ABSTRACT
Of Rousseau’s three principal writings, the Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts, or First Discourse, has received the least attention from modern scholars. Rousseau’s philosophic system is based on the principle of the natural goodness of man, but the First Discourse contains scarcely any evidence of this principle. Yet Rousseau insists that the First Discourse is ‘inseparable’ from his system, and that it forms, with the Discourse on Inequality and Emile, ‘the same whole.’ This chapter follows the Discourse’s logic, showing that it supplies the introduction to Rousseau’s analytical argument, leading to the natural goodness of man, and the most general conclusions of his synthetic argument, proceeding from this principle.
