The anthropology of Rousseau

Abstract

The initial reason of our proposition is to make an analysis on a philosophical gesture accomplished on the XVIII century, and specially present in the oeuvre of Jean-Jacques Rousseau: the gesture by which, to explain the origin and the functioning of the understanding and of the passions in the individual, he resorts to a first origin of culture. In his work, Rousseau places the central problem of anthropology, that is to say, the passage between nature to culture. By doing this, he openly resorts to the condillacian theory, without which he wouldn't be able to elaborate his man of nature idea. Apart from all the political theorists' influence, Rousseau adopts a position closer to Condillac, according to which the spirit's operations show up in a progressive order. Therefore, we aim to identify and acknowledge some of the links between Rousseau's and Condillac's thoughts, to point the existing limits and differences between this two authors, in order to better understand this philosophical gesture made by Jean-Jacques.