Rousseau Confessions

Along with these failures include the many apprenticeships and jobs in which he just gives up or is fired from. From his teens to the middle of this mans life the reader is lead to believe that Rousseau will quit any task at the drop of a hat. At the age of 12 he apprentices his uncle who is a lawyer who lets Rousseau go due to the fact that he was incapable of doing his job. Then he tries out teaching where he realizes that he is no good at tutoring as well. It was not till he returns to Paris that he realizes his true talent, writing. His only true successes were his accomplished writings. He would probably his sexual accomplishments, which include the women who he made out to be physical trophies. In the middle of the book we see a real change in the character of Rousseau. "I now carried with me wherever I went a self-assurance which owed its firmness to its simplicity which dwelt in my soul rather than in my outward bearing…and I crushed their little witticisms with my observations, as I might crush an insect between my fingers, what a change!" (Pg 388) Now we are seeing a man who is no longer the shy child in the earlier pages who's main concern was for everyone to love him. Now he describes himself as somewhat cocky and boisterous and no longer cares about the opinions of others towards him. These years of Rousseau's life

“I still insist, that not only the virtue, but the knowledge of the two sexes should be the same in nature…and that women, considered not only as moral, but rational creatures, ought to endeavor to acquire human virtues by the same means as men, instead of being educated like a fanciful kind of half being, one of Rousseau's wild chimeras” (38).

Born in Geneva in 1712, Rousseau was shaped by the death of his mother and loss of his father at an early age. Sent to live with the Baroness de Warens, he gained a formal education that enabled him to write his later famous works. He loathed the Baroness’ values even when they eventually became lovers, but growing up in her educational environment allowed Rousseau to be exposed to different opinions that would eventually shape his Enlightened ideas, (Historyguide.org, www.historyguide.org/europe/rousseau.html.). This also exposed Rousseau to different religious ideas eventually forming his views that the church was corrupt, (Nardo, Don. “The Onrush of Modern Ideas.” The French Revolution, Cengage Learning, 2008, pp. 21–21.) Then in 1741, Rousseau fled to Paris where he wrote, “Les Muses Galantes.” This work allowed for Rousseau to meet Voltaire and exchange Enlightenment ideas. Being exposed to the “popular crowd” abled Rousseau in 1750 to write, “A Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts” based off of a prison he visited holding Denis Diderot. Diderot was one of the people Rousseau was able to meet due to Les Muses galantes, it was there Rousseau got the inspiration to form an opinion on the following essay question, “Have arts and sciences improved or corrupted the morals of mankind?”( Historyguide.org, www.historyguide.org/europe/rousseau.html.). Rousseau believed the arts and sciences had not corrupted man just simply decreased their freedoms. Being around Diderot in prison abled Rousseau to write, “Discourse on the Origin of Inequality” which stressed his ideals of man’s natural goodness and the corruption of regularized life, which connects back to Rousseau’s visit to Diderot in an institutionalized prison. These events and works all lead up to Rousseau’s most famous and popular work, “The Social Contract.”

Rousseau’s assumptions and beliefs of his era are society and the growth of social interdependence. He was from 1700, (1712-78) it was very different compared to our beliefs.

Most importantly for Rousseau, however, is not necessarily how history lets him see how men might have been or how history lets him strike a balance between grasping the intricacy of human history and succeeding fluidly from one thought to another; it is how framing his work in such a way lets him give the greatest demonstrative proof of the point he makes. The first part of the work consists in a history of mankind until the institution of the social contract, and it reads easily and freely, just as man in Rousseau’s conception was in those days. The second part of the Second Discourse, which deals with the critique of the social contract itself, however, reads much more heavily, as if Rousseau were attempting to give the reader a taste of the gravity the social contract itself imposes upon man. The opening lines of the second half already launch his scathing attack on civil society by associating this notion with a man who takes advantage of his fellow men:

For the Honors Research Paper, I have selected two readings: To Sor Filotea De La Cruz by Sor Juana Ines De La Cruz and Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. These two powerful readings try to defend themselves against dictatorships and close minded people. I will contrast the readings and compare its similarities.

Rousseau views on human nature as an evolving person in their self. Rousseau wants the reader to see the human nature in themselves and also understand how it has evolved while reading the inequality of men. Men and animals are very similar to one another, however; men can talk. We cannot really understand how animals communicate with us. We wouldn’t understand what they are saying. In the state of nature, pity and self-preservation is mostly what men worry about. A man evolves, mentally,

Living in NYC I’m exposed to multicultural youth, initiatives to support minorities in higher education are scarce; I am thankful that I was a Project Rousseau participant over the summer. As an open minded, multi-culturally explorist; Project Rousseau has shaped my perspective on higher education. Over the summer, I spent time in multiple countries, visiting museums and galleries, and moving closer to my dream with the support of Project Rousseau. Project Rousseau was facilitated by volunteers; the memories will forever be the foundation to my lifetime career of giving back to my community. I've noticed that many of my peers lack the academic preparation for college.

In Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Second Discourse and Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France, both men detail their beliefs regarding social and economic inequalities within societies, the consequences of these inequalities for political life, and their stances on what ought to be done in response to these inequalities. Burke has the more compelling argument because he is right when he states that men are not born equal but are instead born into a society that is already more favorable to some than others, that hierarchy and government are natural and necessary, and that human beings are not intrinsically good.

Thompson & Knight LLP (“Thompson & Knight” or the “Firm”) is being retained by Andrews/Park Haven Apartments, Ltd. (“Park Haven”) to provide assistance with respect to the proposed sale of the Park Haven Apartments to Savannah Developers of Texas, LLC. Ben B. West and John Rousseau, a paralegal, are the only members of the Firm who will work on this matter.

The development of amour-propre has played a pivotal role within society: Rousseau believes it is solely responsible for the ills, and inspires all evil in modern society. Civil society was founded when ‘’the first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying ‘This is mine’, and found people simple enough to believe him’’ (Rousseau pg.84). The state of civil society could not have happened overnight, that leap would require great conceptual development in humans, but from the moment that men started staying in communities was the first real sign in the development of amour-propre;

Rousseau states that “the first person who, having enclosed a plot of ground, thought of saying this is mine and found people simple enough to believe him was the true founder of civil society” (91). As a result of the creation of establishments and institutions of property, men created laws and the creation of laws created inequality among people. Rousseau stated that the only thing natural man cared about was survival. Additionally, natural man did not have possessions and therefore, there was nothing that could trigger envy or jealousy. Competition did not exist. However, civilization has corrupted humans. Today, man cares a lot about power and reputation. Rousseau states that, “ . . . the savage lives within himself; sociable man, always outside himself, knows how to live only in the opinion of others, and it is from their judgment alone that he, so to speak, derives the feeling of his own existence” (117). He continues by stating that, “ . . . everything becomes fabricated and staged -- honor, friendship, virtue, and often even the vices themselves, which men ultimately discover the secret of-- boasting about . . .” (117). In other words, man has not only moved further away from “animal condition” but from oneself.

     Man has no reason or conscience when in contact with others. Possessions begin to be claimed, but the inequality of skill lead to inequality of fortunes. The idea of claiming possessions excites men’s passions, which provoke conflict and leads to war. Rousseau believes men are not perfect in their original state, but have the ability to live in a more perfect society with guidance of

For Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s claim to be deliberated as true (or at least mostly true), it would require that the essence of the claim is subjectively challenged. First, it would demand that an analysis, substantiated with empiricism, could validate how the family unit is the impetus to dependency and vanity. Secondly, it would appeal for evidence of how dependency and vanity ultimately leads to exploiting the violent and evil tendencies of humanity. Finally, it must be able to provide a link, demonstrated in sum, how such tendencies are interconnected and inferred by the family unit. If Rousseau’s claim is unable to satisfy any one of the benchmarks, it must be invalidated.

The books of history are records written by man for man. They “lie” about the true origin of man by showing facts and beliefs about the present man and how he evolved. Yet, nature shows man as he once was. By using nature as the guide, Rousseau can discover the man of the past a man different than the man of today.