Rousseau and the savageness of humanity

Savages are not evil precisely because they do not know what it is to be good.~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Prologue

Today’s column continues my review of Dr. Benjamin Wiker’s excellent and timely opus, “10 Books that Screwed up the World and 5 Others that didn’t Help” (Regnery, 2008). Here, I will do a critique on the great French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78) and his famous treatise, “Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality among Men” (1755).

Interestingly, many of the worlds’ great philosophers and intellectuals were atheists and crafted a quasi-autobiographical philosophy based on their own horrific childhood, life experiences and personal policy prejudices. Some of the commonalities among the leading philosophers are these: an absent, cruel or weak father, a predilection toward atheism, materialism, humanism, naturalism, but most notably, an irrational and visceral hatred of the Judeo-Christian traditions of intellectual thought.

Rousseau’s early life

Take Rousseau, for example. Below is a summary of his early years that are inextricably linked to his own philosophy rooted in naturalism, humanism and sexual egalitarianism:

• He signed his Discourse, “Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Citizen of Geneva.” Though he spent much of his life in France, he never felt comfortable there. Rousseau, because of his radical ideas (provoking the church, the monarchy and the state), was essentially a man without a country.
• Rousseau’s mother died a few days after his birth in 1712 when he was then raised by an aunt and his erratic father, an itinerant watchmaker who only stayed with his wife two years before she died.
• A fugitive from justice, Rousseau’s father fled the law, abandoning young Rousseau for good by age 10. Rousseau would tragically follow in his father’s footsteps, abandoning all five of his children to the orphanage shortly after their births (a virtual death sentence at that time).
• Rousseau was socially awkward, sickly, unstable and, without the guidance of a father, bounced around from job to job. He hated work and despised even the slightest bit of authority; therefore, his education was largely autodidactic (self-taught).
• Rousseau loved romance and crafted his own perverse, sophistic version of natural law where he could take advantage of as many maidens as physically possible with his bizarre, hedonistic notions contained in his “state of nature” philosophy.

Rousseau the philosopher

In 1750, Rousseau entered a writing competition sponsored by the Academy of Dijon. His essay, which won him the first prize, was titled, “Discourse on the Sciences and Arts.” The question was proposed: Has the restoration of the sciences and arts tended to purify morals? Rousseau answered “No.”

Savages are not evil precisely because they do not know what it is to be good.~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Prologue

Today’s column continues my review of Dr. Benjamin Wiker’s excellent and timely opus, “10 Books that Screwed up the World and 5 Others that didn’t Help” (Regnery, 2008). Here, I will do a critique on the great French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78) and his famous treatise, “Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality among Men” (1755).

Interestingly, many of the worlds’ great philosophers and intellectuals were atheists and crafted a quasi-autobiographical philosophy based on their own horrific childhood, life experiences and personal policy prejudices. Some of the commonalities among the leading philosophers are these: an absent, cruel or weak father, a predilection toward atheism, materialism, humanism, naturalism, but most notably, an irrational and visceral hatred of the Judeo-Christian traditions of intellectual thought.

Rousseau’s early life

Take Rousseau, for example. Below is a summary of his early years that are inextricably linked to his own philosophy rooted in naturalism, humanism and sexual egalitarianism:

• He signed his Discourse, “Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Citizen of Geneva.” Though he spent much of his life in France, he never felt comfortable there. Rousseau, because of his radical ideas (provoking the church, the monarchy and the state), was essentially a man without a country.
• Rousseau’s mother died a few days after his birth in 1712 when he was then raised by an aunt and his erratic father, an itinerant watchmaker who only stayed with his wife two years before she died.
• A fugitive from justice, Rousseau’s father fled the law, abandoning young Rousseau for good by age 10. Rousseau would tragically follow in his father’s footsteps, abandoning all five of his children to the orphanage shortly after their births (a virtual death sentence at that time).
• Rousseau was socially awkward, sickly, unstable and, without the guidance of a father, bounced around from job to job. He hated work and despised even the slightest bit of authority; therefore, his education was largely autodidactic (self-taught).
• Rousseau loved romance and crafted his own perverse, sophistic version of natural law where he could take advantage of as many maidens as physically possible with his bizarre, hedonistic notions contained in his “state of nature” philosophy.

Rousseau the philosopher

In 1750, Rousseau entered a writing competition sponsored by the Academy of Dijon. His essay, which won him the first prize, was titled, “Discourse on the Sciences and Arts.” The question was proposed: Has the restoration of the sciences and arts tended to purify morals? Rousseau answered “No.”

Ellis Washington, former editor at The Michigan Law Review and law clerk at The Rutherford Institute, is a graduate of John Marshall Law School and a lecturer and freelance writer on constitutional law, legal history, political philosophy and critical race theory. He has written over a dozen law review articles and several books, including “The Inseparability of Law and Morality: The Constitution, Natural Law and the Rule of Law” (2002). See his law review article “Reply to Judge Richard Posner.” Washington’s latest book, “The Nuremberg Trials: Last Tragedy of the Holocaust,” can be pre-ordered by calling 800-462-6420, promotion code “UPREPUB.” [print_link]

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