Hello everyone, here is a small broadcast of reading, next, I will use a series of columns to share, the famous 18th century Enlightenment thinker, philosopher: the philosophical thought of Jean Jacques Rousseau.
Rousseau has a famous saying, which many people may have heard, he said: "Man is born free, but he is always in chains."
This is the first sentence of Rousseau's opening chapter in his famous book The Social Contract, Why are we born free, and what are our shackles? To understand Rousseau's thought, it is necessary to understand the background of Rousseau's time. Born on the eve of the French Revolution, Rousseau was the intellectual pioneer of the French Revolution in the 18th century and one of the most representative thinkers of the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment was a movement of intellectual emancipation that took place in Europe, one of the three major intellectual movements in modern Europe. There are two representative figures in this ideological movement, one is Rousseau and the other is Voltaire, and the theme of this ideological movement is: freedom, democracy and equality. But Rousseau and Voltaire's admiration for freedom and equality is completely different, and can even be said to be contrary.
To put it simply, Voltaire admired and praised the progress of human civilization, especially the scientific progress represented by Newton and Galileo, as well as the literary and artistic prosperity brought about by the European Renaissance, Voltaire believed that the progress of science and art had brought well-being to the public and promoted the progress of human civilization. On the contrary, Rousseau vigorously criticized the progress of human civilization, especially the deep suspicion that the progress of science and art had caused endless suffering to mankind and led to the degeneration of human civilization. In particular, the emergence of private ownership in society is the root cause of inequality in human society. Of course, Rousseau's thought and the mainstream values and ideological trends are contrary to each other, so they have also encountered various exclusions and blows, and their fate is also very bumpy, but Rousseau's thoughts are not whimsical, which is inseparable from Rousseau's life experience. Before introducing Rousseau's thought in its entirety, let us briefly introduce Rousseau's life as usual.
Rousseau was born in 1712 in Geneva, Switzerland, his father was a watchmaker, and his mother was the daughter of his godfather, originally the family was still well off, but Rousseau's mother died because of difficult childbirth, rousseau died, Rousseau and his father were dependent on each other, but at the age of 10, his father was seriously injured because of drunken fighting with others, and fled alone in a hurry, leaving Rousseau as an orphan and staying in his uncle's house. But fortunately, Rousseau was born smart, from childhood like to read and seek knowledge, when he was 7 years old, he read the novel left by his mother, when he was 10 years old, he had already read a lot of books, Rousseau decided to learn a craft in order to survive, but Rousseau was free by nature, could not stand the scolding and abuse of his masters, one day Rousseau went to the countryside to play, when he came back, the city gate was closed, Rousseau could not return home, simply left Geneva to start a wandering life.
During Rousseau's wanderings in Italy, in order to fill his stomach, he even gave up his previous faith, he changed from a Protestant to a Catholic, but life in a church shelter was not satisfactory, after coming out of the asylum, Rousseau was taken in by the French noblewoman Madame Warren as a follower, Rousseau was only 16 years old at the time, and Madame Warren was a beautiful young woman of 28 years old, and later Madame Warren became Rousseau's only relative, rousseau's youth was basically spent with Madame Warren, probably because of the lack of maternal love from childhood Rousseau initially regarded Madame Warren as her mother, and later they developed into a lover's relationship, which is not mentioned here.
However, during this period, Rousseau traveled all over the French countryside, the main job is to study nature, collect specimens everywhere, although at this time Rousseau has no worries about food and clothing, but also with the relationship of Mrs. Warren, often mixed with the people of high society, but Rousseau also witnessed the dark side of society, he saw the social development process, the sharp division between urban and rural areas, saw the gap between rich and poor caused by the "Jumen dog meat smell, the road has frozen bones" Human tragedy, but also saw the priests under the guise of religion, After witnessing the dark side of society, Rousseau began to doubt whether the so-called civilizational progress and technological development of society could really bring real well-being to people.
Rousseau's life changed from one person, that is, Diderot, Diderot was one year younger than Rousseau, when Rousseau was still unknown, he was already a very famous Enlightenment thinker in France, in 1749 Diderot was writing an encyclopedia, he met Rousseau through an acquaintance, the two saw each other at first sight, but later because Diderot was angry with the church was locked up in prison, during which Rousseau went to the prison every day, one day, Rousseau on the way to prison, in a newspaper saw an essay from the Dijon Academy of Sciences, Rousseau wrote his first submitted article entitled "On Whether the Revival of Science and Art Helps to Make Customs More and More Simple", rousseau's conclusion was negative at the time.
In this treatise, Rousseau fiercely criticizes that the root cause of the degeneration of human society is the deepening dualization of science and art and productive labor. The false prosperity of science and art became a game for the elite at the top, and the masses engaged in productive labor did not receive any well-being. The development of science and art is divorced from the daily production of the common people, not only does not make the customs simple, but on the contrary, the social customs are becoming more and more degenerate, and human nature is also completely alienated. This counter-mainstream article, although it made Rousseau famous overnight, also made Rousseau the target of public criticism. The fledgling Rousseau did not pay much attention to the fierce attack.
It was not until 1753 that the Dijon Academy again conducted a prize essay entitled On the Causes of Human Inequality. This essay led to Rousseau's famous essay" On the Origin and Foundations of Human Inequality, which was later published as a book. Rousseau pointed out in the article that the cause of human inequality is the emergence of private property, and in the text, Rousseau pointedly pointed out that whoever was the first to put up a sign on a piece of land and say, "This is mine", and the naïve and simple people around him actually believed his words, this person is the founder of civilized society. And this is the beginning of human inequality. Of course, Rousseau's counter-mainstream thinking was not officially recognized, and the article did not win awards.
But Rousseau did not stop thinking, in 1762, nearly 10 years later, Rousseau published his famous book "The Theory of the Social Contract", in which Rousseau still shouted for the universal people living at the bottom of society, put forward the slogan of equality and freedom, and advocated the overthrow of the monarchy, avoiding the harm of privileges and slavery to the people, advocating the establishment of a republic based on contract, which is the only way for human development, and the core concept of the contract society as the entity of the democratic society is: the equality of all workers.
"Social Contract Theory" is one of the most important works in the 18th century Enlightenment, the core ideas and spirit were written into the "Declaration of Independence" in the United States and the "Declaration of the Rights of Man" in France, but Rousseau suffered great pressure because of the publication of this book, his book was suppressed by the ruling class, burned, and he was also arrested, in 1762 Rousseau again published the famous book "Emile" This book is ostensibly about the views on education, but in fact through Emile published anti-feudal, anti-religious strong emotions, Eventually, Rousseau's writings provoked the wrath of the French ruling class, who again began a life of exile to escape persecution.
After a long period of exile, Rousseau began to reflect on his life in his later years, and wrote the famous book "Confessions", which became a representative of French Romantic literature, but Rousseau's later life was very lonely and unfortunate, and in 1778, a generation of thinkers, the Thinker of the European Enlightenment, Rousseau, died in grief. But like many thinkers, their ideas were ahead of their time, but they were eventually recognized by the times, and 11 years after Rousseau's death, that is, in 1789, the French Revolution broke out, the French monarchy finally collapsed, and the nobility and privileges were replaced by equality and civil rights. After the French Revolution, the French people held a solemn funeral for Rousseau and buried him next to Voltaire.
Looking back at Rousseau's life, born and lost his mother, the teenager became an orphan, the lowest level of the society that starved and cold for a long time, worked as an apprentice, a servant, a private secretary, a sheet music scribe, and later became famous because of his ideas, but because of too many enemies, he was persecuted, his life was turbulent, and he died in his later years. However, Rousseau's thought was tenacious, did not succumb to the powerful and privileged classes of the time, and spent his life shouting for the general public, and his ideas also profoundly influenced the Western world, becoming one of the famous Enlightenment thinkers in the West in the 18th century.
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