3 Flashcards
(21 cards)
Rousseau’s background story of his essay
When he was young, Rousseau wandered in Europe and interacted with many people. He is self-educated. Eventually he found his way in France. He made his mark by the most aristocratic entertainment: wrote an opera, which became very popular that even king and queen like it. This allowed him to have more connection with other philosophers. Such as Diderot.
1749, Rousseau was on his way to visit Diderot, who was in prison because he wrote sth anti-Christian. Rousseau was very emotional when he saw Diderot. He realized for the first time what was wrong/corrupt of the society, which he would devote the rest of his life to.
He overdramatized his idea. He put an old idea in his essay “Discourse on the Moral Effects of the Arts and Sciences” (1762). He won an essay contest by this and rose his reputation.
What does R said about the aristocratic culture in the beginning of his essay? Why?
Although he was the member of enlightenment and he wrote opera, his essay actually opposed enlightenment and aristocratic society.
He mocked the common idea at the beginning pf the essay: people think France now is promising because of the spread of art and science, culture and knowledge.
People believed in the modern idea of progress that come from the enlightenment: the scientific knowledge become more widespread and was being used to improve society.
Aristocrat culture (culture refinement) is a sign of progress because people become more civilized and not barbaric.
Rousseau states these ideas first, and then he said he thinks they are all wrong, because there is sth fundamentally wrong with pursuit of knowledge and refined culture (in enlightenment and aristocrat culture), so the more culturally refined we are, the more immoral we become.
Why? Those things produce luxury that makes people soft and lazy, because when people can enjoy more than necessity, they don’t want to work for living. So the aristocrat idea of living and giving pleasure undermine morality and undercut virtue. It turns virtue into a burden, because in order to be moral you have to act.
Why R think aristocratic culture will make the society become a disaster?
Then Rousseau goes further: these refined culture can easily deceive us and allow those “civilized” people to manipulate others. So the refined culture does not make people gentle but make them devious. The society becomes suspicious because people cannot tell who is real refine, being honest. The consequence is the distrust atmosphere in the society, which Rousseau said it’s a disaster.
Explain Voltaire’s contradictory
Voltaire was very critical of certain things of the society: critical about Catholic church, about the government. But in terms of political conflict, he always took the monarchy side and against the aristocracy. But at the same time, Voltaire as a philosophers endorse aristocratic culture. He saw French culture as the highest attainment in the world.
Which novel warns the aristocrat society can’t be trusted, so prove Rousseau’s point, what is it about?
Choderlos de Laclos’s“Dangerous Liaisons”: a story of two evil, deceitful aristocrats, a woman and a man. They are very good at seeming charming and moral to others; they seem like they are concerned of well-being of others. They like to corrupt/ruin people’s virtue because they think it is entertaining. The male character wants to ruined a woman who has virtuous reputation. In order to do that he also has to seduce and ruined a young girl.
But the male character is not as bad as the devious aristocratic woman, who claims to be virtuous but ruined the virtuous characters of other beings.
What is good ex of enlightenment argue with itself?
Rousseau wrote another book to attack the aristocratic culture: “Letter to M. D’Alembert on the Theatre”: M. D’Alembert is a well-known philosophizer at the time. This is a good ex of enlightenment argue with itself. M. D’Alembert welcome to build a theatre house in his town because it means the rise of the refined culture.
His idea was supported by Voltaire, who also worked in this theatre.
Rousseau knows that fact and wrote the letter to M. D’Alembert, which is in fact wrote to the public: he contempt the idea of putting the theatre there, which make Rousseau an enemy to Voltaire.
What does R think about salon in Letter to M. D’Alembert on the Theatre?
In this work, Rousseau says that he believed the salon and salonnier taught men to become salve to luxury and pleasure. So the salon feminizes men: “men were womanish than she
Background of Rococo art? Patron? Characteristic?
Rococo art:
the art movement in the mid-18th century, known as Rococo, seems to display the question of morality of aristocracy and cultural refinement.
Rococo movement was identified with Madame de Pompadour, who was the mistress of Louis 15. So Rococo has its patron of a woman who regarded as a questionable repute.
The Rococo art character is very soft and intricate coloring. The content of Rococo art always involves playfulness (nobles or gods play) and lightness of mood.
How R view Rococo?
To Rousseau and other critics, Rococo art not only seems to totally devoid intellectual content, but also offer no moral lessons. It seems to seduce the viewer with its images of pleasure and softness. Consequently, the Rococo art can sometimes pass into licentious放肆的；放纵的.
Explain the two ex of Rococo paintings
Jean-Honore Fragonard and Francois BoucherJean-Honore Fragonard, “The Swing,” 1766: always regarded licentious—there is a guy pointing and laughing the woman. So this art usually involves dirty elements.
Francois Boucher, Girl Resting
Talk about criticism of decorative and discussion of virtue
This criticism of decorative is not necessarily true, in fact it’s always inaccurate to characterize the whole culture. Decorative is a vague judgment, subjective, and highly selective, which means drawing out certain things and ignoring other things.
So we are not talking about a real phenomenon of decorative, but perception of decorative that more and more people seemed to have at the time.
With that spreading of decorative culture, the fear of lost of morality came, that was reflected by numerous writing about morality/virtue.
Many people wrote about how fragile virtue is, and how easily virtue can be corrupted, and how hard to restore it.
These comments feed the radicalism in French Revolution.
Corresponding to this discussion of virtue, different ideas of how to re-moralize society and restore virtue become also a current concern.
Diderot, political view and theatre reform
Diderot shows his preferences for simple morality founded nature, which is where people find to beat back civilization.
He talks about the value he recently discovered in Hidi, which were all fictional, over the values of civilized society.
He thought natural morality in Hidi was better than refine France.
He wanted to establish the same simple morality in French institutions. Unlike Rousseau, he believed it could be a theatre, as long as the plays performed in the theatre should be moralistic and didactic that inspire people’s virtue.
Diderot’s view of Rococo, explain his two favorite painting, one extra, what do they tell us
Diderot did many things. As an art critique, he criticizes aristocrat art, such as art of Rococo.
In particular, he likes Jean-Baptiste Greuze’s moral paintings. Greuze established his reputation in an art salon in 1750s. Two of Diderot’s favorite
Greuze, The Father’s Curse, 1777 [moral mistake]: the son is leaving home because he wants adventure (the military recruiter behind him). The whole family is upset, esp the father. The son wants to see the bigger world. The father’s reaction and that of others.
The son’s face is dumbfounded目瞪口呆的 ，惊呆的. He leaves healthily, strong, wears white clothes (reflect his naïve mindset). He is clearly upset because he doesn’t get why his family doesn’t support his decision, which shows his naïve mindset, he doesn’t understand morality and virtue.
Greuze, The Son Punished, 1777 [result of moral mistake]: the result of the son going out for adventure—the father is dying. The family blame the son for that: from their gesture and faces. The son becomes opposite of before: old, broken, black clothes (color of death, corruption, Impurity).
He is defeated by the world, and the result is he kills his father.
Jean-Baptiste Greuze, The Village Betrothal, 1761 [good morality]: stay at home, get married and have a familyàmoral message.
What all three tell us the sign of morality is obeying your father. The right familiar relations in this new idea of morality. In contrast with aristocratic family which people have affairs, this is a more modern middle class family.
How do R talked about theatre?
there is also a right venue for morality. Because all these moral pictures cannot be found in a salon or at the court. So in terms of the right environment for morality, these is emphasis on the middle class family as well.
This match how Rousseau attacked theatres as immoral places. He regarded theatres as artificial environment, not natural, which design to isolated people, and teach people the wrong lessons.
Because all the performances were always about the social elite, never about real people, which confirm to people that the society is dominated by the aristocracy. The theatres captain people in an isolated place.
One way to reflect social hierarchy is people sit according to social classes, so even just sit there reinforce the idea of social hierarchy.
Rousseau says theatre isolates people, makes them feel alone and seduces they towards wrong morality.
R prefer festival, how? Why?
festival v. theatre
Rousseau argues a different kind of performance and setting: people should attend to the open air festival. He said he witnesses this when he was a kid.
He believed this festival can reinforce the community coming together to celebrate a special occasion, such as a military victory, or blessing community. Some meaningful public events will be the source of the festival, which people come together as equals to celebrate, not about hierarchy.
the fête de la rose of Salency, how it works and effects
the fête de la rose of Salency
Not long after Rousseau wrote about theatre and the open air festival, the elite France became entrance by the description festival that would still been performed in the town of Salency, this festival was called the fête de la rose (the festival of the rose). It involves choosing the rose mated who was announce as the queen of morality/virtue on the day of festival. A young woman was selected by local aristocrat and marches with parade of music and dancing to a local priest. This became an image in the 18th century of simple moral explanation.
It produced numerous imitations. Some French elites wanted to stage and engage their own ones. So even among the elite, simple natural morality became very fashionable.
Ex: the queen of France Marie did that in her farm house (luxurious inside). She performs as the selected girl herself.
Rousseau also offers another model of morality—ancient virtue. Talk about civic republicanism
ancient virtue
Against aristocrat culture, he argues for natural simplicity in political term in “Discourse on the Moral Effects of the Arts and Sciences”. He thinks certain old societies like ancient Greece and Rome are the model: they criticized luxury and embraced simple life. (find evidence in text)
These ancient republics were not governed by monarchy but by citizens, each of which has full political rights, because they put moral duty ahead of everything else, and devoted themselves to the community. Rousseau’s this idea started civic republicanism, which began in renaissance Florence and spread through Europe. In the 18th century it becomes civic republicanism, it become one of the reason of the American colony against Britian.
Civic republicanism in the 18th century was also big in France, it was spread by Rousseau until it became a political belief of Robespierre and Jacobins.
civic republican’s model, belief of politics, people, virtue. Effect
A civic republican’s model is ancient Greece republican Rome. They believed the most demanding selfless virtue is possible. According to the theory, within a moral society, one would live a simple life that they will own some, but not too much property to avoid greedy and luxury.
These farmer citizens defend themselves and defend their community by force of arms. In other words, civic Republicanism believe citizens devote themselves to a citizens’ army, not a standing one. They are willing to sacrifice themselves for the republic.
civic Republican believe that virtue is extremely demanding, so it is extremely fragile. So Republican virtue inevitably collapses because people cannot retain this high virtue, they are easily seduced by bad things like luxury.
Because it is so easy to lost Republican virtue require constant self sacrifice, constant vigilant警醒的, and total commitment.
This is still tracing today: the US imagination of independence, which is the basis of US gun power.
Explain Jacque-Louis David, The Oath of the Horatii, 1784. Value it express
the sons of the old man are swearing an oath. When Rome is at war with another country, and they decided to solve the conflict by letting three champion in Rome. These three people were chosen, and they were called the Horatiis. They were swearing an oath to sacrifice themselves to defend Rome.
This paining became the republican icon, and made David famous. But what makes this painting a little odd is Rome at the time wasn’t a republic, but was a monarchy.
What are the values shown in this painting?
Everything surround is simple and ordinary, which shows the men’s virtue.
The gender role: men are very masculine quality to civic republicanism, known for their strength, we can see the power flowing throughout their body. There are no republican elite women, instead they are mothers, wives, daughters that support their men. They don’t have the strength of the men: they can’t even look at what the men are doing.
So this shows a new order of gender and gender separation in European society.
The fact that they are obeying their father shows the ultimate value of civic republicanism. The father emphasizes the morality, is sending them to possible death.
This paining is very successful and rose the reputation of David, who became a Jacobin in the French Revolution, and full in charge of the festival the Rousseau talked about. He let boys to swear oath for sacrificing for the republic in his festivals.
What are the values shown in this painting?
Everything surround is simple and ordinary, which shows the men’s virtue.
The gender role: men are very masculine quality to civic republicanism, known for their strength, we can see the power flowing throughout their body. There are no republican elite women, instead they are mothers, wives, daughters that support their men. They don’t have the strength of the men: they can’t even look at what the men are doing.
So this shows a new order of gender and gender separation in European society.
The fact that they are obeying their father shows the ultimate value of civic republicanism. The father emphasizes the morality, is sending them to possible death.
This paining is very successful and rose the reputation of David, who became a Jacobin in the French Revolution, and full in charge of the festival the Rousseau talked about. He let boys to swear oath for sacrificing for the republic in his festivals.
Explain about the general will and R political ideal
Rousseau also makes civic republicanism democratic 民主的；民主政治的；大众的.
He said citizen of republic is everyone, all people can become virtuous.
The condition to achieve that is the general will: the moral part of each person that allowed them to set aside their own selfish narrow interest, and to embrace the interest for the society.
He said this basic general morality is natural to everyone, not just the nobility. And this is the basis of government and of the state.
He said if people were motivated by the general will, they will govern themselves.
Then they will reach the goal of full democracy, which each citizens can participate in politics. This idea is very radical at the time.
He said ideally, everyone would vote on all the law, there will be no representatives.
R’s view of his political ideal, effect
He also says this ideal is not possible in modern France, and in most countries, because countries are too large to be organized to this fashion. Also, people cannot go back to total morality.
He believes the only possible place in Eu is Corsica科西嘉岛, where there were still holy peasants there. The irony it there had the worst dictator in Eu: Napoleon came from that place.
He posted the demanding ideal that he believes no one can achieve.
Follower of him will ignore that impossibility, and use his idea of vigilance警惕的；警醒的；注意的；警戒的, self-sacrifice, even forced to be moral…this Rousseau ideal became the basis of the terror in the French Revolution.
