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Were Rousseau’s Children Victims of His Moral Theory?
- Zuider 8y agoIt's the other way around. Rousseau's children were victims of his utter selfishness. His abandonment of his children to almost certain death was roundly condemned by Voltaire who despised him. This caused Rousseau social embarrassment not remorse, which threatened to compromise his livelihood as a parasite on the idle aristocracy. Rousseau attempted to evade Voltaire's condemnation by rationalizing that the fault should not be laid at his door, but that of society: in a perfect society, those infants would have received proper nurture, and Rousseau's actions would not have mattered.
- woodandsteel 8y agoThis is a good article. My understanding of Rousseau is that he had, as he himself said, a very odd personality, and rather than admitting that he would always be a misfit in society, he invented a morality and psychology that would support a political philosophy that would in turn produce the sort of society that he thought would make someone like him happy. By the way, if you want to read about something bizarre from Rousseau's life, check out the feud he got himself into with Hume.