ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to present and assess the ideas Rousseau broaches and explores in his three Discourses, the Discourse on the Sciences and Arts (DSA) commonly known as the First Discourse, of 1750; the Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (DI), the Second Discourse, of 1755; and the Discourse on Political Economy (DPE), the Third Discourse, which first appeared as an article in Diderot and d’Alembert’s Encyclopedia in 1755 but was published separately in 1758. As well as bringing forward the core arguments of these works I shall highlight the presence of certain of the salient themes which I identified in the preceding chapter since these are plainly central to Rousseau’s thinking in these Discourses. The First Discourse, for example, explores the corruptions of civilised man, as does the Second Discourse with great brilliance, and we find in that too extensive discussion of natural man and natural goodness. In the Third Discourse there is a sketch of Rousseau’s thinking about the grounds of political legitimacy, and a considerable treatment of the role of culture and patriotism in creating citizens. Through the treatment given here we will be in a position to understand more fully the character and force of Rousseau’s thinking about these matters and to begin to form a view about the cogency of his approach. Of course, more remains to be considered in the following chapters as well, but these Discourses lead us very quickly to much that is right at the heart of Rousseau’s thinking.
