach!"414# French!German author, best known for his atheism, kept a salon

• Denis Diderot!"5,394#

• Baron de Montesquieu!social commentator and political philosopher, much more later

• Jean!Jacques Rousseau!"344# ditto

• Anne!Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de Laune!economist and statesman, early advocate for
economic liberalism

• François!Marie Arouet "Voltaire#!"26#famous for his wit, atheism, and advocacy of civil
liberties


Chateau de la Brède
Begun in 1306 on the site of a previous castle in the Gironde, near Bordeaux in
South!Western France. Here Montesquieu lived and wrote for most of his life


Charles!Louis de Secondat,
baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu; 1689!1755

• scion of the ancient nobility,
independently wealthy, nevertheless
he would write a mixture of radical
and traditional political theory

• because it was known from his
childhood that he would inherit the
presidency of the Parlemen' of
Bordeaux $1716!26%, he was educated
in the classics and the law

• he was a “man of letters,” i.e., “never
worked a day in his life,” a citizen in
the Republic of Letters


his early career

• 1721!Lettres persanes $Persian Letters%
• 1726,’28!Académie &ançais;”blackballed”
by the king the ﬁrst time

• 1729!1731!travels in England
• Lord Chesterﬁeld

• fellow of the Royal Society

• contrast with Voltaire’s experience

• 1734!Considerations on the Greatness and
Decline of Rom%


De l’esprit des lois; 1748

• published anonymously, its initial French
reception was unfavorable from both
supporters and opponents of the regime

• 1751!the Catholic Church placed it on the
Index

• it received the highest praise from the
rest of Europe, especially England

• it was widely read in British North
America among the political classes


key concepts

• three forms of government
• monarchy, republic, & despotism

• the beneﬁcial role of the aristocracy
• the e#ect of climate upon society and laws
• constitutionalism
• separation of powers
• admiration for the British constitution
a ﬁrst edition o&ered for *11,000


BOOK V
THAT THE LAWS GIVEN BY
THE LEGISLATOR OUGHT TO
BE RELATIVE TO THE
PRINCIPLE OF GOVERNMENT
CHAPTER VIII!In what manner the Laws ought to
be relative to the Principle of Government in a#
Aristocracy

If the people are virtuous in an aristocracy, they enjoy very
near the same happiness as in a popular government, and
the state grows powerful. But as a great share of virtue is
very rare where men’s fortunes are so unequal, the laws must
tend as much as possible to infuse a spirit of moderation,
and endeavour to re!establish that equality which was
necessarily removed by the constitution.

The spirit of moderation is what we call virtue in an
aristocracy; it supplies the place of the spirit of equality in a
popular state….


BOOK V
THAT THE LAWS GIVEN BY
THE LEGISLATOR OUGHT TO
BE RELATIVE TO THE
PRINCIPLE OF GOVERNMENT
CHAPTER XIII!An Idea of Despotic Power

When the savages of Louisiana are desirous of fruit,
they cut the tree to the root, and gather the fruit.
This is an emblem of despotic power.


BOOK XIV
OF LAWS AS RELATIVE TO THE
NATURE OF THE CLIMATE
CHAPTER I!General Idea

If it be true that the temper of the mind, and the
passions of the heart are extremely di&erent in
di&erent climates, the laws ought to be relative
both to the variety of those passions, and to the
variety of those tempers.
CHAPTER II!Of the Di%erence of Me#
in Di%erent Climates

A cold air constringes the external ﬁbres of the
body; this increases their elasticity…
People are therefore more vigorous in cold
climates….


BOOK XVII
OF LAWS IN THE RELATION
THEY BEAR TO THE NATURE
OF THE SOIL
CHAPTER V!Of the Inhabitants of Islands

The inhabitants of islands $read Britain% have a
higher relish for liberty than those of the continent
$read France%. Islands are commonly of a small
extent; one part of the people cannot be so easily
employed to oppress the other; the sea separates
them from great empires; tyranny cannot so well
support itself within a small compass; conquerors
are stopped by the sea; and the islanders being
without the reach of their arms, more easily
preserve their own laws.


Salons


Salons

Anciet Charles Gabriel Lemonnier "French, 1743!1824#: Madame Geo&in's salon in 1755, oil on canvas,
Château de Malmaison, Rueil!Malmaison, France. Painted in 1812

salon
!fr. It., salone, a large hall, sala"

• from the place to its purpose, a gathering “either to please or to educate”
• the ﬁrst Parisian salon was that of the marquise de Ramboui#e' $1588!1665%
• this historical institution is of great interest to feminist, Marxist, social,
cultural and intellectual historians

• most, but not all, of the salons were presided over by women. Among
the most celebrated 18th century Paris salons were those of these
salonnières:

• Mme Geo&rin

• Julie de Lespinasse, d’Alembert’s lover

• Mme d’Epinay, Rousseau’s benefactress

• Mmes Necker, Helvétius, Condorcet & Roland

Marie Thérèse Rodet Geo#rin
"1699 ! 1777#

From 1750!1777, Madame Geo&rin played host to many
of the most inﬂuential Philosophes and Encyclopédistes
of her time. Her association with several prominent
dignitaries and public ﬁgures from across Europe has
earned Madame Geo&rin international recognition. Her
patronage and dedication to both the philosophical
Men of Letters and talented artists that frequented her
house is emblematic of her role as guide and protector.
In her salon on the rue Saint!Honoré, Madame Geo&rin
demonstrated qualities of politeness and civility that
helped stimulate and regulate intellectual discussion.


"Geo&rin, who acted as a mentor and model for other salonnières,
was responsible for two innovations that set Enlightenment salons
apart from their predecessors and from other social and literacy
gatherings of the day. She invented the Enlightenment salon. First,
she made the one!o'clock dinner rather than the traditional late!
night supper the sociable meal of the day, and thus she opened up
the whole afternoon for talk. Second, she regulated these dinners,
ﬁxing a speciﬁc day of the week for them. After Geo&rin launched
her weekly dinners, the Parisian salon took on the form that made
it the social base of the Enlightenment Republic of Letters: a
regular and regulated formal gathering hosted by a women in her
own home which served as a forum and locus of intellectual
activity."

Dena Goodman, Republic of Letters, pp. 90!91


Jean François de Troy "1679 ! 1752#, Reading 'om Molièr" around 1728,
Oil on canvas, 72.4 x 90.8 cm; Collection late Marchioness of Cholmondeley, Houghton


Voltaire; 1694!1778
• born to a minor o+cial in Paris, educated by the Jesuits at Louis!
le!Grand, immersed in Latin and Greek

• later he would gain ﬂuency in Italian, Spanish & English

• he determined to be a writer, in opposition to his father’s choice
for him of the law

• his energetic attacks on church and state earned him exiles and
imprisonment, including eleven months in the Bastille

• 1718!he adopted the name “Voltaire” an anagram of “AROVET LI”
the Latinized spelling of his surname and the initials of “l"
jeun"”"“the younger”#. He used at least 178 separate pen names!

• during his exiles he resided in Great Britain where he developed an
appreciation for their government and society, as did both Diderot
and Montesquieu during their stays there
François!Marie Arouet
at age 70


Voltaire’s writings

• 1734!Philosophical Letters on the English!! after more
than two years there he compares their religions,
government and society favorably to that of France.
copies burned and again exile

• 1752!Micromegas!!perhaps the ﬁrst science ﬁction,
ambassadors from another planet witnessing the
follies of mankind




follies of mankind

• 1759!Candid"!!this satire on Leibniz’s optimistic
determinism is his best known work




follies of mankind

• 1759!Candid"!!this satire on Leibniz’s optimistic
determinism is his best known work

• 1764!Dictionnaire Philosophiqu"!!a series of articles
mainly in Christian history and dogmas

• ecrasez l’infam% !“the infamy” refers to the Catholic
Church!"


Enlightenment and Religion
"What is faith? Is it to believe that which is evident? No. It is perfectly evident to my mind that there
exists a necessary, eternal, supreme, and intelligent being. This is no matter of faith, but of reason."
Voltaire, A Philosophical Dictionary

• Deism
• Pantheism
• civil religion
• Le culte de la Raison, le culte de l'Être Suprême ou le théophilanthropisme


Jean!Jacques Rousseau; 1712!1778
• born in the French!speaking Swiss republic of Geneva

• his father a watchmaker and inventor

• his mother, who died giving him birth, had married
“beneath her station”

• 1725!aged 13, apprenticed to an engraver who beat him

• 1728!missed curfew, ran away, Mme de Warens "age 29#

• his relations with women

• Thérèse Levasseur

• no vocation

in 1753 "age 41# by • ministry, tutoring, diplomacy, clerking, music
Maurice Quinten
de la Tour

Les Charmettes
the house where Jean!Jacques Rousseau lived with Mme de Warens
It is now a museum dedicated to Rousseau


his early writing

• 1749!Dijon competition
• on the road to Vincennes jail

• 1750!Discours sur les sciences et les arts

• 1755!Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
• natural vs. “moral” "pol. & soc.#, “the last term of inequality”

• 1755(Discourse on Political Economy $for Diderot%
• political equality and respect for the Volonte General

• universal public education

• egalitarian ﬁscal policy


a cosy retreat!!L’Hermitag"
in the vale of Montmorency, now a Parisian suburb

15 km


Montmorency; 1756!62

• 1761! romance and Nouve#e Helois%



• 1762!Émile: Ou de l’educatio!
• “fo!ow nature”



• 1762!Émile: Ou de l’educatio!
• “fo!ow nature”

• progressive dogmas


blowup

He resented being at Mme d'Epinay's beck and call and
detested the insincere conversation and shallow atheism
of the Encyclopedistes whom he met at her table.
Wounded feelings gave rise to a bitter three!way quarrel
between Rousseau and Madame d'Epinay; her lover, the
philologist Grimm; and their mutual friend, Diderot,
who took their side against Rousseau. Diderot later
described Rousseau as being, "false, vain as Satan,
ungrateful, cruel, hypocritical, and wicked ... He sucked
ideas from me, used them himself, and then a&ected to
despise me".


Du Contrat Social; 1762

• Man is born &ee; and everywhere he is in chains
• One thinks himself the master of others, and sti#
remains a greater slave than they

• How did this change come about?
• I do not know
• What can make it legitimate?
• That question I think I can answer


BOOK I
CHAPTER VI
THE SOCIAL COMPACT

I suppose men to have reached the point at which the obstacles in the
way of their preservation in the state of nature show their power of
resistance to be greater than the resources at the disposal of each
individual for his maintenance in that state….the human race would
perish unless it changed its manner of existence…

The problem is to ﬁnd a form of association which will defend and
protect with the whole common force the person and goods of each
associate, and in which each, while uniting himself with all, may still
obey himself alone, and remain as free as before. This is the fundamental
problem of which the Social Contrac$ provides the solution…

These clauses, properly understood, may be reduced to one!!the total
alienation of each associate, together with all his rights, to the whole
community; for in the ﬁrst place, as each gives himself absolutely, the
conditions are the same for all; and, this being so, no one has any interest
in making them burdensome to others...


BOOK I
CHAPTER VI
THE SOCIAL COMPACT

Finally, each man, in giving himself to all, gives himself to nobody; and as there is no
associate over which he does not acquire the same right as he yields others over
himself, he gains an equivalent for everything he loses, and an increase of force for
the preservation of what he has.

If then we discard from the social contract what is not of its essence, we shall ﬁnd
that it reduces itself to the following terms:
“Each of us puts his person and a# his power in common under the supreme direction of th%
general wi!, and, in our corporate capacity, we receive each member as an indivisible part of
the whole.”
At once, in place of the individual personality of each contracting party, this act of
association creates a moral and collective body…

In order then that the social contract may not be a empty formula, it tacitly includes
the undertaking, which alone can give force to the rest, that whosoever refuses to
obey the general will shall be compelled to do so by the whole body. This means
nothing less than that he will be forced to be free….obedience to a law which we
prescribe to ourselves is liberty.


Rousseau’s later life; 1762!1778
Rousseau spoke of "the cry of unparalleled fury" that went up across Europe. "I was an inﬁdel, an atheist, a
lunatic, a madman, a wild beast, a wolf ..."

• after the bombshell of The Social Contrac'
• proscriptions, exiles & paranoia
• Geneva, Bern, Paris, England, return to France under an assumed name

• 1765!David Hume
• “You don't know your man. I will tell you plainly, you're warming a viper in your bosom."!D’Holbach

• Voltaire! “This lover of mankind who orphaned his own children”

• 1770!Confessions(forbidden to publish, he gave private readings and
created a sensation!!Louise d’Épinay would enjoin publication until 1782

• 1776!78!!peace at last
• Ermenonville!for his disciples, a place of pilgrimage


RIGHTS
OF
MAN

Jacques!Louis Pérée, Regenerated Man Gives Thanks to the Supreme Being,
1794"5, 41.5 x 29 cm, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris.
With one hand he holds up the Rights of Man; in the other he wields a mattock. Beneath his feet lies the axed tree of the Old Regime,
the debris of aristocratic privilege and luxury. A sha! of lightning sears a crow"


for Rousseau, immortal glory; 1794

Sixteen years after his death, his remains were moved to the Panthéon in Paris in
1794, where they are located directly across from those of his contemporary,
Voltaire. His tomb, in the shape of a rustic temple, on which, in bas relief an arm
reaches out, bearing the torch of liberty, evokes Rousseau's deep love of nature
and of classical antiquity.


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