Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T03:23:15.182Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Theodicy of the Second Discourse: The “Pure State of Nature” and Rousseau's Political Thought

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

John T. Scott
John T. Scott
Affiliation:
Loyola University of Chicago
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Since Rousseau, and perhaps because of him, political theory has often been characterized by a disjunction between considerations of human nature and questions of justice and law. Yet, reexamining the Second Discourse as a theodicy forces us to rethink how the essential questions of political theory are related just where they seem to become separated. The core of the theodicy is Rousseau's view that we are, by nature, physical beings embedded unproblematically in nature—good, or ordered, beings in a good, or ordered, whole. Although Rousseau presents his explicitly political thought as a juridical doctrine seemingly separated from his understanding of human nature and history, his political thought is founded upon his portrait of man's existence in the “pure state of nature.” This portrait serves as a positive formal model to enable us to remake our corrupted existence through the legitimate state—itself modeled by Rousseau on the divine or natural whole.

Type
Articles
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 86 , Issue 3 , September 1992 , pp. 696 - 711
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Cassirer, Ernst. 1951. The Philosophy of the Enlightenment. Trans. Koelln, Fritz C. A. and Pettegrove, James P.. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Cassirer, Ernst. 1989. The Question of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. 2d ed. Trans, and ed. Gay, Peter. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Castel, Abbé. 1782. “L'homme morale opposé à l'homme physique de M. Rousseau.” In. Collection complète des oeuvres de J.-J. Rousseau, vol. 29, ed. Moultou, P. and Du Peyrou, P.-A.. Geneva: Société Typographique.Google Scholar
Diderot, Denis. 1975. Oeuvres complètes. Ed. Lough, John and Proust, Jacques. 17 vols. Paris: Hermann.Google Scholar
Gierke, Otto von. 1950. Natural Law and the Theory of Society, 1500–1800. Trans. Barker, Ernest. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gough, John. 1950. John Locke's Political Philosophy: Eight Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gourevitch, Victor. 1988. “Rousseau's Pure State of Nature.” Interpretation 16:23–60.Google Scholar
Hamilton, James. 1979. Rousseau's Theory of Literature: The Poetics of Art and Nature. York, SC: French Literature.Google Scholar
Hendel, Charles W. 1934. Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Moralist. 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas. 1985. Leviathan. Ed. Macpherson, C. B.. Hammondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel. 1983. “Speculative Beginning of Human History.” In Perpetual Peace and Other Essays on Politics, History, and Morals, ed. Humphrey, Ted. Indianapolis: Hackett.Google Scholar
Keohane, Nannerl. 1980. “‘But for Her Sex …’: The Domestication of Sophie.” In Trent Rousseau Papers, ed. Mac-Adam, Jim, Neumann, Michael, and LaFrance, Guy. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press.Google Scholar
Lanson, Gustave. 1912. “L'unité de la pensée de Jean-Jacques Rousseau.” Annales de la société Jean-Jacques Rousseau 8:1–32.Google Scholar
Locke, John. 1988. Two Treatises of Government. Ed. Laslett, Peter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lucretius, . On the Nature of the Universe. (De rerum natura). Trans. Latham, Ronald. Hammondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Gomes, Machado Lourival. 1968. Homen e sociedade na teoria político de Jean-Jacques Rousseau. São Paolo: Livraria Martins Editōra.Google Scholar
Marx, Karl. 1964. The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. Trans. Milligan, Martin, ed. Struik, Dirk J.. New York: International.Google Scholar
Masters, Roger D. 1968. The Political Philosophy of Rousseau. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Melzer, Arthur M. 1990. The Natural Goodness of Man: On the System of Rousseau's Thought. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montesquieu, Charles Secondat, baron de. 1989. The Spirit of the Laws. Trans. and Ed. Cohler, Anne M., Miller, Basia Carolyn, and Stone, Harold Samuel. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Morel, Jean. 1909. “Recherches sur les sources du Discours de J. J. Rousseau sur l'origine et les fondements de l'inégalité parmis les hommes.” Annales de la Société Jean-Jacques Rousseau 5:119–98.Google Scholar
Okin, Susan Moller. 1979. Women in Western Political Thought. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Pangle, Thomas L. 1988. The Spirit of Modern Republicanism: The Moral Vision of the American Founders and the Philosophy of Locke. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Rapaczynski, Andrzej. 1987. Nature and Politics: Liberalism in the Philosophies ofHobbes, Locke, and Rousseau. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Rawls, John. 1971. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riley, Patrick. 1986. The General Will before Rousseau: The Transformation of the Divine into the Civic. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1959–1969. Oeuvres complètes de Jean-Jacques Rousseau. 4 vols. to date. Ed. Raymond, Marcel and Gagnebin, Bernard. Paris: Gallimard, Bibliothèque de la Pléïade.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1964. The First and Second Discourses. Trans. Roger, D. and Masters, Judith R.. New York: St. Martin's.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1978. On the Social Contract with Geneva Manuscript and Political Economy. Trans. Masters, Judith R., ed. Masters, Roger D.. New York: St. Martin's.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1979a. Emile; or, On Education. Trans. and ed. Bloom, Allan. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1979b. The Reveries of the Solitary Walker. Trans. and ed. Butterworth, Charles W.. New York: New York University Press, 1979.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1990a. Rousseau, Judge of Jean-Jacques: Dialogues. Trans. Bush, Judith R., Kelly, Christopher, and Masters, Roger D.. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1990b. Essai sur l'origine des langues. Ed. Starobinski, Jean. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Scott, John T. 1992. “The Foundations of Rousseau's Political Philosophy.” Ph.D. diss. University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Shklar, Judith N. 1985. Men and Citizens: A Study of Rousseau's Social Theory. 2d ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Starobinski, Jean. 1964. Introduction to “Discours sur l'origine et les fondemens de l'inégalité parmi les hommes,” in Oeuvres complètes de Jean-Jacques Rousseau, ed. Raymond, Marcel and Gagnebin, Bernard, vol. 3. Paris: Gallimard, Bibliothèque de la Pléïade.Google Scholar
Starobinski, Jean. 1988. Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Transparency and Obstruction. Trans. Goldhammer, Arthur. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Strauss, Leo. 1953. Natural Right and History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.