Table Of ContentRousseau Between Nature and Culture
Culture & Conflict
Edited by
Isabel Capeloa Gil and Catherine Nesci
Editorial Board
Arjun Appadurai · Claudia Benthien · Elisabeth Bronfen · Joyce Goggin
Lawrence Grossberg · Andreas Huyssen · Ansgar Nünning · Naomi Segal
Márcio Seligmann-Silva · António Sousa Ribeiro · Roberto Vecchi
Samuel Weber · Liliane Weissberg · Christoph Wulf
Volume 8
Rousseau
Between Nature
and Culture
Philosophy, Literature, and Politics
Edited by
Anne Deneys-Tunney and Yves Charles Zarka
In collaboration with
Karen Santos da Silva
ISBN 978-3-11-045075-0
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-045718-6
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-045667-7
ISSN 2194-7104
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Table of Contents
Editions and Abbreviations VII
Anne Deneys-Tunney, Yves Charles Zarka
Introduction 1
I Technology: Between Nature and Anti-Nature
Pierre Guenancia
Rousseau, Lévi-Strauss’s “Master” 11
Philip Knee
Rousseau and the Authority of Nature 27
Stéphane Lojkine
Nature as Blind Space 45
Anne Deneys-Tunney
Rousseau and Technology: The Invention of a New Ecological
Paradigm 57
Masano Yamashita
Rousseau and “The Mechanical Life” 67
II Politics and Ethics: Beyond the Nature/Culture Polarity
Paul Audi
Rousseau’s Ethical Freedom 85
Pasquale Pasquino
Remarks on Rousseau’s Dictatorship: Between Machiavelli and Carl
Schmitt 101
Simon Critchley
Politicsand Religion in the Social Contract 111
VI TableofContents
Mira Morgenstern
Alienation and Freedom: Rousseau and Transcending Nature/Culture
Dualism 119
Yves Charles Zarka
Rousseau and the Sovereignty of the People 137
III The Philosophical Novel: Culture as Nature’s Supplement
Christophe Martin
Nature and Supplementation in Julie ou La Nouvelle Héloïse 153
Lucien Nouis
Recomposing the Diffracted Text: Rousseau and the Metaphor of the Book of
Nature 167
Tanguy L’Aminot
Nature, Culture, and the Social Contract: Emile’s point of view 179
Contributors 197
Index 201
Editions and Abbreviations
Unlessotherwiseindicated,thereferencestoRousseau’sworksandcorrespond-
ence are from the following standard editions and will be indicated right after
references or quotations in the body of the chapters, rather than in footnotes.
Rousseau,Jean-Jacques.Œuvrescomplètes.Gen.Eds.BernardGagnebinandMarcel
Raymond.5vols.Paris: Gallimard,“BibliothèquedelaPléiade,” 1959–1995.
ThetitlewillbeabridgedthroughoutasOCfollowedbythevolumenumberandthe
pagination in Arabicnumerals.
Rousseau,Jean-Jacques.TheCollectedWritingsofRousseau.Gen.Eds.RogerD.Mas-
tersandChristopherKelly.13vols.Hanover:UPofNew England,1990–2010.
ThetitlewillbeabridgedthroughoutasCWfollowedbythevolumenumberandthe
pagination in Arabicnumerals.
CorrespondancecomplètedeJean-JacquesRousseau.Ed.RalphA.Leigh.52vols.
Geneva: Institut et Musée Voltaire; Madison: U of Wisconsin P; Oxford:Voltaire
Foundation,1965–1998.
ThetitlewillbeabridgedthroughoutasCCfollowedbythevolumenumberand
the pagination in Arabic numerals.
In addition,the following acronyms will be used to refer to Rousseau’s works:
C: forLesConfessions(OC1);TheConfessionsandCorrespondence,IncludingtheLettersto
Malesherbes(CW5).
CS: forDuContratSocial(OC3);SocialContract(CW4).
D: forRousseauJugedeJeanJaques(OC1);Rousseau,JudgeofJean-Jacques:Dialogues(CW1).
DSA: forDiscourssurlessciencesetlesarts(OC3);DiscourseontheSciencesandArts(CW2).
E: forÉmile,ouDel’éducation(OC4);EmileorOnEducation(CW13).
EOL: forEssaisurl’originedeslangues(OC5);EssayontheOriginofLanguages(CW7).
Julie: forJulie,ouLaNouvelleHéloïse(OC2);JulieortheNewHeloise(CW6).
LA: forLettreàd’Alembert(OC5);Lettertod’Alembert(CW10).
LF: forLettreàM.deFranquières(OC4);LettertoFranquières(CW8).
LM: forLettresmorales(OC4).
R: forLesRêveriesdupromeneursolitaire(OC1);TheReveriesoftheSolitaryWalker(CW8).
SD: forDiscourssurl’origineetlesfondementsdel’inégalitéparmileshommes[Second
discours](OC3);DiscourseontheOriginsofInequality[SecondDiscourse](CW3).
Whencitationsandpaginationsrefertobotheditions,referencestotheEnglish
editionswillfollowthepaginationinOCandwillbegiveninbrackets,suchas:
Second Discourse (OC 3:122 [CW 3:12]),or (SD 122 [12]).
Anne Deneys-Tunney,
Yves Charles Zarka
Introduction
LikethestatueofGlaucus,whichtime,sea,andstormshad
sodisfiguredthatitlookedlesslikeaGodthanawildBeast,
thehumansoul,alteredinthebosomofsocietybya
thousandcontinuallyrenewedcauses,bytheacquisition
ofamassofknowledgeanderrors,bychangesthat
occurredintheconstitutionofBodies,andbythe
continualimpactofthepassions,has,sotospeak,
changeditsappearancetothepointofbeingnearly
unrecognizable;and,insteadofabeingactingalways
byfixedandinvariablePrinciples,insteadofthat
Heavenlyandmajesticsimplicitywithwhichits
Authorshadendowedit,onenolongerfindsanything
exceptthedeformedcontrastofpassionwhich
believesitreasonsandunderstandingindelirium.
(Rousseau,Preface,
SecondDiscourse(122[12]))
Itisofcoursenoaccidentthatwebeginthevolumewiththisquotation.Itun-
derscores what is most at stake in the relationship between nature and cul-
ture, not only in Rousseau’s thought, which is to be expected, but for this
day and age as well. Indeed, it contains Rousseau’s characteristic imprint
about loss, degradation, confusion, even the degeneration from natural
man to cultural man. But if we put aside this value judgment – though we
would have to, in many respects, counterbalance it with what Rousseau
sayselsewhere–thismetaphorofGlaucus’sstatue,whosemeaningwillsub-
sequently be developed in the preface to the Discourse on the Origins of In-
equality(orSecondDiscourse),sayswhatismostessentialaboutthecontem-
porary confusion regarding the relationship between nature and culture.We
will return to this further down.
The relationship between nature and culture is today one of the major
concerns at the heart of the humanities and social sciences. If thinking this
rapport as a simple duality no longer seems substantiated in light of the ef-
fects of human action over nature, the earth’s vulnerability, and the status
ofotherlivingspecies,particularlyanimals,howarewetoredefinethisrela-
tionship?
TheoriginalityofthisprojectconsistsinareturntoJean-JacquesRousseau’s
workin order tofind, if not answers, at least some enlightening interpretations
anddirectionslikelytoguidetoday’sresearch.Thisprojectisthustwofold:ahis-
2 AnneDeneys-Tunney,YvesCharlesZarka
torical examination of Rousseau’s works and ideas, and an illustration of the
waysinwhichthesetextsandideasshedlightoncontemporaryproblemswithin
the humanities and social sciences.
Rousseauhasindeedplacedtherelationshipbetweennatureandcultureat
the center of his philosophical thought (Discourse on the Origins of Inequality,
Essay on the Origin of Languages, The Social Contract,etc.) as well as of his lit-
erarytexts(Emile,ReveriesofTheSolitaryWalker,etc.).IncontrasttoEnlighten-
ment optimism, in which his thought nevertheless participated, Rousseau has
shownthatthedevelopmentofcultureandoftechnicalprogress–theappropri-
ation of the earth,the disappearanceof simple waysof life (such as thatof the
Hottentots living on hunting and fishing), and the social inequalities that have
resultedfromsuchchanges–shouldnotbeconsideredfromtheunilateralper-
spectiveofanarrativeofhumanprogress,featuringsubjectsseekingrightsand
freedom throughout history. Rousseau saw the destructive aspects of men’s ac-
tions and desires when they become unilateral, having no other concern than
the satisfaction of amour-propre (self-love): such unilateralism conceals a dis-
figuration,evenadestructionofthenaturewithinandoutsideofus.Thislesson
is extremely important, fordoes such a diagnosis not resonatewith the one we
have come to make, nowadays, on the destruction of nature by man-made fac-
tors and environmental disasters?
Doesthismeanthattheparadigmofnaturehasbeenlost?Doesitmeanthat
manhimselfislostbywayoftheimpossibilitytogobackwards,backtothetime
ofanowlost“pure”nature?The answertothesequestions can onlybeno,be-
causeRousseaualsodevelopedapositiveoutlookonculture.Asregardstopol-
itics, shouldn’t the social contract help man transition from a savage form of
freedom–closetoinstinct–toamoralandcivilfreedomthatraiseshumanbe-
ingstothelevelofresponsibility?Doesn’tEmileprovidethewaytoaneducation
guidedbynature?Itisclearthatinbothhisphilosophicalandhisliteraryworks,
Rousseau’s answers are far from unequivocal. Our belief is that we still have
much to learn from Rousseau.The considerable importance granted to him by
ClaudeLévi-Straussontheonehand,andJacquesDerridaontheother,despite
theirconsiderabledifferences,testifiestohowtopicalRousseauremainsincon-
temporary thought.
Aswe will see,the totalityof Rousseau’s œuvrehelps us think through the
complex relationships between nature and culture. Nature is both a universal
substratum,andthefoundationfromwhich(andattimesagainstwhich)culture
establishesitself.Modernculture,saysRousseau,hasseparatedoremancipated
itself from this foundation, and has degenerated into a society of luxury, in-
equality,andmoralcorruption.Furthermore,Rousseau’sworkstrivestorestruc-
ture nature, within the political, moral, and anthropological context of social
