Rousseau Jean Jacques. Biography of Jean-Jacques Rousseau French writer and philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau
French literature
Jean Jacques Rousseau
Biography
Jean Jacques Rousseau is a French writer and philosopher, a representative of sentimentalism. From the standpoint of deism, he condemned the official church and religious intolerance in his writings “Discourse on the beginning and foundations of inequality ...” (1755), “On the social contract” (1762).
J. J. Rousseau opposed social inequality, the despotism of royal power. Idealized natural state universal equality and freedom of people, destroyed by the introduction of private property. The state, according to Rousseau, can only arise as a result of an agreement between free people. Rousseau's aesthetic and pedagogical views are expressed in the treatise novel Emil, or On Education (1762). The novel in letters “Julia, or New Eloise” (1761), as well as “Confession” (edition 1782−1789), which put “private”, spiritual life at the center of the narrative, contributed to the formation of psychologism in European literature. Pygmalion (1771 edition) is an early example of melodrama.
Rousseau's ideas (the cult of nature and naturalness, criticism of urban culture and civilization that distort the originally immaculate person, preference for the heart over reason) influenced the social thought and literature of many countries.
Childhood
Jean Rousseau's mother, nee Suzanne Bernard, the granddaughter of a Genevan pastor, died a few days after the birth of Jean-Jacques, and his father, watchmaker Izak Rousseau, was forced to leave Geneva in 1722. Rousseau spent 1723-24 in the Protestant guesthouse Lambersier in the town of Bosset near the French border. Upon his return to Geneva, for some time he was preparing to become a court clerk, and from 1725 he studied the trade of an engraver. Unable to endure the tyranny of the owner, the young Rousseau left his native city in 1728.
Madame de Varence
In Savoy, Jean-Jacques Rousseau met Louise-Eleanor de Varence, who had a significant impact on his entire subsequent life. An attractive 28-year-old widow from an old noble family, a newly converted Catholic, she enjoyed the patronage of the church and Duke Victor Amedeus of Savoy, who became King of Sardinia in 1720. Yielding to the influence of this lady, Rousseau went to Turin to the abode of the Holy Spirit. Here he converted to Catholicism, thereby losing his Genevan citizenship.
In 1729 Rousseau settled in Annecy with Madame de Varence, who decided to continue his education. She encouraged him to enter the seminary and then the choir school. In 1730, Jean-Jacques Rousseau resumed his wanderings, but in 1732 he returned to Madame de Varence again, this time in Chambéry, and became one of her lovers. Their relationship, which lasted until 1739, opened the way for Rousseau to a new, previously inaccessible world. Relations with Madame de Varence and people who visited her house improved his manners, instilled a taste for intellectual communication. Thanks to his patroness, in 1740 he received a position as tutor in the house of the Lyon judge Jean Bonnot de Mably, the elder brother of the famous Enlightenment philosophers Mably and Condillac. Although Rousseau did not leave Mably as a teacher of children, the acquired connections helped him upon his arrival in Paris.
Rousseau in Paris
In 1742 Jean-Jacques Rousseau moved to the capital of France. Here he intended to succeed thanks to his proposed reform of musical notation, which consisted in the abolition of transposition and keys. Rousseau made a presentation at a meeting of the Royal Academy of Sciences, and then appealed to the public by publishing a "Dissertation on Modern Music" (1743). His meeting with Denis Diderot also dates back to this time, in which he immediately recognized a bright mind, alien to pettiness, prone to serious and independent philosophical reflection.
In 1743, Rousseau was appointed to the post of secretary of the French ambassador in Venice, Count de Montagu, but, not getting along with him, he soon returned to Paris (1744). In 1745 he met Thérèse Levasseur, a simple and long-suffering woman who became his life's companion. Considering that he was not able to raise his children (there were five of them), Rousseau gave them to an orphanage.
"Encyclopedia"
At the end of 1749, Denis Diderot attracted Rousseau to work on the Encyclopedia, for which he wrote 390 articles, primarily on music theory. Jean-Jacques Rousseau's reputation as a musician increased with his comic opera The Sorcerer Rustic, staged at court in 1752 and at the Paris Opera in 1753.
In 1749, Rousseau took part in a competition on the topic "Did the revival of the sciences and arts contribute to the purification of morals?", Organized by the Dijon Academy. In Discourses on the Arts and Sciences (1750), Rousseau first formulated main topic his social philosophy- the conflict between modern society and human nature. He claimed that good manners they do not exclude prudent egoism, while the sciences and arts satisfy not the fundamental needs of people, but their pride and vanity.
Jean Jacques Rousseau raised the question of the heavy price of progress, believing that the latter leads to the dehumanization of human relations. The work brought him victory in the competition, as well as wide popularity. In 1754, Rousseau submitted his Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality between Men (1755) to the second competition of the Dijon Academy. In it, he contrasted the so-called original natural equality with artificial (social) inequality.
Conflict with Encyclopedists
In the 1750s J. J. Rousseau increasingly moved away from the Parisian literary salons. In 1754 he traveled to Geneva, where he again became a Calvinist and regained his civil rights. Upon returning to France, Rousseau chose a solitary lifestyle. 1756-62 he spent in countryside near Montmorency (near Paris), first in the pavilion assigned to him by Madame d'Epinay (a friend of Friedrich Melchior Grimm, the author of the famous Literary Correspondence, with whom Rousseau became close friends back in 1749), then in country house Marshal de Luxembourg.
However, Rousseau's relationship with Diderot and Grimm gradually cooled. In the play "Bad Son" (1757), Diderot ridiculed hermits, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau took this as a personal insult. Rousseau then developed a passion for Madame d'Epinay's daughter-in-law, Countess Sophie d'Oudeteau, who was the mistress of Jean-Francois de Saint-Lambert, an encyclopedist and close friend of Diderot and Grimm. Friends considered Rousseau's behavior unworthy, and he himself did not consider himself guilty.
Admiration for Madame d'Oudeteau inspired him to "New Eloise" (1761), a masterpiece of sentimentalism, a novel about tragic love, who sang sincerity in human relations and the happiness of a simple rural life. The growing divergence between Jean Jacques Rousseau and the Encyclopedists was explained not only by the circumstances of his personal life, but also by differences in their philosophical views. In "Letter to D'Alembert about performances" (1758), Rousseau argued that atheism and virtue are incompatible. Arousing the outrage of many, including Diderot and Voltaire, he supported the critics of the article "Geneva", published by d'Alembert the year before in the 7th volume of the Encyclopedia.
Theory moral feelings
In the pedagogical novel Emile or on Education (1762), Jean-Jacques Rousseau attacked modern system upbringing, reproaching her for the lack of attention to the inner world of a person, neglect of his natural needs. In the form of a philosophical novel, Rousseau outlined the theory of innate moral feelings, the main of which he considered the inner consciousness of goodness. He proclaimed the task of education to be the protection of moral feelings from the corrupting influence of society.
"Social Contract"
Meanwhile, it was the society that turned out to be in the center of attention of the most famous work Rousseau - "On the Social Contract, or the Principles of Political Law" (1762). By concluding a social contract, people give up part of their sovereign natural rights in favor of state power, which protects their freedom, equality, social justice and thereby expresses their common will. The latter is not identical to the will of the majority, which may be contrary to the true interests of society. If the state ceases to follow the general will and fulfill its moral obligations, it loses the moral basis of its existence. Jean-Jacques Rousseau assigned this moral support of power to the so-called. a civil religion called upon to unite citizens on the basis of faith in God, in the immortality of the soul, in the inevitability of the punishment of vice and the triumph of virtue. Thus, Rousseau's philosophy was far enough away from the deism and materialism of many of his former friends.
Rousseau's sermon was met with the same hostility in the most diverse circles. "Emile" was condemned by the Parlement of Paris (1762), the author was forced to flee France. Both Emile and the Social Contract were burned in Geneva, and Rousseau was outlawed.
In 1762-67, Jean-Jacques Rousseau wandered first in Switzerland, then ended up in England. In 1770, having achieved European fame, Rousseau returned to Paris, where he was no longer in danger. There he completed work on the "Confession" (1782−1789). Overwhelmed by a persecution mania, Rousseau retired to Ermenonville near Senlis, where he spent recent months his life in the care of the Marquis de Girardin, who buried him on the island in his own park.
In 1794, during the period of the Jacobin dictatorship, the remains of Jean-Jacques Rousseau were transferred to the Pantheon. With the help of his ideas, the Jacobins substantiated not only the cult of the Supreme Being, but also terror.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1794) - French philosopher, writer, musicologist, composer. Born June 28, 1712 in Geneva. Having lost his mother early, Jean-Jacques in 1723-1724. was brought up in the boarding house Lambersier. He studied for some time with a notary and an engraver. In 1728, at the age of 16, he left his native city. At this time, he met the widow de Varane, who helped him with his studies at the Turin monastery. Relations with the aristocrat had a personal character and lasted until 1739, Rousseau periodically stayed with his patroness between his wanderings.
In the 1740s works as a tutor for a judge from Lyon, and then as a secretary for the French ambassador in Venice. In 1745 he married Teresa Levasseur, a servant of the hotel, who bore him 5 children. Rousseau gave his descendants to an orphanage, because he believed that he did not have the means to support them.
In 1749, he accidentally learns about the competition "Did the revival of sciences and arts contribute to the purification of morals" at the Dijon Academy and takes part in it, as a result of which he becomes the owner of the prize. Rousseau is invited, together with other authors, to compile the Encyclopedia, where he wrote 390 articles, mostly musicological.
In 1762, the resonant works "Emile" and "On the Social Contract" were published, for which he was forced to flee from Paris, and then from Geneva. Rousseau was able to hide from persecution in the Principality of Neuchâtel. He was able to return to France only in 1770.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau is a thinker and most bright representative the radical wing of the French Enlightenment, whose writings were discussed throughout Europe in the 18th century.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born in Geneva in the family of a watchmaker. He could not get a systematic education: before the departure of his father from Geneva in 1722, he was brought up by aunts, from 1723 to 1724. spent in the Protestant guesthouse Lambersier in the town of Bosset near the French border, upon returning to Geneva, he prepared for some time to become a court clerk, and from 1725 he studied the craft of an engraver. In his youth, he worked as a footman, engraver, tutor, music teacher, scribe, secretary, theater writer, and composer. In 1728, because of the tyranny of the owner, Rousseau left Geneva and lived in Switzerland until 1741.
Then he went to Paris, where he became close to the enlighteners, among whom were Diderot, D "Alembert, Holbach, Marivaux, Fontenel, Friedrich Grimm, Louise d" Epin and collaborated in the encyclopedia: he was the author of articles on music. In 1743 - 1744. He was secretary of the French embassy in Venice.
Since 1750, his works began to be published and gradually gain popularity among the population for criticizing the established provisions in society. Because of the ideas of Rousseau, set forth in the political treatise "On the Social Contract" and the novel "Emile, or On Education", Geneva deprived Rousseau of citizenship, and the Parisian parliament banned Emile and sentenced the philosopher to prison. The philosopher had to go into hiding: he fled to Verdun, then to Motiers. In 1764 Rousseau left for England, where he lived for three years. In May 1767, Rousseau returned to France, as he quarreled with Hume, who had invited him to England.
He returned to Paris only in 1770. In recent years, he lived in solitude, rewrote notes in order to earn a living, wrote memoirs. Rousseau died on July 2, 1778 in the town of Ermenonville near Paris - on the estate of the Marquis R.L. Girardin, where he spent the last months of his life.
Major works
"Discourse on the Sciences and Arts" (1750, treatise).
"Discourse on the beginning and foundation of inequality between people" (1755, treatise).
"Julia, or New Eloise" (1761, a novel in letters).
"Emil, or On Education" (1762, pedagogical treatise novel).
"On the Social Contract" (1762, political treatise on ideal society as close to nature as possible).
"Confession" (1766 - 1769, autobiographical novel).
Key Ideas
- every person has the same rights, all people are equal from birth; no man has natural power over his own kind, every man is born free and no one has the right to dispose of his freedom. Tried to explain the causes of social inequality and its types
- criticizes the progress of human civilization; believed that progress not only did not make life easier for the common people, but also gave rise to social inequality, which, according to the philosopher, is the main cause of degradation modern society. A society cannot exist normally as long as it is divided into rich and poor. That is why, he believes that any development contributes to the degradation
- people have lost their primitive bliss, and the happiest time for mankind is primitive times. It was in primitive times that everyone was equal. The social structure is degrading, the majority lives in lawlessness and poverty, while a small handful of people are at the top of fame and fortune, they do not consider anyone and live only for their own pleasure, without bringing any benefit to society
- the main task of the social contract is to find a form of association that will be able to protect the person and property of each of its members, at the same time, the member of the association will obey only himself and remain free, as before
- by association, Rousseau means the Republic, the members of the association together are the people, individually or as participants in the supreme power - citizens, and as subjects subject to the laws of the state - subjects
- comparison of family and state. The father is the head of state, who must take care of his children - subjects. The family rests only on consent, decisions that will affect the life of the entire family (state) must be applied by all its members (citizens)
- law is the conditions of civil association. The people who obey the laws must be their creator. Any law, if the people did not directly approve it, is invalid, it is not a law at all.
- deputies are authorized people, they only express its will. Unfortunately, in fact the most significant decisions taken by a handful of influential citizens who act in their own interests, not in agreement with the people
- power is divided into legislative and executive. The philosopher gives the legislative power into the hands of the people, the executive, in turn, to the government
- praises democracy and calls for it. At the same time, Rousseau believes that democracies in pure form never was and never will be.
Jean Jacques Rousseau biography briefly French philosopher, writer, thinker of the Enlightenment is described in this article. Russo - largest representative sentimentalism.
Jean Jacques Rousseaushort biography
Jean Jacques Rousseau was born in Geneva on June 28, 1712. Rousseau's mother died during childbirth, and his father, having remarried, sent him to study, first to a notary, then to an engraver. Since childhood, he loved to read.
Rousseau left his hometown in March 1728. His further education was intermittent: either he studied at the Turin monastery, or he worked as a lackey in the house of aristocrats. Then he went back to seminary. Because of the tyranny of the owner, he leaves Geneva. After Jean Jacques makes a walking tour of France and Switzerland. To occupy his niche in life, the writer changed several jobs - mentor, teacher, secretary. At the same time, he was composing music. From 1743 to 1744 he worked in Venice as secretary of the French embassy.
Having no money, he could not marry a girl from rich family, so his wife was an ordinary maid. In 1749 he received an award from the Dijon Academy and began to fruitfully compose music. He became popular.
Rousseau in 1761 publishes 3 novels - "The New Eloise", "Emile" and "The Social Contract". After the release of the second book, society did not understand it, and Prince Conti declared "Emil" forbidden literature that must be burned. And the author of the book was considered a traitor, succumbing to a judicial investigation.
Jean Jacques Rousseau flees the country in fear of reprisals. And although Prince Conti replaced the court with exile, the author of Emil imagined incredible tortures and bonfires all his life. Long months of wandering brought him to the territory of the Prussian principality.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau is one of those philosophers who will cause discussions for a long time to come. Does he belong to a galaxy of thinkers or, on the contrary, to its most implacable critics? Did he prepare the ground for the French Revolution or did everything to prevent it from happening? Many biographers have broken spears arguing about who Jean-Jacques Rousseau was. The main ideas of this philosopher, who simultaneously belonged to the schools of naturalism and sensationalism, we will consider in this article. After all, it was this person who understood that progress brings misfortune, and despotism gives rise to the lack of rights of the majority. In a situation where the bulk of people lived almost below the poverty line, he cherished the idea of universal equality.
The views of Jean-Jacques Rousseau: what underlies them
The main motive of the philosopher's ideas is the requirement to bring society out of the state in which it is now. That is, from a situation of general depravity. His fellow educators argued that this was possible, one had only to properly educate princes and rulers. And also establish a republic where everyone will receive equal material benefits and political rights. Rousseau believed that main principle right society lies in right moral thinking. The philosopher said that "every person is virtuous" when his "private will in everything corresponds to the general will." Morality for him was the main measure of everything. Therefore, he believed that without virtue, no real freedom exists. But his life was like a refutation of his whole philosophy.
Biography. Youth and early career
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, whose main ideas we are analyzing, was born in the city of Geneva and, according to his religious beliefs, was a Calvinist in his childhood. His mother died during childbirth, and his father fled the city because he became a victim of criminal prosecution. FROM early age he was apprenticed, but neither the notary nor the engraver, in whose subordination the future philosopher was, did not like him. The fact is that he preferred to read books avidly, rather than work. He was often punished, and he decided to run away. He came to the neighboring region - Savoy, which was Catholic. There, not without the participation of Madame de Varane - his first patroness, he became a Catholic. Thus began the ordeal of the young thinker. He works as a lackey in an aristocratic family, but does not take root there and goes back to Madame de Varane. With her help, he goes to study at the seminary, leaves it, wanders around France for two years, often sleeping in the open, and again returns to his former love. Even the presence of another admirer of the "mother" does not bother him. For several years, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, whose biography in his youth was so different from his subsequent views, then leaves, then returns to Madame de Varane and lives with her in Paris, Chambery and other places.
Maturity
Stay for a long time as a protégé of an aging lady, Rousseau eventually found it impossible. He tried to earn money, but failed. He did not manage to teach children, nor work as an ambassador's secretary. He had problems with all employers. Misanthropy gradually penetrates the character of this person. He doesn't get along with people. Nature - this is what begins to fascinate such a lover of solitude as Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The biography of the philosopher suddenly takes a sharp turn - he marries a maid who works in one of the hotels. It was rough, which he did not like at all, but she fed him. He gave all his children to an orphanage, arguing later that he had no money to support his family. He continued to earn extra money in various temporary positions, and now, being a secretary, he entered the society of Encyclopedists, who gathered at home. One of his first friends was The latter was often persecuted for best job on the topic of whether science and art are useful for society. The young man wrote an essay denouncing culture and civilization. Oddly enough, it was he, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who got the first place. The main ideas of his philosophy were expressed in this text. Thus began his biography as a thinker.
Glory
Since then, Rousseau has lived a brilliant ten years. He wrote music and operettas that were staged on the royal stage. He was fashionable in high society. And since his main idea was the rejection of contemporary culture, he abandoned the principles of a rich and prosperous life, began to dress simply (and even rudely) and began to communicate vulgarly and insultingly with his aristocratic friends. He made a living by transcribing music. Although secular ladies showered him with gifts, all the presents went to his greedy wife. Soon the philosopher wrote another work that became popular. The political ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau appeared for the first time in this work. Discussing how inequality happened, the thinker considered that everything that underlies the life of modern society - the state, laws, division of labor - all this led to a moral decline. One of Rousseau's connoisseurs, Madame d'Epinay, built for him in her possessions a special "Hermitage" in the middle of the forest, where the philosopher could indulge in meditation alone. However, after an unsuccessful affair with a young married aristocrat, which led to a scandal among the Enicclopedists, Rousseau breaks with his comrades.
Problems
The philosopher finds shelter with the Duke of Luxembourg, where he lives for another four years and writes many works. One of them incurs the wrath of the Church on him, and he flees from the judgment of the Parisian Parliament. Hiding in his native Switzerland, he sees that he is not welcome here either - the government of the Bernese canton is expelling the philosopher. The Prussian king provides him with a new asylum - Rousseau spends another three years in the village of Motier. However, then the quarrelsome nature makes him quarrel with all the surrounding residents. Trying to start new life, he comes to Geneva and again accepts Calvinism, but he cannot get along peacefully with representatives of this denomination, and begins to quarrel with them. The apogee of these problems was a conflict with another "ruler of thoughts" of that era - Voltaire, who also lived near Geneva, in the estate of Fernet. A mocking rival, with the help of pamphlets, survives Jean-Jacques of Motier, and Rousseau is forced to flee to England. He accepts an invitation from another philosopher, Hume. But even with him it is impossible to get along, and after a while a new friend declares Rousseau crazy.
Wanderings and death
The philosopher returns to Paris, wanders again, finding refuge now with one friend, then with another. Voltaire begins to publish pamphlets about what terrible life lived a man named Rousseau Jean-Jacques. The philosophy and actions of this "hypocrite" do not coincide at all, the opponent notes. In response, Rousseau writes the famous Confession, trying to justify his past and present. But him mental illness is progressing. His health is rapidly deteriorating, and soon, according to one version, during a concert arranged in his honor, the philosopher suddenly dies. His grave on Yves Island became a place of pilgrimage for fans of the thinker, who believed that Rousseau fell victim to social ostracism.
Rousseau Jean-Jacques. Philosophy of escapism
As already mentioned, the first works of the thinker were the competitive "Discourses" on art, sciences and the origin of inequality. Subsequently, he wrote such works as "The Social Contract", "Emil, or Education of the Senses" and "The New Eloise". Some of his works are written in the form of essays and some are novels. It was the latter that Jean-Jacques Rousseau became most famous for. The main ideas about exposing civilization and culture, from which one should run away, expressed by him in his youth, find their natural continuation. The main thing in a person, as the philosopher believed, is not the mind at all, but feelings. Conscience and Genius must be recognized as the basic instincts of a moral being. Unlike the mind, they do not make mistakes, although they are often not aware. The era of the Renaissance, which everyone admires, led to a real decline in society, because the sciences, arts and the development of industry, which began precisely at that time, led to the alienation of people from each other and the emergence of artificial needs. And the task of a real philosopher is to make a person united again and, accordingly, happy.
Historical views
But not only the Renaissance and its achievements were denounced by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The theory of the social contract is one of his main philosophical conclusions. Criticizing contemporary political ideas, he contradicts Hobbes, who was popular at that time. In the primitive era, according to Rousseau, there was no "war of all against all", but there was a real "golden age". The modern fallen society begins with the appearance of private property - as soon as someone staked out a site and said: "This is mine," the childish innocence of mankind disappeared. Of course, it is impossible to reverse science, but progress as such can be slowed down. To do this, it is necessary to conclude a social contract and create a republic of equal small proprietors. All issues there will be decided not by separation of powers, but by referenda.
What should a person be
Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote a lot about education. Man, first of all, must be a natural being, because all of his main ones are due to nature. Since feelings, as we have already found out, are the main thing in people, then it is them that should be developed. Excessive reasoning only tires, but does not glorify at all. The real dignity of a person comes from the heart, not from the mind. People try not to hear the voice of conscience, but this is the call of Nature itself. In his pursuit of civilization, man forgot about it and became deaf. Therefore, he should return to his ideal, represented by the image of a “noble savage”, surrendering to the immediacy of feelings, and not broken by the unnecessary requirements of artificial etiquette.
Enlightenment and education
The views of the philosopher are full of contradictions. Attacking culture and sciences, Rousseau, nevertheless, always enjoyed their fruits and recognized their necessity and undoubted merits in the education of a person. He believed, like many of his contemporaries, that if the rulers would listen to philosophers, then society would become more perfect. But this is not the only contradiction that was characteristic of such a thinker as Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The pedagogical ideas of the philosopher place their hopes on the enlightenment, which he criticized so much. It is this that can make possible the education of worthy citizens, and without it both rulers and subordinates will be nothing more than slaves and liars. But at the same time, one must remember that a person’s childhood is his memory of the lost paradise of the golden age, and try to take as much as possible from nature.
Virtue is the foundation of everything
Although the life of the philosopher did not correspond to his views, morality plays an important role in his works. Emotions and sympathy, from the point of view of the thinker, are the main basis of virtue, and the latter is the basis of man and society. Rousseau Jean-Jacques thought so. about morality, nature and religion are very similar. Both virtue and faith must be subject to nature, he said. Only then will society be ideal when between inner world of a person, his moral, emotional and rational components will achieve harmony with the interests of all members of society. Therefore, individuals must overcome their moral alienation from each other and not become like politicians who "are more like not rabid wolves ... than like Christians ... who want to return their opponents to the path of truth."
Rousseau's influence on his own and subsequent centuries was undeniable. His ideas about opposing selfishness and virtue, justice and deceit of false laws, the greed of owners and the innocence of the poor, as well as dreams of returning to nature, were picked up by romantics, fighters for the best. social order and social rights seekers of solidarity and brotherhood.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (fr. Jean-Jacques Rousseau; June 28, 1712, Geneva - July 2, 1778, Ermenonville, near Paris) - French philosopher, writer, thinker of the Enlightenment. He studied the direct form of government of the people by the state - direct democracy, which is used to this day, for example, in Switzerland. Musicologist, composer and botanist.
Franco-Swiss by origin, later known as the "Citizen of Geneva", "defender of liberties and rights" (A. S. Pushkin) for the idealization of the republican order of his homeland, Rousseau was a native of Protestant Geneva, which retained until the 18th century. its strictly Calvinistic and municipal spirit.
Mother, Suzanne Bernard, granddaughter of a Genevan pastor, died in childbirth.
Father - Isaac Rousseau (1672-1747), watchmaker and dance teacher, was acutely worried about the loss of his wife.
Jean-Jacques was a favorite child in the family, from the age of seven he was read with his father until the morning dawn "Astrea" and biographies. Imagining himself the ancient hero Scaevola, he burned his hand over the brazier.
Due to an armed attack on a fellow citizen, his father, Isaac, was forced to flee to a neighboring canton and entered into a second marriage there. Jean-Jacques, left in Geneva under the care of his maternal uncle, spent 1723-1724 in the Protestant guesthouse Lambersier, then he was apprenticed to a notary, and in 1725 to an engraver. During this time, he read extensively, even while working, for which he was subjected to harsh treatment. As he writes in his book Confessions, because of this, he got used to lying, pretending, stealing.
Leaving the city on Sundays, he often returned when the gates were already locked, and he had to spend the night in the open. At the age of 16, on March 14, 1728, he decided to leave the city.
Catholic Savoy began outside the gates of Geneva - the priest of a neighboring village invited him to accept Catholicism and gave him a letter in Vevey, to Mrs. Francoise Louise de Varane (Warens, nee de la Tour du Pil; March 31, 1699 - July 29, 1762). This was a young woman from a wealthy family in the canton of Vaud, who upset her fortune with industrial enterprises, left her husband and moved to Savoy. For the adoption of Catholicism, she received an allowance from the king. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was released into the street.
He entered as a lackey in an aristocratic house, where he was treated with participation: the son of the count, the abbot, began to teach him Italian and read with him. Having met with a rogue from Geneva, Rousseau left Turin with him, without thanking his benefactor.
He reappeared in Annecy with Madame de Varane, who left him with her and became his "mother." She taught him to write correctly, to speak the language educated people and, as far as he was susceptible to this, to behave in a secular way. But "mother" was only 30 years old; she was completely devoid of moral principles and in this respect had the most bad influence on Rousseau. Concerned about his future, she placed Rousseau in a seminary, and then apprenticed to an organist, whom he soon abandoned and returned to Annecy, from where Madame de Varane left, meanwhile, for Paris.
For more than two years, Rousseau wandered around Switzerland, undergoing every need. Once he was even in Paris, which he did not like. He made his crossings on foot, spending the night in the open, but he was not burdened by this, enjoying nature. In the spring of 1732, Rousseau again became the guest of Madame de Varane; his place was taken by the young Swiss Ana, which did not prevent Rousseau from remaining a member of the friendly trio.
In his "Confession" he described his then love with the most passionate colors. After Anet's death, he remained alone with Madame de Varane until 1737, when she sent him to Montpellier for treatment. On his return, he found his benefactress near the town of Chambéry, where she rented a farm in the place "Les Charmettes"; her new "factotum" was the young Swiss Wincinried. Rousseau called him brother and again took refuge with "mother".
He entered in 1740 as a home tutor to the Mably family (the writer's brother), who lived in Lyon. But he was very ill-suited for this role; he did not know how to behave either with students or with adults, he secretly took wine to his room, made "eyes" at the mistress of the house. As a result, Rousseau had to leave.
After an unsuccessful attempt to return to the Charmettes, Rousseau went to Paris to present to the academy the system he had invented to designate notes by numbers; it was not accepted, despite Rousseau's Discourse on Modern Music in its defence.
Rousseau takes the position of house secretary with Count Montagu, the French envoy in Venice. The envoy looked at him as if he were a servant, while Rousseau imagined himself a diplomat and began to put on airs. Subsequently, he wrote that he had saved the Kingdom of Naples at that time. However, the messenger kicked him out of the house without paying his salary.
Rousseau returned to Paris and filed a complaint against Montagu, which was successful.
He managed to stage the opera Les Muses Galantes, which he had written, in his home theatre, but it did not make it to the royal stage.
Without a livelihood, Rousseau entered into an affair with the maid of the hotel in which he lived, Teresa Levasseur, a young peasant woman, ugly, illiterate, limited - she could not learn to know what time it was - and very vulgar. He admitted that he never had any feelings for her. the slightest love, but married her twenty years later.
Together with her, he had to keep her parents and their relatives. He had 5 children, all of whom were sent to an orphanage. Rousseau justified himself by saying that he did not have the means to feed them, that they would not allow him to study in peace, and that he preferred to make peasants out of them than adventurers, as he himself was.
Having received the secretary's position from the farmer Frankel and his mother-in-law, Rousseau became a household man in a circle to which the famous Madame d'Epinay, her friend Grimm and.
Rousseau often visited them, staged comedies, enchanted them with his naive, albeit fantasy-colored, stories from his life. He was forgiven for his tactlessness (for example, he began by writing a letter to Frankel's mother-in-law with a declaration of love).
In the summer of 1749, Rousseau went to visit Diderot, who was imprisoned in the Château de Vincennes. On the way, having opened a newspaper, I read an announcement from the Dijon Academy about a prize on the topic “Did the revival of sciences and arts contribute to the purification of morals”. A sudden thought struck Rousseau; the impression was so strong that, according to his description, he lay in some kind of intoxication under a tree for half an hour; when he came to, his vest was wet with tears. The thought that dawned on Rousseau contains the whole essence of his worldview: "enlightenment is harmful and culture itself is a lie and a crime."
Two years later, his operetta The Village Sorcerer was staged on the court stage. sang his arias; they wanted to introduce him to the king, but Rousseau shied away from the honor that could create a secure position for him.
Madame d'Epinay, meeting the tastes of Rousseau, built for him in the garden of her country estate near Saint-Denis, on the edge of a magnificent forest of Montmorency. In the spring of 1756, Rousseau moved into his "Hermitage": nightingales sang under his windows, the forest became his "working room", at the same time giving him the opportunity to wander all day in lonely meditation.
Rousseau was like in paradise, but Teresa and her mother were bored at the dacha and were horrified to learn that Rousseau wanted to stay in the Hermitage for the winter. This case was settled by friends, but the 44-year-old Rousseau fell passionately in love with the 26-year-old Countess Sophie d'Houdetot (fr. Sophie d'Houdetot), the "girlfriend" of Saint-Lambert, who was friendly to Jean-Jacques. Saint-Lambert was on the march; the countess in the spring of 1757 settled alone in a neighboring estate. Rousseau often visited her and, finally, settled with her; he wept at her feet, at the same time reproaching himself for betraying his "friend." The countess felt sorry for him, listened to his eloquent confessions: confident in her love for another, she allowed intimacy, which brought Rousseau's passion to madness. In a modified and idealized form, this story was used by Rousseau in the development of the plot of his novel Julia, or the New Eloise.
Madame d'Epinay mockingly treated the love of the already elderly Rousseau for the Countess d'Udeteau and did not believe in the purity of their relationship. Saint-Lambert was notified by an anonymous letter and returned from the army. Rousseau suspected Madame d'Epinay of disclosure and wrote her an ignoble and insulting letter. She forgave him, but her friends were not so condescending, especially Grimm, who saw Rousseau as a maniac and found it dangerous to indulge such people.
This first collision was soon followed by a complete break with the "philosophers" and with the Encyclopedia circle. Madame d'Epinay, going to Geneva for a meeting with the famous physician Theodore Tronchin, invited Rousseau to see her off. Rousseau replied that it would be strange for a sick man to accompany a sick woman; when Diderot began to insist on a trip, reproaching him for ingratitude, Rousseau suspected that a “conspiracy” had formed against him, with the aim of disgracing him by appearing in Geneva in the role of a lackey of a tax-farmer, etc.
Rousseau informed the public about the break with Didro, stating in the preface to the “Letter on theatrical spectacles” (1758) that he no longer wanted to know his Aristarchus (Didro).
Leaving the Hermitage, he found a new home with the Duke of Luxembourg, the owner of Montmorency Castle, who provided him with a pavilion in his park. Here Rousseau spent 4 years and wrote "New Eloise" and "Emile", reading them to his kind hosts, whom he at the same time insulted with suspicions that they were not sincerely disposed towards him, and statements that he hated their title and high public position.
In 1761 the "New Eloise" appeared in print, in the spring of the following year - "Emil", and a few weeks later - "The Social Contract" ("Contrat social"). During the printing of "Emile" Rousseau was in great fear: he had strong patrons, but he suspected that the bookseller would sell the manuscript to the Jesuits and that his enemies would distort its text. "Emil", however, was published; the storm broke a little later.
The Paris Parliament, preparing to pronounce a sentence on the Jesuits, considered it necessary to condemn the philosophers, and sentenced "Emil", for religious free-thinking and indecency, to be burned by the hand of the executioner, and his author to imprisonment. The Prince of Conti made it known at Montmorency; the Duchess of Luxembourg ordered to wake Rousseau and persuaded him to leave immediately. Rousseau, however, tarried all day and nearly fell victim to his slowness; on the road, he met bailiffs sent for him, who politely bowed to him.
Rousseau took refuge in the Principality of Neuchâtel, which belonged to the Prussian king, and settled in the town of Motier. He found new friends here, wandered through the mountains, chatted with the villagers, sang romances to the village girls. He adapted a suit for himself - a spacious, belted arkhaluk, wide trousers and a fur hat, justifying this choice with hygienic considerations. But him peace of mind was not solid. It seemed to him that the local peasants were too proud, that they had evil tongues; he began to call Motier "the meanest place of residence." For a little over three years he lived like this; then new disasters and wanderings came for him.
Once Rousseau called "touching", but in fact there could not be a greater contrast than between these two writers. The antagonism between them manifested itself in 1755, when Voltaire, on the occasion of the terrible Lisbon earthquake, renounced optimism, and Rousseau stood up for Providence. Fed up with glory and living in luxury, Voltaire, according to Rousseau, sees only grief on earth; he, unknown and poor, finds that everything is fine.
Relations escalated when Rousseau, in his Letter on Spectacles, strongly rebelled against the introduction of theater in Geneva. Voltaire, who lived near Geneva and, through his home theater at Ferney, was developing a taste for dramatic performances among the Genevans, realized that the letter was directed against him and against his influence on Geneva. Knowing no measure in his anger, Voltaire hated Rousseau: he mocked his ideas and writings, then he made him look crazy.
The controversy between them especially flared up when Rousseau was banned from entering Geneva, which he attributed to the influence of Voltaire. Finally, Voltaire published an anonymous pamphlet accusing Rousseau of intending to overthrow the Geneva constitution and Christianity, and claiming that he had killed Mother Teresa.
From 1770 he settled in Paris, and a more peaceful life began for him; but still he did not know peace of mind, suspecting conspiracies against him or against his writings. He considered the head of the conspiracy the Duke de Choiseul, who ordered the conquest of Corsica, allegedly so that Rousseau would not become the legislator of this island.
In the Masonic archives of the Grand Orient of France, Rousseau, as well as Count Saint-Germain, is listed as a member of the Masonic lodge "Public Concord of Saint John of Ecos" from August 18, 1775 until his death.
According to one version, in the summer of 1777 Rousseau's state of health began to inspire fear in his friends. In the spring, 1778, one of them, the Marquis de Girardin, took him to his country residence (in the Chateau de Ermenonville). At the end of June a concert was arranged for him on an island in the middle of a park; Rousseau asked to be buried in this place. On July 2, Rousseau died suddenly in Teresa's arms.
His wish was granted; his grave on the island of Eve began to attract hundreds of admirers who saw in him a victim of social tyranny and a martyr of humanity - a representation expressed by the youth Schiller in famous verses, comparing with Socrates, who allegedly died from the sophists, Rousseau, who suffered from the Christians, whom he tried to make people. During the Convention, Rousseau's body, along with the remains of Voltaire, was transferred to the Pantheon, but 20 years later, during the restoration, two fanatics secretly stole Rousseau's ashes at night and threw them into a lime pit.
There is another version of the death of Rousseau. In the Swiss city of Biel/Bienne, not far from Neuchâtel, in the center of the old town, at house 12 on Untergasse street, there is a sign: “In this house J.-J. Rousseau found his death in October 1765."
Loading...
