ABSTRACT
After laying out Rousseau’s cases for and against patriotism and cosmopolitanism, this chapter sifts the evidence more carefully. A cosmopolitan love of humanity is established as foundational in his abstract ethical theory and in the private domestic ethics of Emile. By contrast, it seems to play no role in the education of the citizen, who is taught a robust love of country, and excused for indifference to foreigners. At the same time, the citizen’s love of liberty prevents him from having any interest in foreign conquest. In view of the humanitarian commitments of Rousseau’s ethical theory, it is puzzling that he would advocate such deep attachment to homeland, without any directly cosmopolitan element. This is explained mainly in terms of a realist psychology, according to which the sentiments of patriotism and humanity cannot each be cultivated on a broad scale. A comparison of The Social Contract with its earlier version in the Geneva Manuscript indicates a significant rhetorical strategy to deemphasize the potential excesses of attachment to one’s homeland. The chapter closes by partially contrasting Rousseau with modern nationalism.
