Rousseau, nature, and the problem of the good life / Laurence D. Cooper.

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Cooper, Laurence D., 1962-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 1712-1778.
• Philosophical anthropology--History--18th century.
• Philosophical anthropology.
• History.
• Philosophy of nature--History--18th century.
• Political science--History--18th century.
• Political science.
• Philosophy of nature.

Physical Description:

xiv, 223 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

University Park, Pa. : Pennsylvania State University Press, [1999]

Summary:

• The rise of modern science created a crisis for Western moral and political philosophy, which had theretofore relied either on Christian theology or Aristotelian natural teleology as guarantors of an objective standard for "the good life." This book examines Rousseau's effort to show how and why, despite this challenge from science (which he himself intensified by equating our subhuman origins with our natural state), nature can remain a standard for human behavior.
• While recognizing an original goodness in human being in the state of nature, Rousseau knew this to be too low a standard and promoted the idea of "the natural man living in the state of society, " notably in Emile. Laurence Cooper shows how for Rousseau, conscience -- understood as the "love of order" -- functions as the agent whereby simple savage sentiment is sublimated into a more refined "civilized naturalness" to which all people can aspire.

Contents:

• Introduction: Rousseau and the Question of the Good Life 1
• Roussau, Nature, and History 4
• 1 The Goodness of All Good Lives 17
• Beyond Happiness, or What Makes the Good Life Good 19
• The Two Components of the Good Life 30
• 2 Nature and Human Nature, Part I: What Is Natural? 37
• The Fixedness of Man's "Present Nature" 41
• Charting the Human Landscape: Two Chasms
• One Bridgeable, the Other Not 47
• Charting the Human Landscape: Five Human Types, Three Natural Men, One Civilized Savage 51
• "What Is Natural in the Savage State" and "What Is Natural in the Civil State" 59
• 3 Nature and Human Nature, Part II: Emile, or the Naturalization of Second Nature 67
• Between Aristotle and Hobbes, Between Plato and Freud: A Word on Rousseau's Distinctiveness 69
• Sublimation in Rousseau: Conscience as Alchemist 80
• What Else Is Natural, and Why 105
• 4 The Problem of Self-Love 115
• The Stakes 119
• Amour-Propre's Inevitability 120
• Amour-Propre's Ambiguity 122
• Amour-Propre's Influence on Character and Behavior 130
• What Amour-Propre Is and How It Arises 136
• Answers and Rebuttals: An Attempt at Dialectic 137
• The Birth of Amour-Propre 150
• How Much Amour-Propre, and What Kind? Gentleness Versus Cruelty, Pride Versus Vanity 160
• Beyond Amour-Propre? Prospects and Possibilities 172
• 5 Critical Reflections on Rousseau's Naturalism 183
• A Return to Wholeness 186
• The Perils of Rousseau's Naturalism: Some Concluding Reflections 190
• Rousseau's Subjectivism and Its Consequences 191
• The Denial of Amour-Propre's Naturalness and the Consequences for Our Moral Lives 195.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [209]-214) and index.

ISBN:

• 0271019220
• 0271019239

OCLC:

40408704