Rousseau's Counter-Enlightenment : A

Arguing that the question of Jean-Jacques Rousseau s relationship to the Enlightenment has been eclipsed and seriously distorted by his association with the French Revolution, Graeme Garrard presents the first book-length case that shows Rousseau as the pivotal figure in the emergence of Counter-Enlightenment thought. Viewed in the context in which he actually lived and wrote -- from the middle of the eighteenth century to his death in 1778 -- it is apparent that Rousseau categorically rejected the Enlightenment "republic of letters" in favor of his own "republic of virtue." The philosophes, placing faith in reason and natural human sociability and subjecting religion to systematic criticism and doubt, naively minimized the deep tensions and complexities of collective life and the power disintegrative forces posed to social order. Rousseau believed that the ever precarious social order could only be achieved artificially, by manufacturing "sentiments of sociability, " reshaping individuals to identify with common interests instead of their own selfish interests.

Graeme Garrard is Lecturer in Political Philosophy and European Thought at Cardiff University.

Preface

ix

Acknowledgments

xi

Abbreviations

xiii

Introduction

1

(10)

The Enlightenment Republic of Letters

11

(18)

The Party of Humanity

11

(8)

The Virtue of Selfish Sociability

19

(10)

Philosophe, Madman, Revolutionary, God: The Many Faces of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

29

(12)

Introduction

29

(1)

Rousseau and the Philosophes

30

(5)

The Invention of the ``Revolutionary'' Rousseau

35

(5)

Conclusion

40

(1)

Unsociable Man: Rousseau's Critique of Enlightenment Social Thought

41

(14)

Introduction

41

(1)

From Contract to Community

42

(3)

Natural Order, Social Disorder

45

(8)

Conclusion

53

(2)

Rousseau's Counter-Enlightenment Republic of Virtue

55

(14)

Introduction

55

(1)

Extending amour-propre

56

(3)

Statecraft as Soulcraft

59

(5)

Rousseau's ``Manly'' Republic

64

(3)

Conclusion

67

(2)

On the Utility of Religion

69

(14)

Introduction

69

(3)

The Religious Basis of Morality

72

(4)

The Union of Church and State

76

(7)

Dare to Be Ignorant!

83

(20)

Introduction

83

(1)

Messieurs de l'Encyclopedie

84

(3)

``A Sweet and Precious Ignorance''

87

(5)

The Light Within

92

(9)

Conclusion

101

(2)

The Worst of All Possible Worlds

103

(14)

The Cautious Optimism of the Philosophes

103

(3)

Rousseau's Optimism about the Past

106

(5)

Rousseau's Pessimism about the Future

111

(4)

Conclusion

115

(2)

Conclusion

117

(4)

Notes

121

(34)

Bibliography

155

(24)

Index

179

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Rousseau's Counter-Enlightenment : A Republican Critique of the Philosophes

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

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