Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius

Before reading this book, I knew J.J. Rousseau as an Enlightenment thinker. But it turns out that's not entirely the case.

He, like Diderot and Voltaire, who led the way in the Enlightenment, has suffered unjust treatment. Rousseau tried to show people the true nature of themselves through the declining aspects of the established order, and most importantly, the fact that man is first and foremost a natural being. He put forward the necessity of the reflection of the will of the people in governance and questioned the injustice underlying social inequality. He also drew attention to how children's education should be and paved the way for Freud by questioning the mysteries of the self.

According to J.C. Lewis, he is also a founder of anthropology. However, there is an important mistake in the book. The footnotes are not numbered, which makes reading very difficult.

This oversight somewhat detracts from the overall quality of the book, but it doesn't overshadow the significance of Rousseau's ideas and contributions.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who once said, "Rather than being a person full of prejudices, I prefer to be a person full of paradoxes," effectively summed up his life. Leo Damrosh's book of the same name, which tells the story of Rousseau's life, connects the philosopher's experiences and behaviors from a psychological perspective, following in the footsteps of Rousseau's "Confessions." It is one of the clearest and most fluent biographies I have ever read.

Rousseau's life was actually quite tragic. After his mother died in childbirth, he was raised believing that his father and others were responsible for her death. Growing up alone after his father was exiled, the famous philosopher constantly tried to please his father and was overly shy towards strong women, showing how isolated his childhood was. We also see that Rousseau, who liked to be beaten by the women who took care of him, developed views against sexuality and homosexuality after being molested by a black man in a hotel where he was staying.

Despite being extremely hesitant, Rousseau, who could not trust people and looked down on them because of his father, stated that he did not belong to society with his defect schema. His sometimes stealing and leaving all his born children in the orphanage also somewhat summarizes the author's mental state.

Although he had an interest in music, he later turned to literature and seized the opportunity to meet writers such as Voltaire, Diderot, and Hume. His relationships, which started out great but ended badly, were due to Rousseau's paranoid attitude. Nevertheless, because he transferred the events he experienced into his writings, Rousseau's first work, "Julie," which gave birth to romantic literature, was of great significance in the history of literature. His first important philosophical work was the "Discourse," in which, contrary to Hobbes, he claimed that man was not evil by nature but was made evil by society, taking into account the events that led to his suppression, also influenced by his apprenticeship at the time. In fact, with the "Discourse," Rousseau, who connected the cause of society's corruption to science and art, later changed this view to "society." After the first "Discourse," which pointed out how destructive civilization was, Rousseau, who focused on freedom, began to dwell on inequality with the second discourse and changed the fate of the world with the masterpiece "The Social Contract." It should be noted that the author, who presented his thoughts that opened a gap in the management of the state with the work that stated that all individuals are equal and that sovereignty belongs to the people, ignited the French Revolution 30 years later.

In addition to "The Social Contract," which led to his exile from France, it is also beneficial to mention Rousseau's work "Emile." Pushing Locke's views on education a step further, Rousseau, who brought a view that was not afraid of authority from "a respect, a shame," opposed rote knowledge and laid the foundation of deism with thoughts reminiscent of Spinoza. Although he left his own children in the orphanage, writing a book on child education, of course, once again reminds the reader of the author's structure full of contradictions. "Emile," which Rousseau later often expressed his regret for, also presents the modern view of the family based on emotional relationships and an educational system based more on emotions than on reason. And finally, with "Confessions," the famous philosopher, who presented everything, including his shameful moments, in writing, showing us who he was and that people must first know themselves, was a forerunner of the modern autobiography genre and an inspiration to Freud. It is a work that must be read in order to better understand Rousseau, who deeply influenced not only the history of literature but also the fate of the world with his views and works.

05.07.2019

Istanbul, Türkiye

Alp Turgut

http://www.filmdoktoru.com/kitap-labo...

To be extremely self-conscious is truly a liability. When combined with hyper-sensitivity, the result is usually misery. Rousseau had an abundant dose of both these traits.

This made him frequently miserable and almost always uncomfortable. In a torment paired with great intellect, he became a genius who offered many insights into the new world of individualism that he did much to open.

I recently read his Emile. The contrast between the controlled, calm, and masterful way in which Rousseau wrote and his dire and frantic emotional life is quite a surprise.

A remark by David Hume that Rousseau was not just a man without a coat but without a skin as well captures JJR perfectly. Perpetually uncomfortable, especially in social situations, the torment is evident in his philosophy of the corruption of individual man by society.

Rousseau tried to identify the real self hiding under the mask put on to please others. In contrast, author Damrosch tells of the method of Ben Franklin, another 18th-century thinker, who advised his fellow men to embrace the socially accepted persona that would ease the way to success in dealing with others. For Rousseau, this would be the height of dishonesty, a rejection of Shakespeare's "to thine own self be true".

How things have changed since 1750! We now have every guy and his relatives on TV broadcasting their personal problems and anguish to the world. No personal secret is too awful to keep from the public. "Reality" shows go so far as to create fake realities so that individuals can emote to each other with a completely false intimacy and openness that is a mockery of what Rousseau was after.

Deeply hurt by even the smallest slights, he wrote his Confessions in part to head off criticism and defuse the pain that might be made by others. Never staying in one place for a long time, Rousseau acted like a hunted man, which at times he was, yet unable to escape the most dedicated hunter of all, himself.

Scarcely able to support himself, he depended on the good will of an assortment of wealthy benefactors, both male and female, to provide him with places to stay. Yet no place remained comfortable, primarily because there was no place of comfort in his mind.

While Rousseau was sensitive to his every emotion, he was usually obtuse regarding others. Gestures of friendship or simple acts from others with no deep content were often wildly misinterpreted or rejected. Paranoia increasingly occupied his thoughts and his outrageous accusations against those who cared about him unsurprisingly drove many away.

But he opened the door to the human psyche and made it possible to see how we all share existential issues that lay bare our essential human equality behind the superficial divisions created by wealth and status. It wasn't long before the French Revolution heralded JJR as a prophet.

Leo Damrosch knows his subject well. There are times when the reading is a bit slow but it's hard to imagine a more interesting person to follow through life than JJR.

The word shocking has lost almost all meaning in a world that makes millionaires of people who make a profession of shock, such as Lady Gaga and Howard Stern. As a result, it's almost impossible to portray to the modern reader the impact of Rousseau on his times. He was hyper-sensitive and we are de-sensitized.

I selected this book because of its National Book Award recognition. The winners and nominees I've read have all been good, and this one did not disappoint.

I mention this to say that you don't need a background in Rousseau or French history to understand and enjoy it. Leo Damrosch provides a solid background, making his analysis easily accessible.

The book explains how Rousseau's life influenced his writing. His solitary years, intense emotions, and co-dependent relationships, first with Mme de Warens and later with Therese, shaped his views on power, government, economic dependence, and child-rearing.

Like many thinkers of his time, he couldn't see women as equals. His neediness, as seen in his relationships, shows that while he could break new ground in other areas of thinking, an equal role for women was beyond his reach.

Damrosch documents the influence of Emile and how far it spread, and credits The Confessions of J. J. Rousseau as the first autobiography to explore an inner life. He spends less time on the more famous work, The Social Contract and Discourses.

This book combines Rousseau's life story with past and present interpretations of his work and the changing acceptance of his ideas over time. I highly recommend it.

Leo Damrosch is a highly talented biographer, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau is a subject that truly merits Damrosch’s in-depth attention.

It comes as no surprise that “RESTLESS GENIUS” was a finalist for the National Book Award. It is indeed a very worthwhile book, yet it also disappoints. However, this is not Damrosch’s fault at all. The disappointment stems entirely from Rousseau himself.

Rousseau’s life appears to have careened between episodes of humiliation, the drudgery of continual hypochondria, and wild bouts of paranoia, all of which were self-inflicted.

I had expected that the man who inspired generations with such soaring rhetoric as “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains” would have led a life characterized by at least a modicum of dignity. But unfortunately, there is nothing dignified about the life Rousseau led. He seems to have been a willful, childish, and small man.

Among his many contradictions, he was known in his lifetime as a leading and highly original expert on the subject of childrearing. Yet, he had as many as four children with his common law wife (the total is unknown, which is rather telling), but put each of them up for adoption as newborns and severed all ties with them. It seems he couldn’t be bothered.

His relationships with women were pathetic. The roles of craven supplicant and selfish tyrant came naturally to him. Damrosch might have been guilty of giving more attention to this subject than was perhaps warranted. There is little of interest in Rousseau’s embarrassing flirtations.

He also had an inexplicable run-in with David Hume, who had come to his rescue. Rousseau’s writing was frequently controversial with the authorities. At times, his writing was banned, and he himself was subject to potential arrest. During such a period in Paris, Hume offered to bring Rousseau to England, where the censors were less powerful, and Rousseau could write in peace. Rousseau accepted the offer, but once in England, he accused Hume of spying on him. Hume probably was not entirely blameless (there is evidence he screened Rousseau’s mail), but what is clear is that among their contemporaries, Hume was regarded as a man of goodwill and humor, whereas Rousseau was known to be unable to maintain relationships with others without conflict and drama. Posterity has judged that Hume was the wronged party and that Rousseau’s accusations were a symptom of his chronic paranoia.

Of course, Rousseau’s greatest feud was with Voltaire, who seems to have despised Rousseau. Voltaire was France’s great man of the Enlightenment. He was convinced that civilization, culture, and education would elevate humankind to its potential if only we would embrace science and free ourselves of superstition and backward political institutions. Voltaire’s point of view prevailed among the intelligentsia of France until Rousseau began his eloquent critique of civilization and the human condition. Today, it is not clear whether the Enlightenment or the Romantic movement has had more influence on later generations. But as between Voltaire and Rousseau, there is no lack of clarity. Voltaire influenced many, but Rousseau was the founder, and in many ways, the very soul of the movement that began to question and push back on the rising tide of the Enlightenment. Without Rousseau, there could be no Immanuel Kant or Karl Marx. In the pantheon of great thinkers in the Western tradition, Rousseau outshines Voltaire.

And that is the point. Though I found Rousseau the man to be a great disappointment, the author of “Discourse on the Sciences and Arts,” “Discourse on the Origin of Inequality,” “On the Social Contract,” and “Emile” will always be a man who deserves our attention. Damrosch did us a service by bringing Rousseau to life in “RESTLESS GENIUS.” We may as well know the man behind the brilliance, even if we do not like him.

I was really hoping for a more in-depth examination of Rousseau's thought in this book. However, although there was a little bit of that, it is actually more of a straightforward retelling of his life.

There is still some value in this, both as a historical record and an exploration of how his own experience as a perpetual outsider influenced his later philosophy. Rousseau astutely pointed out how modern society has the perverse effect of making people seek the approval of those they hate, while forcing them to suppress their true feelings and opinions so deeply that they become alienated from themselves.

In his view, modern civilization is the secular equivalent of the fall from the Garden of Eden - the socialization of people that distances them from their true selves and their ability to enjoy the world as it is. By instilling in us an inescapable need to compare ourselves to others, it prevents us from fully enjoying and experiencing the world.

The damage this has caused to humanity is irreversible, but it can at least be somewhat alleviated through the development of a "collective" thought and opinion that allows people to avoid being differentiated and measured against each other. It is interesting to see the echoes of this thinking in later French works such as Society of the Spectacle.

Rousseau himself had a strange and generally sympathetic life. He felt like an outsider in his world and condemned it even as he was being celebrated. He was plagued by illness (mostly imagined) throughout his life and lived as a wanderer. Unlike many others of similar genius, he lived to see his work become famous.

I didn't think the book was particularly well-written and felt there was a missed opportunity to more directly interweave his thoughts with his biography. Nevertheless, there are a few nuggets worth exploring, and for those engaged in advanced studies of Rousseau's philosophy, this is probably worth looking into. The author does manage to convey how sensitive Rousseau was, and despite the passage of hundreds of years since his death, he is able to provide a window into what Rousseau's life was like and what kind of world he inhabited. That in itself is an admirable achievement, even if the end result is not for everyone.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius by Leo Damrosch (2007)

This book, "Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius" by Leo Damrosch, offers a captivating exploration of the life and works of the renowned philosopher. Rousseau was a complex and controversial figure, and Damrosch delves deep into his thoughts, experiences, and the historical context in which he lived.

The author presents a detailed account of Rousseau's early life, his struggles, and his journey towards becoming a significant thinker. He examines Rousseau's major works, such as "The Social Contract" and "Emile," and analyzes their profound impact on political, educational, and social thought.

Damrosch also explores the personal aspects of Rousseau's life, including his relationships, his emotional turmoil, and his search for meaning and identity. Through this comprehensive study, readers gain a better understanding of the man behind the ideas and the forces that shaped his remarkable intellect.

Overall, "Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius" is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of philosophy, political theory, or the life of this influential thinker. Damrosch's engaging writing style and meticulous research make this book an accessible and enlightening exploration of Rousseau's world.

This book was a bit of a rollercoaster ride for me.

I was completely captivated by Rousseau. His wanderings, musings, and writings made me feel a deep sense of kinship. It was as if I could understand his thoughts and emotions on a profound level. This made the book something that I simply couldn't put down. I wanted to keep reading and explore more of his ideas.

However, there were times when the writing style was a little lacking. It felt dry and overly focused on facts, without enough narrative to bring the story to life. This made some parts of the book a bit of a slog to get through. I had to push myself to keep going and not lose interest.

Despite these drawbacks, overall, this was a super interesting book. It introduced me to a remarkable man whose writings I am eager to become more familiar with in the future. I believe that there is still so much to discover and learn from Rousseau's works, and I look forward to delving deeper into his ideas and perspectives.