Jean-Jacques Rousseau's writings on music as an aspect of preromanticism

Rousseau's works concerning music reveal various recurrent themes which are now considered preromantic. While the writings on theory may be viewed as a treatise on Rousseau's preromantic philosophy, the characters and themes of his operas seem to foretell his most outstanding sentimental work, La nouvelle Héloise. Rousseau wrote the "Lettre à M. Grimm," "Lettre sur la musique française," and the "Lettre d'un symphoniste," in which he revealed his preferences for the simple Italian melodic music over the more complex French harmonic music, at the time of the "Guerre des bouffons" in France. During the "Guerre des Gluckistes et des Piccinistes" Rousseau wrote "Fragments d' observations sur l' Alceste" and the "Extrait d'une réponse du petit faiseur à son prête-nom sur un morceau de l' Orphée" in support of Christoph Willibald Gluck's emotive French reform operas

Rousseau on the education of women

This study investigated the theories of Jean-Jacques Rousseau on the education of women. The works of Rousseau were consulted in the original French and translated by the writer for the study. Many publications concerning the educational themes of Rousseau have appeared, but minimal attention has been given to the importance and significance of the inclusion of women in his writings. Rousseau's most famous treatise on education, Emile, contains one chapter given over to a discussion of feminine pedagogy. His novel, La Nouvelle Hèloïse, has as its heroine the "new woman," who personifies and gives substance to his theories. His incomplete and little-known sequel to Emile, entitled Emile et Sophie ou les solitaires, was considered as constituting a retrospective evaluation of his educational program. The study led to an investigation of the century and life of Rousseau, his philosophy of education in general, his pedagogical theorizing as applicable to women, and his novel where his idealized educated woman is given form

The education of the natural man : a study in the political philosophy of J. J. Rousseau.

In these, the opening words of Emile, Rousseau admits us to a knowledge of one of the principles of his thought. Everything is good, he thinks, as it comes from the hand of God. It becomes bad through the interference of man with the work of nature. We might assume, then, that the interference is bad, and that man was better, more virtuous, before he was interfered with, or educated. And as a matter of fact, Rousseau found some such answer to the problem when it first presented itself to him. In Emile he finds another and more practical solution, that of making man’s interference with nature beneficial, rather than harmful to himself. This solution is possible, he thinks, by educating man in such a way as to allow him the greatest possible freedom to follow his own desires, and the greatest possible natural development. In other words, he holds up the natural as an ideal to be pursued, and he devotes the whole of the Emile to a complete plan for the pursuit of that ideal in the education of man

The gender of ethics : sexual and moral identity in Rousseau, Freud, and Kierkegaard

This thesis argues that questions of ethical life, moral identity, and gender are inextricably involved, and that an appropriate conception of each is necessary for the thinking of the others. In particular it seeks to demonstrate that the way in which freedom is conceived in its relation to moral identity and ethical life has profound implications for the thought of gender relations. It is further argued that the writings of Kierkegaard open up a way of relating freedom and the finite that offers the possibility of re-thinking gender. The writings of Rousseau and of Freud are examined to show the interdependence of their philosophical anthropology and the systematic subordination and exclusion of women that operates in each of them. In each case it is shown that, despite the very different, and even opposed ways that they construe the nature of moral identity and its relation to ethical life, a parallel gender polarity is at work. In Rousseau male moral identity rests on independence from society and infinite, excessive freedom. This is brought into relation to the mundane world of ethical life through gender. Women are denied independence and moral identity and made responsible for social being. Their subordination is such that dependence on them does not destroy the integrity of men. The crisis of this unstable structure is demonstrated through a reading of Rousseau's novel La Nouvelle Heloise, the death of whose heroine is shown to be the moment of collapse of the Rousseauean synthesis. In Freud moral identity is achieved through the identification of the self with social authority. The finite freedom that can be thought in psychoanalysis rests on a fusion of ethical and moral life. The "depersonalisation" of the super-ego is the road to liberation. Through the gendered experience of the Oedipal drama this path can only be taken by men. Woman are again exclude from moral identity, being allowed only a "masochistic" relation to the Law. The crisis of this structure is found in the notion of the "archaic heritage", which it is argued, represents a collapse of Freudian thought. Finally both Freud and Rousseau are brought into relation with the psychological writings of Kierkegaard, whose distinctive notion of freedom and faith is held to address the limitations of both sets of writing. Infinite freedom is made to co-exist with finitude. The implications of these writings for the thought of gender is briefly explored through other of the writings of Kierkegaard

Goethe and Rousseau: Resonances of the Mind

The profound impact of Jean-Jacques Rousseau on Western thought has been frequently examined, yet the extent of Goethe’s relationship to Rousseau has never before received thorough study. Carl Hammer Jr. here analyzes Goethe’s works, paying particular attention to his mature production, to reveal the profound affinities of thought between these two European giants. Scholars have long recognized the direct influence of Rousseau on Goethe’s first novel, Werther, but have believed that Goethe’s enthusiasm waned thereafter. Hammer, in contrast, finds the affinity revealed even more strongly in Goethe’s later works. Carl Hammer Jr. is Horn Professor of German at Texas Tech University. 1972 Kentucky Foreign Language Conference Award.https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_german_literature/1002/thumbnail.jp

Rousseau and the Lyric Natural: The Self as Representation.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau\u27s work for the lyric stage comprises several opera libretti (Les Muses galantes and La Decouverte du nouveau monde), an intermede ( Le Devin du village), a scene lyrique ( Pygmalion) and an unfinished opera (Daphnis et Chloce ). These works use as a motif the figure of nature while continually defining and redefining, in a sort of spiral development, the self. Nature represents for Rousseau and others of his century a paradigm allowing for small segments of history to be presented as an evenly construed narrative. For Rousseau, the construction of a narrative in Le Second Discours marks the passage from the primitive natural state to a cultural one through a series of beginnings. These beginnings appear logical if not always chronological. The same trajectory from savage state to social state is used as a paradigm to define the evolution of self using an ever-evolving tapestry of emblems. Through emblems of the natural appearing in lyric works, the self is defined and redefined as each emblem appears and then transcends its appearance in the framework of the lyric. For Rousseau, the lyric work suggests a readability through which the transparency of nature can be perceived as being one with the self. Defining emblem as a complex of symbols representing this transparency, we can then construe its appearance in lyric works in musical score, mise-en-scene, and libretti as an unseen language analogous to self-definition. In this dissertation, the lyric works Le Devin du village (1752) and Pygmalion (1770) will be the focus of our study because they reveal multiple means by which Rousseau uses the lyric to manifest the ideal of self. Whereas in Le Devin du village this is done emblematically via the treatment of recitatif, in Pygmalion it occurs via the attempt to embody, through the merger of music and language, the emblem of the self as one idealized unity

The reputation of Rousseau's Emile in France from 1762 - 1790

In 1762 Rousseau's reputation depended partly on his controversial essays, partly on the success of La Nouvelle Heloise. This is reflected in early reactions to Emile. The emergence and nature of his reputation as an educationalist can he seen in popular and professional reactions to the main themes of Emile. In physical education, Rousseau's strong naturalistic position contrasts with his predecessors' less decided support of art or nature. In the 1770s popular enthusiasm for Emile prompts the otherwise silent theorists to acknowledge Rousseau's success. Emile seems to encourage both practical reforms and a more decided support of the natural. These changes lose impetus during the 1780s, but Rousseau's reputation as an educationalist is already well-established. Rousseau believes a truly public education is impossible in an unreformed society, and chooses a private education for Emile. Unlike his predecessors, who had been concerned with the formation of social man, Rousseau attempts to combine the formation of natural, or individual man, with that of social man. On the whole, his complex position is not understood, and throughout the pre-Revolutionary period, Emile is interpreted as a treatise of private education, and often criticised as such. However, from 1770 onwards, the theorists incorporate details from Emile in their treatises of public education, and this is very common by the Revolution. Rousseau's insistence on parallel political and educational reform receives no comment. The theme of isolation in Emile may stimulate the popularity of later plans for communal educations in isolated State boarding-schools. Rousseau's psychological theories combine Cartesian and Sensationalist elements, but oppose the extreme Sensationalism of, for example, Helvetius. Helvetius criticises Rousseau in detail, revealing some misunderstanding and misrepresentation. The educational theorists restrict their comments, almost without exception, to the development of the rational faculties, and Rousseau's system of negative education.<p

Notions of Happiness in Rousseau\u27s Julie .

This enquiry first establishes both the importance and the general meaning of the notions of happiness in Rousseau\u27s corpus. Both private and public happiness are seen as the overarching intent of his life as a thinker. The possibility of a tertiary notion of happiness--between private and public--is presented with the introduction of the subject work Julie; or The New Heloise. Themes considered at some length are passion/virtue, happiness/duty, love/friendship, as well as the notions of Platonic and courtly love--not to mention the dichotomy motion/rest. At the end of Part One of the novel, the lovers are forcibly separated, and the tasks of reconciling the above dichotomies must be accomplished in other than physical terms. Parts Two and Three are portrayed as a classic example of the passion myth playing itself out until the symbolic deaths of the lovers--he goes to sea and she marries at her father\u27s demand. The remainder of the story chronicles the reign of morality and extreme sublimation. Passion and virtue are eventually reconciled in the death of the heroine Julie, but not before she offers a vision of a viable means of reconciliation and fulfillment

After the republic : an analysis of the duality of 'man' in Rousseau

In his Second Discourse Rousseau's analysis of the state of man is damning. We have been led astray by our inflamed amour-propre and exist as corrupted and denatured people within a coercive and corrupting social framework. Solutions to this social problem are given by Rousseau in both Emile and the Social Contract. However, the two solutions appear to be in conflict with one another. On the one hand we are told how to create free individuals who exist independently of the state. On the other hand, we appear to be offered a society formed by the alienation of the individual's private identity. This thesis explores whether these two narratives can be reconciled. Through a close reading of the texts and an analysis of competing interpretative theories, I conclude that they can. Developing the recent work of Frederick Neuhouser, which places amour-propre at the centre of Rousseau's political theory, I argue that the most prominent obstacle to accepting Neuhouser's solution to the conflict is his failure to distance himself from the deeply ingrained misogyny of Rousseau's philosophy. To deal with this limitation, I argue, we need to draw out the centrality and importance that Rousseau attaches to education. The solutions provided in Emile and the Social Contract are useful narratives of the changes that we have undergone and what we aim to achieve. The role of these fictions is to serve as models that we can employ in our continual education and reeducation. Rousseau, therefore, provides the tools for a reflexive theory of political philosophy that can most accurately be described as a theory of paideia