According to the Confessions, in 1749 Diderot began editing the Encyclopedia and invited his friend Rousseau to take charge of the musical part of the entry. Unfortunately, Diderot offended the church by publishing The Book of the Blind and was imprisoned in Van Senna. This made Rousseau so anxious that he visited Diderot almost every day. One day, on his way to prison, Rousseau was reading a magazine when he found a proclamation for essays from the Academy of TheRonaldo entitled "Whether the Revival of Science and Art Will Help To Civilize Customs."
Rousseau told Diderot his views on the subject, who encouraged him to write essays to apply. So Rousseau wrote his famous work "On Science and Art", in which he did not answer positively, but from the negative side, arguing that "the progress of science and art is not conducive to the customs of Dun". Diderot was satisfied when he read it, while Voltaire joked that it was a "new book against humanity", and in his reply he unceremoniously satirized Rousseau that "reading your book makes one desire to crawl on all fours." ”
On Science and Art eventually won the Essay Prize, which made Rousseau famous, but it was also the beginning of his slander by all Europeans, rousseau often referred to it as "unfortunate work".
On Science and Art is Rousseau's most famous work
<h1>Which is more important, science, art, or virtue? </h1>
There is a fable in "Zhuangzi Tiandi" that zigong nan traveled to Chu, and on the way he met an old man who opened a furrow in a vegetable garden, and he did not use any tools, relying solely on manpower to work, which looked very hard. So Zigong suggested that he use the machine of orange mallet to improve efficiency, but the old man replied:
"Those who have machinery must have organic things, and those who have organic things must have organic hearts." If the mind is in the chest, it is pure white and not prepared; if it is pure white, then God is uncertain, God is born uncertain, and the place of the Tao is not carried. I don't know, I'm ashamed and not ashamed. ”
He believes that the use of machinery will cause oneself to lose one's simple heart, become clever, and corrupt virtue. After hearing this, Zigong was deeply impressed and warned his disciples: "Utilitarian and clever, you will forget the heart of your wife." Rousseau also had this kind of thinking, and he believed that the revival of science and art was not in the least conducive to the simplicity of customs. As a person, the most crucial thing is his virtue rather than his ability, and the most basic virtue is truth—a real person is better than a thousand speculators.
In a republican system of government based on virtue, the customs are simple and natural, and there is not so much red tape and formalistic politeness among people. At that time, although human nature was not perfect, people could easily understand each other, there was no cover of various etiquette, and everyone truly expressed their views, and did their duty and dedication for the benefit of the country. People feel safe in this natural state. As the basis of society, it is the needs of the body, not the needs of the spirit, which is what Lao Tzu said, "for the belly is not for the purpose." Based on the good virtues and customs of citizens, people have established stable governments and laws. For the country, science and art are only decorative, and the virtue of citizens is the foundation of the country.
If in a country people do not only ask about state affairs, do not care about political affairs, but flock to and admire experts, scholars, writers, artists, stars, idols, etc., then the country will also decline with the corruption of virtue. Rousseau said:
"Boring people, what have you done! ...... Fattened up a group of architects, painters, sculptors and dramatists... O citizens! ...... A assembly of two hundred virtuous men is worthy of commanding all of Rome and ruling the whole world! ”
The state needs more authentic, virtuous citizens than outspoken scholars, misguided experts, hyped up entertainers, and brainless followers. Having distinguished this primary and secondary contradiction, Rousseau further explained that science and art often corrupt people's political virtues.
"The holy one abandons wisdom, and the people benefit a hundredfold." Absolute benevolence and renunciation of righteousness, and filial piety of the people. ”
<h1>Harm to the nation of science and art</h1>
In Rousseau's view, one must first be a good citizen and secondly a scientist or an artist. A country must first have good customs to support it, and then it can develop in the long run. However, the experience of history tells us that science and art often corrupt the virtues of citizens and the customs of the state, and eventually lead to the conquest of foreign nations. Rousseau cites many historical evidences for this:
Ancient Egypt established the earliest political system of mankind, but since they became the mother of philosophy and art, they have been constantly conquered by ancient Persia, ancient Greece, ancient Rome, Arabs and Turks; the Greeks have won the Trojan and Greek-Persian wars, but after the rise of natural philosophy and theatrical art, they were enslaved by Macedonians and ancient Romans; the Romans once enjoyed the tolerance of the republic, but since the appearance of debauched poets such as Ovid and Katuris, they have ushered in the era of imperialism The Renaissance originated in Italy, and under the prosperity of science and art, the country fell apart.
What does China look like? Rousseau said:
"If the sciences can be customary, if they can teach people to shed blood for the motherland, if they can inspire courage, then the people of Chinese should be intelligent, free and invincible."
However, this was not the case, and the three major scientific and technological inventions of the Song Dynasty and the prosperity of culture and art did not prevent the country from being conquered by the Mongols; the science and art of the Ming Dynasty were far ahead of the Manchu Qing, and did not seem to be of much use in resisting aggression. Technology makes people lose their minds as playthings, literature and art make people feel sluggish, and under the decadent system, they are not conducive to fashion.
On the other hand, virtue is strong before the state is tainted with the vain knowledge of science and art. Sparta did not have the cultural prosperity of Athens, but won the Peloponnes War; the Germans, though barbaric and backward, conquered the extravagant Western Roman Empire; the Franks conquered Gaul, and the Saxons ruled England, but they had no treasure except for bravery and poverty. When the Goths plundered Greece, all the libraries survived, and it is said that they left the enemy with science and art, so that they would abandon their military exercises and fall into a quiet spiritual life.
History proves that indulging in science and art not only corrupts personal virtue, but also corrupts the customs of the country. Science and art are like fire, and we thank them for the convenience they bring to social progress, but we cannot respond to this grace by hugging and kissing, because that would burn our faces. When the whole society is addicted to science and art, it is not only not conducive to the customs of Dun, but also harmful to customs.
On Science and Art
<h1>The corruption of science to personal virtue</h1>
Science and art are a double-edged sword that can benefit our external lives, but they can also harm the spiritual world and our sense of moral responsibility.
Rousseau believed that astronomy was born out of astrological superstition, debating was born out of ambition, hatred, flattery and lying, physics out of vain curiosity, and chemistry was born out of illusory alchemy. The improvement of science and technology serves the lazy nature and invisibly promotes our "machine heart".
People who study science must have sufficient leisure time, and ordinary people run for their livelihoods and do not calculate the size of black holes and the boundaries of the universe - this knowledge has too little effect on the development of society, so it is not appropriate for people to study too much. If the citizens of a country study the universe, God, the soul, the ontology, the heavenly principles, and the conscience, but few people care about the mountains and rivers, political economy, customs and education, and border defense and transportation, how can this not lead to the spread of lazy talk?
Far more errors arise in scientific research than truths are discovered, and idle rhetoric often drowns out true scholars. Advocating science is not about setting up many institutions to feed the idle, which will deprive us of many hard-working citizens. Rousseau considered science secondary to social governance, saying:
"We know from you... Which planet may be inhabited... But answer me: If you had never taught us any of this kind, would we have suffered a decline in population, poor governance, less consolidation, less prosperity, or more evil? ”
In Rousseau's view, this kind of scientific research seems so useless compared to the labor of citizens, and eventually more and more idle talkers will be gathered in the name of science. They substitute empty talk for virtue, not knowing what the terms nobility, integrity, moderation, humanity, and bravery really are. Under the name of technology, they are right and wrong, not moral, and only talk about pros and cons. Some even despise human beings from the perspective of the universe, as if he himself is not human and does not need to fulfill his responsibilities as a human being.
<h1>Art is the product of luxury</h1>
Under the republican system of government, citizens worked actively, thriftily and thriftily, and created and accumulated a lot of wealth for the country. Thus, frugality was called by Montesquieu a great virtue of republican government, and luxury was the result of the corruption of this virtue. When the wealth of society is full, people have a "wit" and change their concept that they can seize wealth by competition rather than creation, which will corrupt the morality of citizens. Rousseau said:
"But what does virtue look like when you seek to become rich at any cost?" While ancient politicians never ceased to be interested in fashion and virtue, our politicians were only concerned with business and money. ”
What we create through hard work, we will cherish it, and through competition, we will squander it. People are not satisfied with "being the belly", but also pursuing the "purpose" - the pursuit of spiritual life, literature, music, drama, painting, sculpture and other arts will also be revived.
The artist lived in such an age, and if he wanted to gain the admiration of others, he had to adapt to the world, reduce his genius to the level of the time, and prefer to write some mediocre works that were praised before his death, rather than write excellent works that would only be praised for a long time after death. In this way, even the virtues of the artist have degenerated, he has catered to extravagant tastes, how can such a hypocritical author deserve to be a citizen?
<h1>Why did Rousseau oppose science and art? </h1>
"On Science and Art" is Rousseau's famous work, and in the later "On the Origin and Basis of Human Inequality" and "Emile", we all see Rousseau's "hostility" to civilization, and his view is called "naturalism". Science and art fuel people's desires, free them from freedom in their natural state and into the shackles of civilization.
Voltaire said in his reply to Rousseau: "I agree with you that science and art sometimes cause a great deal of harm. At the same time, he criticized Rousseau's anti-civilizational approach of enjoying the fruits of civilization, arguing that it was undesirable for him to use his writing articles to denigrate literature, just as Malebranche used his superb imagination to belittle the human imagination. Voltaire said:
"Despite the fact that evil people trample on the happiness of society, we remain loyal to society."
He disagreed with Rousseau's escape to the countryside, believing that this admiration of nature and opposition to civilization was reversing.
In fact, Rousseau's opposition to science and art was a passive resistance to the feudal autocracy of France at that time, and in "On the Origin and Basis of Human Inequality", he believed that the state of nature was an era of equality, and only after that there were three stages of inequality between poor and rich, strong and weak, and master and slave, although he longed for the natural state, but this was based on the hatred of inequality in the civilized society of master and slave. He criticized civilized society, like Lao Tzu, for yearning for another, better society. He said that if there is no luxury, what do you want art to do? If there is no injustice, what is the use of jurisprudence? What would history be without tyrants, wars, and conspirators? This is very similar to what Lao Tzu said, which is called:
"There is benevolence and righteousness in the dao, there is great hypocrisy in wisdom and wisdom, filial piety in the discord between the six relatives, and loyalty in the country's confusion."