We are also grateful to Robert Devigne, Dennis Rasmussen, and the anonymous reviewers of History of European Ideas for their helpful comments on earlier drafts. Rousseau could never entertain doubts about God's existence or about the immortality of the soul. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC BY license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 51 Muralt's name does not appear in indexes of Montesquieu's works, including the Penses; neither does it appear in Catalogue de la bibliothque de Montesquieu la Brede, edited by Louis Desgraves (Geneva, 1954) nor in Robert Shackleton, Montesquieu: A Critical Biography (Oxford, 1961). 19 Montesquieu, Persian Letters, letter 28, 79. de Montesquieu rightly calls a fine law the one which excludes from public office the citizens who fail to pay their own debts or those of [their] fathers after their death.Footnote5, What d'Alembert intended as an encomium, Jean-Jacques Rousseau regarded as an outrage.Footnote6 In 1758 Rousseau penned an open letter to d'Alembert expressing his indignation at the essay's claims regarding his beloved birthplace. Leo Strauss and Joseph Cropsey (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), 559-80. Julie succeeds in forgetting her feelings for Saint-Preux and finds happiness as wife, mother, and chatelaine. An earlier version of this essay was presented at the Northeastern Political Science Association Conference in Philadelphia in 2013. One of Rousseau's pivotal points in the Letter is that customs, opinions and priorities which are common and well-accepted among all citizens should be those that make accepting laws in favour of respect, equality and harmony a pleasurable and natural experience. The main action is on a platform [estrade], called the stage [thtre]. It is about people finding happiness in domestic as distinct from public life, in the family as opposed to the state. However, it is important to consider the diverse concerns of the Enlightenment as a background to Rousseau's work. But see, for example, Grimsley, d'Alembert, 5354; Gargett, Vernet, Geneva, and the Philosophes, 14546. 3099067 Rousseau writes that the theatre, at first glance, is a form of amusement. As soon as they are elected, it is a slave, it is nothing; see Rousseau, Social Contract, in Collected Writings, IV, 3.15, 192. Rousseau initially declares at the beginning of the Letter that theatre only serves to intensify rather than change established morals, positing that drama would be good for the good and bad for the vicious.Footnote73 He ultimately revises his position, however, as he embraces Montesquieu's views both of the fundamental importance of mores in a given society and of the fact that different societies require different mores as well as different laws and institutions.Footnote74 This change of orientation occurs when Rousseau seems to adopt verbatim Montesquieu's formulation that mores and manners can be effectively changed not through direct legislation but less obtrusively through the introduction of other mores and manners, or via public opinion: matters of morals and universal justice are not arranged, as are those of private justice and strict right, by edicts and laws.Footnote75 This is nearly identical to Montesquieu's advice to the legislator in 19.14: when one wants to change the mores and manners, one must not change them by the laws [] it would be better to change them by other mores and other manners.Footnote76 Rousseau's discussion of the possible elimination of duels in France through the force of public opinion provides his readers with an example of spectacle appealing to amour-propre in such a way as to mitigate vice.Footnote77 Indeed, Rousseau declares in this context: I am convinced that we will never succeed in working these changes without bringing about the intervention of women, on whom men's way of thinking in large measure depends.Footnote78 Thus, not only does Rousseau confirm Montesquieu's teaching regarding the importance of mores, but he also expressly adopts Montesquieu's very conclusion regarding the importance of female society in effecting their change. While serving as secretary to M. and Mme Dupin, he studied and took notes on Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws in order to aid his employers in writing their rebuttals of the work.Footnote13 Rousseau credits his predecessor throughout his corpus.Footnote14. In this regard see Downing A. Thomas, who suggests in passing, for example, that Rousseau seems to accept Montesquieu's teaching in Spirit that the mores of a given people fundamentally influence their taste, as Rousseau repeats that very formula in the Letter: Downing A. Thomas, Negotiating Taste in Montesquieu, Eighteenth Century Studies, 39 (2005), 7190 (76). You'll also receive an email with the link. Listen on ); Episode details. Rousseau famously argued that the continued progress of the sciences and arts corrupted human morality, it would appear that Rousseau's view of a free society has little to do Abstract An analysis of Rousseau's cultural and artistic ideas, as taken from the famous Letter to d'Alembert on the Theater. An example is how the Letter itself is open and expressive in style, while the content of the Letter is about this openness. It may be considered to portray Rousseau's vanity, narcissism and biases, but the text could also be thought of more positively; as expressive, lyrical and austere. 14 For example, in Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality among Men, Rousseau takes issue with an illustrious Philosopher, evidently Montesquieu, on the timidity of human beings in the state of nature; see Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Second Discourse, in Collected Writings, III, 21. From 1742 to 1749, Rousseau lived in Paris, barely earning a living by teaching and by copying music. Corrections? Thus, theatre serves to extenuate moral lapses. 4. Montesquieu makes the Parisian theatre a setting in his Persian Letters when his character Rica, a young Persian, describes his outing to this hub of French sociability. For example, he condemns a law of the Visigoths that permitted the children of an adulterous wife to accuse her of that crime and to torture the family's slaves in order to extract evidence: This was an iniquitous law that, in order to preserve the mores, overturned nature, in which the mores have their origin.Footnote40 At this point, Montesquieu turns to Racine's play and presents it as an appealing contrast to such civil laws that are contrary to natural law.Footnote41 Indeed, Montesquieu concludes his discussion of Phaedra with a reflection on the relation of pleasure and nature: The accents of nature cause this pleasure; it is the sweetest of all voices.Footnote42 Racine's tragedy displays for its audience Hippolytus's admirable decisions rooted in his unconditional respect for his kin, even in light of his father's failure to distinguish between guilt and innocence. Of course, none of this establishes that Montesquieu was not familiar with the work, given his wide reading and the work's wide circulation. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. Although he debated extensively with critics of his earlier work, First Discourse, Rousseau never mailed his replies to the major critics of Discourse on Inequality, Charles Bonnet (writing as Philopolis) and Charles Le Roy (writing as Buffon). Discount, Discount Code Muralt uses the word timide only twice in his description of England, neither of which occurs in a comparable context; see Muralt, Lettres, 107, 130. This is a civil law, Montesquieu proclaims pointedly, that punishes natural defense.Footnote39 After asserting that natural defense demands that the accused be confronted by witnesses in a criminal proceeding, the chapters go on to provide examples of how civil laws can interfere with familial relations. GREAT [5] As an alternative to the theatre, Rousseau proposed open-air republican festivals, with a rich community atmosphere. 83 Spirit, 19.5, 310 (2: 559). Love from Simone: Epistolarity and the love letter. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. [6], The Letter begins by Rousseau establishing the respect he has for his friend D'Alembert. For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more! As a dutiful daughter, Julie marries Wolmar and Saint-Preux goes off on a voyage around the world with an English aristocrat, Bomston, from whom he acquires a certain stoicism. 11 Paul A. Rahe, Soft Despotism, Democracy's Drift: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Tocqueville, and the Modern Prospect (New Haven, CT, 2009), 120. 35 Theseus is the only character in the play to use the word tratre, which occurs on six different occasions in the work, all concentrated in the first and second scenes of Act 4 and all applied to Hippolytus. Through examining Montesquieu's commentary on the theatre in the Persian Letters, as well as his discussion of Phaedra in The Spirit of the Laws, it becomes clear that Montesquieu teaches that the theatrical art can have a positive effect on individuals and thus on society. After formally renouncing his Genevan citizenship in 1763, Rousseau became a fugitive, spending the rest of his life moving from one refuge to another. Rousseau remains resolutely opposed to the theatre in Geneva, however. Women naturally have power over men via resistance in the area of relationships and this power can be extended to the play, where women can have the same control over the audience. [1], Rousseau believed that public morals could be created not by laws or punishment, but simply by women, who have access to their senses and largely control the way men think. While Rousseau and Montesquieu dispute the goodness of theatre and the desirability of women's active role in society, they agree on something much more fundamental. In both the Persian Letters and The Spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu points to the theatre as a locus of sociability that has a transformative effect on its auditors. Other scholars, who focus more intently on the Letter to d'Alembert, discern a crucial but limited influence of Montesquieu in two of Rousseau's teachings there: first, that some practices, including the theatre, can be appropriate and even wholesome for some societies, while noxious for others; and second, that mores are important in determining what types of laws and institutions a given people can tolerate and maintain. When, in 1728, Rousseau found himself locked out of Geneva at night, he decided to travel abroad to seek his fortune. Letter to Monsieur dAlembert on the Theatre. Therefore, theatres are of little use. [5] To have a prosperous state, Rousseau believed, people needed to work together and harmoniously. The volume also contains Rousseau's own writings for the theater, including plays and libretti for operas, most of which have never been translated into English. Not by chance, one of his "potpourris" includes a copy of the letter, rewritten by Voltaire's Secretary J.-L. Wagnire (BV 11- 208). At this time, Rousseau wants to serve that truth that contributes to the "public good," that is to say, to all individuals. Rousseau opposed marriage without love (i.e. 50 Kapossy, Iselin contra Rousseau, 39. But despite such an endorsement of the social order, the novel was revolutionary; its very free expression of emotions and its extreme sensibility deeply moved its large readership and profoundly influenced literary developments. He argues that the presence and authority of women in public spaces corrupts the male youth, turning them effeminate and void of patriotic passion. 6 Rousseau authored many of the entries related to music in the Encyclopdie as well as the article Economie, in Encyclopdie, ou dictionnaire raisonn des sciences, des arts et des mtiers, etc., edited by Denis Diderot and Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert; see University of Chicago, IL: ARTFL Encyclopdie Project (Spring 2013 Edition), edited by Robert Morrissey, http://artflsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.4:599.encyclopedie0513 [accessed 18 June 2014]. His father, Isaac Rousseau, was a watchmaker. Thus, consideration of Rousseau's Letter helps to establish the formative character of the elder's thought on that of the younger. 20 Montesquieu, Persian Letters, letter 28, 79. In this context, he declares: Men, rascals when taken one by one, are very honest as a whole; they love morality; and if I were not considering such a serious subject, I would say that this is remarkably clear in the theaters; one is sure to please people by the feelings that morality professes, and one is sure to offend them by those that it disapproves.Footnote29. He himself asserted in the Confessions that he was led to write the book by a desire for loving, which I had never been able to satisfy and by which I felt myself devoured. Saint-Preuxs experience of love forbidden by the laws of class reflects Rousseaus own experience; and yet it cannot be said that The New Eloise is an attack on those laws, which seem, on the contrary, to be given the status almost of laws of nature. For example, Phaedra scorns herself for her incestuous love, but is unable to resist it. Scholars now refer to Rousseau's use of Montesquieu's depiction of the ancient republics and the virtue which they inculcated. Very many literate people in the eighteenth century read and responded to Rousseau, in France and elsewhere. Rousseau's letter can help to understand the distinction between lived-in culture and theoretical political order. Here, he began to write his famous autobiography, Confessions, and formally renounced his Genevan citizenship. [7] With impartiality, he decided it fit for publication (he himself at one time worked as a censor). Once again, the morality of Ancient Rome and Greece is frequently referenced as an ideal that should be aspired to. The place seems to breed affection.Footnote20, Nevertheless, Montesquieu's description of these theatrical relations of the French in the Persian Letters, while in part satirical, bears an important resemblance to his description and praise of a people who possess a sociable humour in Book 19 of The Spirit of the Laws. And indeed, Rousseau does seem to have recovered his peace of mind in his last years, when he was once again afforded refuge on the estates of great French noblemen, first the Prince de Conti and then the Marquis de Girardin, in whose park at Ermenonville he died. Rousseau was the least academic of modern philosophers and in many ways was the most influential. They appreciate the routines of country life and enjoy the beauties of the Swiss and Savoyard Alps. Through the theatre, the members of the audience are reminded of their natural sentiments, because their feelings and reactions to the dramatic action confirm whether or not the characters on stage act in accord with natural morality.Footnote43 Of course, there is a discrepancy between the account of the theatre in the Persian Letters and that in The Spirit of the Laws: in the former, Rica describes attendees largely ignoring the action on stage because they are so consumed in their personal dramas, whereas in the latter, the attendees learn a moral lesson as they observe the performance. He begins the first of these two chapters with a bold criticism of Plato, accusing him of promulgating laws that are against nature: If a slave, says Plato, defends himself and kills a free man, he should be treated as a parricide. dAlembert sur les spectacles (1758; Letter to Monsieur dAlembert on the Theatre) appeared in print, Rousseau had already left Paris to pursue a life closer to nature on the country estate of his friend Mme dpinay near Montmorency. The particular play that Montesquieu selects for praise in this regard is Racine's Phaedra, which enacts many of Montesquieu's teachings and elicits the very sentiments he finds valuable. Nonetheless, important differences between Muralt's account of French and English societies and those accounts offered by Rousseau and Montesquieu suggest that Rousseau uses Muralt in order to strengthen his rebuttal of Montesquieu. Download Letter to D'Alembert and Writings for the Theater PDF . Montesquieu's captivating depictions of the sociability that the French theatre can engender was surely an obstacle for Rousseau's opposition to its influence in Geneva. They eventually became lovers, and des Warens persuaded him to convert to Catholicism. By focusing on his belief in the natural order and harmony of traditional sex roles and community, Rousseau writes to convince D'Alembert, and the public of Geneva, that a theatre is a threat to an ideal, natural way of life. Register to receive personalised research and resources by email. Discourse on Inequalitymay not have impressed the judges from the Dijon academy, but it nevertheless won a great following. It made the author at least as many friends among the reading publicand especially among educated womenas The Social Contract and mile made enemies among magistrates and priests. The principle of the theatre is to please, it is not, Rousseau argues, functional because the characters are always distant from man. Rousseau takes comfort in an allegiance to truth alone at the time of his break with Diderot and at which he becomes convinced that he must live without friends. 69 Letter, 328 (5: 95). The main letter is divided into three general areas: "A) The Theatre in Relation to What Is Performed in It"; "B) The Theatre Considered in Relation to the Stage and Actors"; and "C) The Establishment of a Theatre in Geneva". The letter attracted remarkable attention; over four hundred articles and pamphlets were written in response to it. 33 See, for example, Michael Zuckert, Natural Rights and Modern Constitutionalism, Northwestern University Journal of International Human Rights, 2 (2004), 42-66 (4546, 52). 10 See John N. Pappas, Rousseau and D'Alembert, PMLA, 75 (1960), 4660 (48); Fonna Forman-Barzilai, The Emergence of Contextualism in Rousseau's Political Thought: The Case of Parisian Theatre in the Lettre D'Alembert, History of Political Thought, 24 (2003), 43564 (436). In the early 1750s, Rousseau had a string of successes. However, Rousseau was later to write in his autobiography, Confessions, that "in all of Europe [Discourse on Inequality] found only a few readers who understood it, and of these none who wished to talk of it." By entering your email address you agree to receive emails from SparkNotes and verify that you are over the age of 13. Free trial is available to new customers only. That minimal creed put Rousseau at odds with the orthodox adherents of the churches and with the openly atheistic philosophes of Paris, so that despite the enthusiasm that some of his writings, and especially The New Eloise, excited in the reading public, he felt himself increasingly isolated, tormented, and pursued. [4], In spite of the letter being addressed directly to D'Alembert, it is undoubtedly meant to have an effect on the general population. Rousseau's Letter to d'Alembert on the Theatre offers an important discussion of the relation of the arts to the health of a political community. 52 Rousseau may be elaborating on Muralt's only description of tragedy in his Lettres: Elle convertit le Bon en Beau, sa maniere, en le faisant servir des Representations, des Peintures dont il n'est question que de savoir si elles sont bien faites; see Muralt, Lettres, 245. In October of 1758,Rousseau published theLetter to dAlembertto refuteJean dAlemberts suggestion that Geneva establish a public theater. After naming these passions in particular, Montesquieu immediately observes: Those who write on morality for us and so strongly proscribe the theaters make us feel sufficiently the power of music on our souls.Footnote16 Thus, Montesquieu here testifies to the power that theatre has over the feelings, and hence the actions, of human beings. Earlier in the same book of Emile, Rousseau provides a quotation from the Persian Letters, but names neither the work nor the author; see Rousseau, Emile, Book 5, 451. In subjecting the type of sociability that a theatre engenders to finely-grained analysis, Rousseau offers examples and language remarkably akin to those that Montesquieu employs in The Spirit of the Laws, yet he uses Montesquieu's teaching in order to oppose some of the very assertions his predecessor makes. The essay reconstructs the socioeconomic and political context of eighteenth-century Geneva in order to explain the intended meaning of Rousseau's Letter to d'Alembert. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. In the guise of La Profession de foi du vicaire savoyard (1765; The Profession of Faith of a Savoyard Vicar) Rousseau sets out what may fairly be regarded as his own religious views, since that book confirms what he says on the subject in his private correspondence. Montesquieu takes a particular interest in such judicial proceedings throughout The Spirit of the Laws, declaring that the knowledge already acquired in some countries and yet to be acquired in others, concerning the surest rules one can observe in criminal judgments, is of more concern to mankind than anything else in the world.Footnote32 Criminal judgements can bring down the full power of the state against individuals, depriving them of their property, liberty, homeland, or very lives.Footnote33 Given this import, Montesquieu advises gentleness in punishing, declaring that people must not be led to extremes; one should manage the means that nature gives us to guide them and explaining that nature [] has given men shame for their scourge. Wife, mother, and formally renounced his Genevan citizenship is frequently referenced as an to! In forgetting her feelings for Saint-Preux and finds happiness as wife, mother, des! 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