POLITICAL THEORY – Jean-Jacques Rousseau

00:07:46
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81KfDXTTtXE

摘要

TLDRThe video explores the philosophical contributions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, particularly his critique of civilization and the concept of the 'noble savage.' Rousseau argued that progress and civilization have corrupted human morality, contrasting the innocence of people in the 'state of nature' with the vices of modern society. He emphasized the importance of child-centered education, believing that children are born naturally good and should be protected from societal corruption. His ideas influenced parenting practices and contributed to the Romantic Movement, which values the primitive and emotional aspects of human experience. Rousseau's legacy continues to resonate in contemporary discussions about human nature and societal values.

心得

  • 📜 Rousseau critiqued civilization's impact on morality.
  • 🌳 He believed in the 'noble savage' concept.
  • 💔 Civilization led to vice and sin, according to Rousseau.
  • 👶 Advocated for child-centered education.
  • 🌱 Children are born naturally good.
  • 📚 'Émile' is a key work on education.
  • 🎨 Rousseau celebrated intense emotions in literature.
  • ❤️ He influenced the Romantic Movement.
  • 🧠 His ideas shape modern views on human nature.
  • 🌍 Rousseau's legacy continues to resonate today.

时间轴

  • 00:00:00 - 00:07:46

    The 18th century saw a belief in progress as European societies became wealthier and more technological, but philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau challenged this notion. Born in Geneva in 1712, Rousseau's life was marked by instability after his family fled legal troubles. In Paris, he encountered opulence that contrasted sharply with his upbringing. A pivotal moment came in 1749 when he read an essay prompt questioning whether advancements in arts and sciences improved morality. Rousseau concluded that civilization had not enhanced humanity but rather corrupted it, leading to vice and sin. He argued that individuals were once good and happy in a 'state of nature' but became morally degenerate as they entered society, driven by unhealthy self-love and competition for status. Rousseau's concept of the 'noble savage' highlighted the innocence of our ancestors compared to modern decadence, as he observed the detrimental effects of European contact on Native American tribes. He believed that civilization's influence had led to increased suffering and disintegration of communities.

思维导图

视频问答

  • Who was Jean-Jacques Rousseau?

    Jean-Jacques Rousseau was an 18th-century philosopher known for his ideas on civilization, morality, and education.

  • What is the 'noble savage' concept?

    The 'noble savage' refers to Rousseau's idea that humans in their natural state are innocent and moral, contrasting with the corrupting influence of civilization.

  • What did Rousseau believe about civilization?

    Rousseau believed that civilization had a destructive influence on human morality, leading to vice and sin.

  • What is 'amour-propre'?

    'Amour-propre' is a term Rousseau used to describe a destructive form of self-love centered around pride, jealousy, and vanity.

  • What was Rousseau's view on education?

    Rousseau advocated for child-centered education, believing children are born naturally good and should be protected from societal corruption.

  • What impact did Rousseau have on parenting?

    Rousseau influenced parents to view children as wise beings, promoting play and nature in childhood.

  • What is 'Émile, or On Education'?

    Émile is Rousseau's influential book on child-rearing, emphasizing the importance of preventing societal corruption.

  • How did Rousseau view emotions in literature?

    Rousseau celebrated intense feelings in literature, focusing on personal emotions rather than social events.

  • What was Rousseau's contribution to the Romantic Movement?

    Rousseau is considered a founding figure of the Romantic Movement, valuing the primitive and emotional aspects of human experience.

  • What is Rousseau's legacy today?

    Rousseau's ideas continue to influence modern thought on human nature, education, and societal values.

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  • 00:00:01
    Modern life is deeply attracted to the idea of progress in the 18th century as
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    European societies became ever richer and more technological, the conventional
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    view was that mankind was firmly set on a positive trajectory from savagery and
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    ignorance toward prosperity and civilization. But there was at least one
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    eighteen century philosopher who violently disagreed and who continues to
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    have very provocative things to say to our own era. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born to an
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    educated watchmaker in Geneva in 1712. when he was 10 his father got into a
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    legal dispute and the family was forced to flee Geneva. From that point on
  • 00:00:47
    Rousseau's life was marked by deep instability and isolation. As a young man
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    who went to Paris and there was exposed to the opulence and luxury that was the
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    order of the day in Austin regime Paris. It was a far cry from his birthplace of
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    Geneva a city that was sober and deeply opposed to luxury goods. Then one day in
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    1749 he read a copy of a newspaper, The Mercure de France that contained an advert for
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    an essay on the subject of whether recent advances in arts and sciences
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    have contributed to what was called the "purification of morals" in other words
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    was the world getting better?
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    Rousseau experienced something of an epiphany. It struck him that civilization
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    and progress had not in fact improved people. Instead they'd exacted a terrible
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    destructive influence on the morality of human beings who had once been good.
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    Rousseau took this insight and turned it into the central thesis of what became
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    his celebrated discourse on the Arts and Sciences. His argument was simple:
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    Individuals had once been good and happy but as people had emerged from their pre
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    social state and join society they had become plagued by vice and sin. In this
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    work and its twin, The Discourse on the Origins and Foundations of Inequality,
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    Rousseau went on to sketch what it would have been like at the beginning of
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    history, an idyllic period that he called "the state of nature." A long time
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    ago
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    when men and women lived in forests and had never entered a shop or read a
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    newspa per the philosopher pictured people more easily understanding their own
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    minds and so being drawn toward essential features of a satisfied life,
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    a love of a family,
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    respect for nature, an awe at the beauty of the universe, curiosity about others and
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    a taste for music and simple entertainments. The "state of nature" was
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    moral and guided by spontaneous pity, empathy for others and their suffering.
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    So what was it about civilization that Rousseau thought had corrupted people
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    and led to moral degeneracy. Rousseau claimed that the march toward
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    civilization had awakened in people and unhealthy form of self-love, amour-propre,
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    he called it, something that was artificial and centered around pride,
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    jealousy, and vanity. Rousseau argued that this destructive form of self love had
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    emerged as people had moved into cities and there had begun to compare
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    themselves to others and created their identities solely by reference to their
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    neighbors. Civilized people had stopped thinking about what they wanted and they
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    felt and merely imitated other people, entering into ruinous competitions for
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    status and money and losing sight of their own sensations. Rousseau is forever
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    associated with a term
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    "noble savage" because it was his work that describe the innocence and morality
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    of our ancestors and contrasted it with modern decadence. At the time Rousseau was
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    writing, European Society was fascinated by the plight the native North American
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    tribes. Reports of Indian society drawn up in the 16th century had once
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    described the Indians as materially simple but psychologically very rich and
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    interesting. Communities with small, close-knit,
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    egalitariam, religious, playful, and martial. However within a few decades of the
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    arrival of the Europeans the status system of Indian society have been
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    revolutionized through contact with a technology and luxury of European
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    industry. Indians now longed for guns alcohol, beads, and mirrors Rates of
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    suicide and alcoholism had risen, communities were fracturing, and factions
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    were squabbling. The modern world had ruined the lives of people who'd once
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    lived
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    happily in the "state of nature." Rousseau's interest in natural goodness made him
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    very interested in the idea, though not quite the reality, of children. In 1762 he
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    wrote Émile, or On Education, perhaps the most successful book ever written about
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    how to raise children. Rousseau suggested that children were born naturally good and
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    that the key to raising them was therefore always to prevent their corruption by
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    society. This idea was widely influential. Parents who had before this time seen
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    their children as wicked or at best as blank slates now viewed them as founts
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    of wisdom and tried to give them a childhood full of play and visits to
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    forests and lakes. Rousseau became the inventor of child-centered education. He
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    was also a great proponent of breastfeeding, declaring "Let mothers
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    deign to nurse their children, morals will reform themselves, nature's sentiments
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    will be awakened in every heart and the state will be repeopled." It was, he knew,
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    a bit of hyperbole but its spurred a wave of breastfeeding even among the
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    wealthy who had long disdained the practice. Artists rushed to paint and honor the new
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    vogue for breastfeeding. Because Rousseau so closely valued human beings in their
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    original state, it followed that in the novels he wrote, Rousseau also constantly
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    celebrated intense feelings rather than great deeds or social events. In his
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    novel, Julie, written in 1761, Roussseau depicted the excitement and anguish of an
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    upper-class women caught in a love triangle between her sensitive tutor and
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    her boring but socially sanctioned aristocratic match. Rousseau's
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    contemporaries might have seen Julie as unwise and her feelings as a passing
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    fancy, but Rousseau painted her love in a higher light. He urged us to see its grandeur,
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    depth and honor. In his writings about his own life,
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    Rousseau was similarly romantic or, what one might unkindly call, self-absorbed. In his
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    famous Confessions, one of the first ever autobiographies, Rousseau spend pages
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    exploring his inner life: How frustrating he found shopping, the surprising feeling of
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    tenderness for his ex's new partner, or the joys of gardening.To him,
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    these weren't trivial or self-absorbed topics, they were part of an important
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    task: to
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    show is like on the inside. "I have conceived of a new genre of service to
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    render to man," he boasted, "to offer them the faithful image of one amongst them
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    in order for them to learn to know themselves. Rousseau died in 1778 age 66. His
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    reputation has continued to grow. He was from beyond the grave
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    one of the heroes of the French Fevolution and he became an icon to a
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    great many artists and writers of the 19th century. Rousseau can be considered as
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    one of the founding figures of what we now know as the Romantic Movement, an
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    ideology responsible for valuing the primitive over the civilized, the child
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    over the adult< the passionate lover over the calmly loyal spouse. The modern world
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    despite its addiction to status, machinery, and capitalist values, in many
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    ways continues to be profoundly romantic in its heart. It's astonishing that so
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    much of what we take to be common sense, or just natural, can directly be traced
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    back to the work of one not always wise but always highly intriguing and
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    provocative thinker.
标签
  • Rousseau
  • philosophy
  • noble savage
  • civilization
  • morality
  • education
  • child-centered
  • Romantic Movement
  • human nature
  • society