Dyanne Lawlor
POSC 620: Professor Caputi
Rousseau Discussion Paper
September 27, 2009
Rousseau’s Contradiction of the Modern World
Rousseau stands out as a powerful and original thinker in the modernity movement. In his Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts, Rousseau takes issue with the repercussions the advances made in the areas of science and culture have on morality and the human capacity for reason. This view challenges a vital tenet of modernity by extrapolating the progress made in areas such as science and art as incongruous with the advancement of the mind, ethics, and one’s self. In this analysis I will discuss Rousseau’s criticism of modernity; examine how his early thoughts laid the foundation for his later works; and compare his view of modernity to Marx.
If progress can be summed up in the modern essence as meaning what is new is inherently better, Rousseau finds contradiction in technological and artistic “progress.” Progress, rather than refining and improving human existence, has replaced old certainties with a false consciousness. “Some non-descript scientific jargon, even more contemptible than ignorance, had usurped the name of knowledge, and posed a nearly invincible obstacle to its return,” (Cahoone, 33). Rousseau is arguing that man has acquired vast sums of external knowledge about the world, but has failed to gain any insight to his self. The conflicting needs of the people, between the body and the mind, are precisely what lead to the abdication of their liberty in favor of the physical protection and safety provided by a government. “Need raised up thrones; the sciences and the arts have strengthened them,” (Cahoone, 33). Art and industry make the restrictions on society “pleasant;” meanwhile, the governing body wields the fetters the masses have placed on themselves to universalize morals and demand obedience. People lose the capacity to decide for themselves what is right or wrong; their ability to develop their own personalities. Instead they are told by those in charge what is right (legal) or wrong (illegal). Everyone conforms to the same values, there is no longer an individuation of thought as “all minds seem to have been cast in the same mold,” and “one no longer dares to seem what one really is,” (Cahoone, 33). The suppression of this freedom has made men decent to the outside world, but corrupt and contemptuous in their hearts.
