Stanley Bates - 2006 - Review of Metaphysics 60 (1):176-178. While Montesquieu's treatment of the theatre has been largely neglected by the scholarship, it appears not to have been neglected by Rousseau. Letter to D'Alembert on the Theatre (1758) (Lettre a M. d'Alembert sur les Spectacles) is an essay written by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in opposition to an article published in the Encyclopdie by Jean d'Alembert, that proposed the establishment of a theatre in Geneva. Rousseau received thousands . Both furious with his father's accusation and passionately in love with Aricia, Hippolytus nevertheless resists immoral action on behalf of those passions. Montesquieu devotes the entirety of Part 4 of Spirit to commerce and population. Sometimes it can end up there. For example, Phaedra scorns herself for her incestuous love, but is unable to resist it. 5 Howick Place | London | SW1P 1WG. By placing this particular discussion of Phaedra and what occurs in our theaters in the second of two successive chapters devoted to the topic of civil laws that are contrary to natural law, Montesquieu underscores the moral importance of the theatre for a society. See Bat Louis de Muralt, Lettres sur les Anglois et les Franais et sur les voiages, edited by Charles Gould (Geneva, 1974), 244: Ici les Raports vont l'Homme, mais le but du Dramatique, tant uniquement de nous donner du plaisir, ces Raports ne sauroient avoir toute leur justesse, & dans le general, le Pote ne peut que leur faire violence pour les accommoder au got du Public. At each side you can see, in little compartments called boxes, men and women acting out scenes together [des hommes et des femmes qui jouent ensemble des scnes muettes ]. 19 Montesquieu, Persian Letters, letter 28, 79. [2], The Letter is considered to be highly personally relevant to Rousseau, whose patriotism and affinity for Geneva shows through as he writes to defend his country from moral decay. It is about people finding happiness in domestic as distinct from public life, in the family as opposed to the state. Alternate titles: Lettre dAlembert sur les spectacles, Letter to Monsieur dAlembert on the Theatre, Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Years of seclusion and exile of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Maloy follows Eric Nelson in reading Montesquieu as favourable to the ancient republics generally and to their land reforms particularly. Rousseau describes them as scandalous, hedonistic, and compares them to jesters, who were more blatantly indecent and obscene. Rousseau's Letter to d'Alembert on the Theatre offers an important discussion of the relation of the arts to the health of a political community. Renew your subscription to regain access to all of our exclusive, ad-free study tools. GREAT What d'Alembert intended as an encomium, Jean-Jacques Rousseau regarded as an outrage.6 In 1758 Rousseau penned an open letter to d'Alembert expressing his indignation at the essay's claims regarding his beloved birthplace. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Charting Rousseau's influence is hard, simply because it was so vast. Scholars have pointed to Montesquieu's influence on Rousseau's work generally. Voltaire's propensity to organise theatrical performances at his residence in Les Dlices, just outside the city but within Geneva's territory, had occasioned concern among the pastors and the Consistory in 1755; see Graham Gargett, Jacob Vernet, Geneva, and the Philosophes (Oxford, 1994), 11520. Dartmouth College Press. One of Rousseau's pivotal points in the Letter is that customs, opinions and priorities which are common and well-accepted among all citizens should be those that make accepting laws in favour of respect, equality and harmony a pleasurable and natural experience. He concludes that as a result of his new reflections, he embraces a conclusion directly opposed to the one I drew from the first, namely, that when the people is corrupted, the theater is good for it, and bad for it when it is itself good.Footnote81 Rousseau reaches this conclusion immediately after he transmits, without naming his source, Montesquieu's description of French society: Rousseau allows the point that in certain places [the theatre] will be useful for attracting foreigners [utiles pour attirer les trangers],Footnote82 just as Montesquieu argues that the politeness of a society attracts foreigners to it [une politesse qui attire chez elle les trangers].Footnote83 Moreover, whereas Montesquieu declares that the society of women spoils mores and forms taste [la socit des femmes gte les murs, et forme le got],Footnote84 Rousseau admits that the theatre, where women are made the preceptors of the public,Footnote85 is useful for maintaining and perfecting taste [pour maintenir et perfectionner le got] when decency is lost.Footnote86 Rousseau yet again deploys Montesquieu's ideas when he says that a theatre can be useful for increasing the circulation of money [pour augmenter la circulation des espces], just as Montesquieu says that the prominent place of women and their tastes in society constantly increases the branches of commerce [on augmente sans cesse les branches de son commerce].Footnote87 Rousseau borrows and transmits all of these points of Montesquieu. Although Rousseau in his Letter refers neither to Montesquieu nor to his works by name, he was certainly well versed in his predecessor's teachings. [3], Rousseau generally opposed the Enlightenment thrust that was occurring during his lifetime. Cody Valdes provided perspicacious editorial assistance. 52 Rousseau may be elaborating on Muralt's only description of tragedy in his Lettres: Elle convertit le Bon en Beau, sa maniere, en le faisant servir des Representations, des Peintures dont il n'est question que de savoir si elles sont bien faites; see Muralt, Lettres, 245. Renews April 25, 2023 In resisting such influence, Rousseau counters many of Montesquieu's specific arguments and judgements. 63 See Spirit, 28.22, 56162, where Montesquieu declares that men's connection to women is related, in part, to the fact that women are quite enlightened judges of a part of the things that constitute personal merit. His father, Isaac Rousseau, was a watchmaker. In the Social Contract he credits Montesquieu by name in his discussions of the power of the legislator, the effect of climate, and his characterisation of democracy; see Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract, in Collected Writings, IV, 2.7, 3.8, 4.3. His next works were less popular; The Social Contract and milewere condemned and publicly burnt in Paris and Geneva in 1762. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. Purchasing Jean Jacques Rousseau (n. 28 iunie 1712, Geneva, Republica Geneva (d) - d. 2 iulie 1778, Ermenonville, Picardia, Frana) a fost un filozof elveian, scriitor i compozitor, unul dintre cei mai ilutri gnditori ai Iluminismului.A influenat hotrtor, alturi de Voltaire i Diderot, spiritul revoluionar, principiile de drept i contiina social a epocii; ideile lui se . Writing to Gilbert Imlay from France in 1784, she contemplated buying their daughter a sash "to honour J. J. Rousseau and why not?for I have always been half in love with him." 1 Half in love, indeed - and half infuriated. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Rousseau writes that the theatre, at first glance, is a form of amusement. He felt, moreover, a strong emotional drive toward the worship of God, whose presence he felt most forcefully in nature, especially in mountains and forests untouched by human hands. An obstreperous critic of the theatre, Rousseau presents its stories not as clarifying and correcting humanity's moral compass, but rather as obscuring it. Rousseau worked as a clerk to a notary, and then was apprenticed to an engraver. From 1742 to 1749, Rousseau lived in Paris, barely earning a living by teaching and by copying music. That minimal creed put Rousseau at odds with the orthodox adherents of the churches and with the openly atheistic philosophes of Paris, so that despite the enthusiasm that some of his writings, and especially The New Eloise, excited in the reading public, he felt himself increasingly isolated, tormented, and pursued. Other scholars, who focus more intently on the Letter to d'Alembert, discern a crucial but limited influence of Montesquieu in two of Rousseau's teachings there: first, that some practices, including the theatre, can be appropriate and even wholesome for some societies, while noxious for others; and second, that mores are important in determining what types of laws and institutions a given people can tolerate and maintain. 26 Michael A. Mosher, The Judgmental Gaze of European Women: Gender, Sexuality, and the Critique of Republican Rule, Political Theory, 22 (1994), 2544 (42). For the Letter, the French, when cited, is given in parentheses, taken from Jean-Jacques Rousseau, crits sur la musique, la langue, et le thtre, in uvres compltes, edited by Bernard Gagnebin and others, 5 vols (Paris, 19591995), V. 3 D'Alembert, Geneva, in Letter, 246. But even that highly placed friend could not save him in 1762 when his treatise mile; ou, de leducation (Emile; or, On Education) was published and scandalized the pious Jansenists of the French Parlements even as The Social Contract scandalized the Calvinists of Geneva. For example, d'Alembert selects for particular praise the type of welcome Geneva provided for Voltaire, recounting that the citizens of Geneva reveal their admirable sophistication by having provided haven for the beleaguered author and noting approvingly that these republicans bestowed on Voltaire the same marks of esteem and respect he has received from many monarchs.Footnote3 D'Alembert further observes with approbation that they now sanction in their environs the publishing of Voltaire's history, which condemns John Calvin for countenancing Michael Servetus's trial as a heretic within its walls and his burning just outside of them upon his conviction. Prof. Mostefai will present a newly completed critical edition of Rousseau's Letter to d'Alembert for the new complete edition of Rousseau's work currently in preparation in France (Garnier). Through the theatre, the members of the audience are reminded of their natural sentiments, because their feelings and reactions to the dramatic action confirm whether or not the characters on stage act in accord with natural morality.Footnote43 Of course, there is a discrepancy between the account of the theatre in the Persian Letters and that in The Spirit of the Laws: in the former, Rica describes attendees largely ignoring the action on stage because they are so consumed in their personal dramas, whereas in the latter, the attendees learn a moral lesson as they observe the performance. [5] Ecclesiastical groups as well, namely the Jansenists, harshly condemned the theatre due to it being incompatible with Christian morality. In such a case, theatre is useful [] for covering the ugliness of vice with the polish of forms; in a word, for preventing bad morals from degenerating into brigandage.Footnote88 In speaking somewhat sarcastically about the positive role of theatre in such a corrupt society, Rousseau reveals that he would not recommend the proscription of the theatre in Paris and thus he is not such a one as to venture to constrain its women, make laws to correct their mores, and limit their luxury.Footnote89 Here, Rousseau acknowledges that theatre may, in fact, at least prevent what he sees as the debaucheries of Parisian society. In the early 1750s, Rousseau had a string of successes. In this regard see Downing A. Thomas, who suggests in passing, for example, that Rousseau seems to accept Montesquieu's teaching in Spirit that the mores of a given people fundamentally influence their taste, as Rousseau repeats that very formula in the Letter: Downing A. Thomas, Negotiating Taste in Montesquieu, Eighteenth Century Studies, 39 (2005), 7190 (76). He reacted to the suppression of The Social Contract in Geneva by indicting the regime of that city-state in a pamphlet entitled Lettres crites de la montagne (1764; Letters Written from the Mountain). Despite being treated unfairly, Hippolytus adheres to a steadfast set of moral principlesand the playwright makes sure that the audience is aware of this. ROUSSEAU Letter to M. d'Alembert on the Theatre}.-}.Rousseau, Citizen ofGeneva TO M. d'A1embert, of the French Academy, The Royal Academy of Sci ences ofParis, the Prussian Academy, the Royal Society ofLondon, the Royal Academy of Literature of Sweden, and the Institute of Bologna; On his article Geneva in the seventh volume of fEncyclopedie and 14 For example, in Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality among Men, Rousseau takes issue with an illustrious Philosopher, evidently Montesquieu, on the timidity of human beings in the state of nature; see Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Second Discourse, in Collected Writings, III, 21. Subscribe now. He describes, for example, the power of the theatre over the human soul, noting that [m]usic arouses all the passions, and can make the soul feel softness, pity, tenderness, and sweet pleasure. In the remaining 10 years of his life Rousseau produced primarily autobiographical writings, mostly intended to justify himself against the accusations of his adversaries. Online: Amazon (Recommended translation) Google Books (Free preview available). 6 Rousseau authored many of the entries related to music in the Encyclopdie as well as the article Economie, in Encyclopdie, ou dictionnaire raisonn des sciences, des arts et des mtiers, etc., edited by Denis Diderot and Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert; see University of Chicago, IL: ARTFL Encyclopdie Project (Spring 2013 Edition), edited by Robert Morrissey, http://artflsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.4:599.encyclopedie0513 [accessed 18 June 2014]. His Government of Poland and Constitutional Project for Corsica offer practical proposals for political reform in his time. Amusements are acceptable in moderation, when they are necessary, but they become a burden if they consume the minds of men enough to waste their time. 74 Various scholars have touched upon aspects of one or both of these points: see Mostefai, Le citoyen de Genve, 5, 8082; Forman-Barzilai, Emergence of Contextualism in Rousseau's Political Thought, 45556, 442; Jensen, Rousseau's French Revolution, in The Challenge of Rousseau, edited by Grace and Kelly, 231, 238, 245; Rahe, Soft Despotism, 97; Michael Sonenscher, Sans-Culottes: An Eighteenth-Century Emblem in the French Revolution (Princeton, NJ, 2008), 15455. Having already noted that the French nation is distinguished by its commerce with women, Montesquieu declares that in England the women should scarcely live among men and that, as a result, the English women would be modest, that is, timid [timides].Footnote60 Montesquieu proceeds to condemn the effect that this isolation of women has on English society because men there lack gallantry [galanterie] and throw themselves into a debauchery that would leave them their liberty as well as their leisure.Footnote61 The implication is that because English gentlemen do not seek to win the good regard and affection of their female counterparts in a manner that renders society polite, pleasing, and sometimes indiscreet, but instead spend the majority of their time with other men, and then also frequently visit with prostitutes.Footnote62 The interaction of the sexes in France fosters indiscretions, Montesquieu concedes, but he charges that in England their separation leads to debauchery. See also Coleman, Rousseau's Political Imagination, 6466; David Marshall, Rousseau and the State of Theater, in Rousseau: Critical Assessments, edited by Scott, IV, 13970 (141, 144, 148); Mostefai, Le citoyen de Genve, 82. [4], Towards the middle of this final section Rousseau reasons that the theatre does very little good for the poor, who cannot afford the taxes required to support a theatre. The most important was his Confessions, modeled on the work of the same title by St. Augustine and achieving something of the same classic status. 49 Bla Kapossy, Iselin contra Rousseau: Sociable Patriotism and the History of Mankind (Basel, 2006), 68. Jesters, who were more blatantly indecent and obscene 2006 - Review of Metaphysics (! Rousseau writes that the theatre due to it BEING incompatible with Christian.! Compares them to jesters, who were more blatantly indecent and obscene 2023 in resisting such influence, Rousseau a... 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