Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Note on translation
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction. Rousseau in a Genevan context
- 1 The formation of a “citizen of Geneva”
- 2 Rousseau becomes Rousseau, 1751–1754. Geneva, doux commerce, and Rousseau from the First to the Second Discourse
- 3 Rousseau and natural law: the context
- 4 Rousseau and natural law: the Second Discourse
- 5 The “invisible chain”: Rousseau and Geneva from the Second Discourse to the Social Contract
- 6 The Social Contract
- Epilogue
- Select bibliography
- Index
- IDEAS IN CONTEXT
5 - The “invisible chain”: Rousseau and Geneva from the Second Discourse to the Social Contract
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Note on translation
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction. Rousseau in a Genevan context
- 1 The formation of a “citizen of Geneva”
- 2 Rousseau becomes Rousseau, 1751–1754. Geneva, doux commerce, and Rousseau from the First to the Second Discourse
- 3 Rousseau and natural law: the context
- 4 Rousseau and natural law: the Second Discourse
- 5 The “invisible chain”: Rousseau and Geneva from the Second Discourse to the Social Contract
- 6 The Social Contract
- Epilogue
- Select bibliography
- Index
- IDEAS IN CONTEXT
Summary
THE RETURN TO GENEVA, 1754
Several scholars have suggested that, considering Rousseau's psychological state, it was inevitable that he would return to Geneva, as he did upon the completion of the Second Discourse, in the summer of 1754. According to Trousson, for example, “the reconquest of his being required his return to Geneva.” Indeed, during the years following the publication of the First Discourse, Rousseau's life remained a painful paradox for him. His writings reflect his republicanism, his increasing religiosity, and his distaste for Parisian society. Yet, in his own life, he had been unable to reject Parisian culture and society; on the contrary, he had become a famous author, playwright, and homme de salon. He had tried to make his lifestyle conform to his principles, but he had not really succeeded. In this regard, it was no doubt a particular problem for him that the title citizen of Geneva, by which he had become known, was really a misnomer, since he had officially lost his rights as a Genevan citizen when he had converted to Catholicism in 1728. These contradictions in Rousseau's life were undoubtedly the source of increasing malaise. Thus his return to Geneva can be seen as the necessary conclusion of this “return to himself” that he had undertaken since the First Discourse.
Moreover, Cranston contends that “the logic” of all that Rousseau was saying about religion, morals, politics, and society would seem to compel such a decision, to “drive him away from metropolitan corruption back to the provincial, puritanical simplicity of his birthplace.”
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Rousseau and GenevaFrom the First Discourse to The Social Contract, 1749–1762, pp. 178 - 240Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1997