The Natural Goodness of Man

Melzer, Arthur M.

doi:10.7208/chicago/9780226226002.001.0001

Cited by 188 publications

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“…Melzer, in agreement with Gildin, adds several other new foundations: ''Virtue,'' including its root in civil religion, is also among the new foundations of obedience to the rational law. 16 In a more recent article, Scott comes to agree with Melzer and to extend and deepen the point. Rousseau, and/or his tutored founder, must treat or fashion all manner of non-rational, non-natural, impulses, to bring about obedience to the dictates of the rational law.…”

Section: An Assent Through Opinion To Rousseaumentioning

confidence: 79%

Rousseau's fulfillment of the natural public law tradition and his contribution to its demise

Sorenson¹

2005

The European Legacy

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The recent research of Helena Rosenblatt, Hilail Gildin, Arthur Meltzer, and John Scott calls for a reconsideration of Rousseau's stance towards and effect on the natural public law tradition. This reconsideration is especially called for given the persuasive evidence and arguments that these scholars marshal to demonstrate the positive contribution of Rousseau to that tradition and to suggest that his pre-Kantian rational law teaching in the Social Contract is rooted in his post-Hobbesian stance towards natural law, especially in the Second Discourse. The work of these scholars builds upon others, especially on completes the full range of alternative answers to our question. Their contributions are an invaluable scaffolding for fully grasping the issue and for proposing theses that could resolve it. Given the great debt owed to these scholars, the present inquiry begins with an overview and general assessment of their opinions on the issue, which is then followed by a close analysis of the relevant texts of Rousseau, especially the ''Preface'' to the Second Discourse.

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Section: An Assent Through Opinion To Rousseaumentioning

confidence: 79%

Rousseau's fulfillment of the natural public law tradition and his contribution to its demise

Sorenson¹

2005

The European Legacy

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“…As Melzer observes, 'in Rousseau's time, France, above all, acted as a cultural magnet drawing the rest of Europe to imitate its splendid vices'. 90 With all eyes fixated on the city. Rousseau plainly fears that provincial inhabitants will be much too tempted by wealth and the promise of celebrity to want to be farmers, smiths, abbeys, etc.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As Melzer contends, Rousseau's views are so radically pessimistic that they are wholly 'opposed to the prevailing views of his time and ours'. 95 As Dent, Cooper, and Neuhouser all demonstrate, Rousseau knows that social living can be a benefit and that amour-propre is only a problem when it is 'inflamed'. The key to resolving the 'inflammation' problem is identifying the conditions in which this happens.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rousseau and the minimal self: A solution to the problem of amour-propre

McLendon

2013

European Journal of Political Theory

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Over the past few decades, scholars have reassessed the role of amour-propre in Rousseau's thought. While it was once believed that he had an entirely negative valuation of the emotion, it is now widely held that he finds it useful and employs it to strengthen moral attachments, conjugal love, civic virtue and moral heroism. At the same time, scholars are divided as to whether this positive amour-propre is an antidote to the negative or dangerous form. Some scholars are confident that 'inflamed' amourpropre can be overcome while others adopt a more fatalistic view. While mindful of Rousseau's pessimism in his most famous works, this essay seeks to identify a middle position. By contending Rousseau's discussion of amour-propre is largely concerned with the problems surrounding identity construction in commercial, urban societies, it will be argued that amour-propre can be lessened to manageable levels in more rural societies, that is, agrarian provincial life.

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“…Melzer notes that Rousseau describes a similar love of 'merited' glory that is superior to unmitigated amour-propre but also limited insofar as it yet 'makes one draw the sentiments of one's existence from the opinions of others rather than from oneself'. 42 The love of true or merited glory is thus a refinement of self-love; but if the goal is genuine self-sufficiency, a form of life must still be discovered that 'can only be realized by passing through and then transcending amourpropre', as did the Jean-Jacques portrayed in Rousseau's autobiographical writings. 43 This same ideal is also central to Smith's system.…”

Section: The Love Of Glory and The Love Of Virtuementioning

confidence: 97%

Commerce and Corruption

Hanley

2008

European Journal of Political Theory

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Modern commercial society has been criticized for attenuating virtue and inhibiting the ethical self-realization of its participants. But Adam Smith, a founding father of liberal commercial modernity, anticipated precisely this critique and took specific measures to circumvent it. This article presents these measures via an analysis of his response to the critique of liberal commercial modernity set forth by Rousseau. It principally argues that Smith's distinctions of the love of praise from the love of praiseworthiness, and the love of glory from the love of virtue, were elements of a normative moral education that sought to elevate civilized man's corrupted self-love, and thereby recover within modern commercial society a respect for ethical nobility.

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The Natural Goodness of Man

Cited by 188 publications

References 0 publications

Rousseau's fulfillment of the natural public law tradition and his contribution to its demise

Rousseau's fulfillment of the natural public law tradition and his contribution to its demise

Rousseau and the minimal self: A solution to the problem of amour-propre

Commerce and Corruption

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