The Life of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

This study will discuss the life of Jean-Jacques Rousseau as he examines it in his Confessions and in a way which St. Augustine would understand. The thrust of the study will be the religious component present in Augustine's own Confessions and absent from Rousseau. Augustine would likely have read Rousseau's work, identified with his very human failings and longings, and suggested that the French revolutionary turn to God and Jesus Christ for the solace and serenity he obviously has not found in politics, writing, philosophy, and other wholly earth-bound pursuits.

In the middle of his Confessions, Rousseau stops to assess the first thirty years of his life, and to briefly preview for the reader the next thirty years, drawing a stark comparison between the two periods:

You have seen my peaceful youth floe by in a uniform and pleasant enough way. . . . After favouring my wishes for thirty years, for the next thirty fate opposed them; and from this continual opposition between my situation and my desires will be seen to arise great mistakes, incredible misfortunes, and every virtue that can do credit to adversity except strength of character (Rousseau 261).

If one expects Rousseau to gain wisdom or humility through a life of such variety, such ease followed by adversity, one will be disappointed. Rousseau's autobiography is the story of a man forever proud, forever self-centered, forever blind to the possibility of or need for any transcendent power which will lift him

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cured me for the rest of my life against any act that might prove crimina l in its results (Rousseau 89). Every reader must decide for herself or himself whether Rousseau is likely to be telling the truth when he says here that this was not only the most serious sin he committed in his life but the only such serious sin, or crime, whatsoever. In any case, from Augustine's point of view, Rousseau's confession of his "calumny" against the girl falls short of the mark because he fails to understand that his sin is first and foremost against God. He has harmed the girl certainly, but he has broken his connection with God through such a sin as well, and, from Augustine's perspective, he will not find the peace and absolution he seeks unless he directs his confession not only to his equally fallible readers but also to God. Augustine confesses his own thievery in a way which gives a darker picture of sin than Rousseau draws. Rousseau confesses his thievery and lying to his readers and seems to be immediately relieved of his guilt and regret, as if it were an aberration which quickly came and went. Augustine sees his stealing as a sign of a deeper and darker reality within, a tendency toward sinfulness which required not a page or tw

Category: Philosophy - T