/lit/ - Literature

Yes, literally nobody has read him.

>>6975956
>my thread is sliding off the board
>no one has anything to say about this guy
>my point is proved

How did this guy foment a fucking revolution!? No one gives a shit about him.

>>6975938

He was an egocentric who claimed to love humanity but who could only love it in an abstract way, for he could not be a good person even to those who lived near him and who loved him. Is no wonder that Tolstoy liked him so much: both were the same in this aspect - great egos whose efforts to help other only mattered when public attention was upon them, so they could gain more reputation.

His Confessions are a work of someone who claims to be repenting of a lot of things he did but who, when you really pay attention, still sweats pride for all those "monstrous things" in the past.

His theory (one of his most famous ideas) of the noble savage is completely wrong. Hobbes "wolves preying upon wolves" view of human nature is actually much more accurate (scientific studies of the brain, of human biology, of societies, of brain chemistry, etc, have show us some bitter truths).

He was a smart man, no doubt; he had his influence on his time and echoed for some time in world culture. Today, however, he is mostly irrelevant, and as a writer he is not that gifted, so there's actually not much need of reading him.

>>6976136
>Hobbes "wolves preying upon wolves" view of human nature is actually much more accurate (scientific studies of the brain, of human biology, of societies, of brain chemistry, etc, have show us some bitter truths).

HAHAHAHAHA
GTFO Voltaire.

>>6975938
Assign in what? He is a staple in any History of Political Though Class. If you are talking about someone majoring in Literature, I imagine he should be read if you are majoring in French Studies. As far as philosophy goes, he way too much a political thinker or a writer to be in a circulum. Also he was a sexist and the first modern feminist hated his guts, so there's that also.

>>6975938

That Knave is an inspiration for fascism.

>>6976151

You must be religious

>inspiring force behind Romanticism and the French revolution
Maybe that's why OP, we're still trying to get free of these bad illnesses.

Read Nietzsche's work on Rousseau and the Revolution to get an understanding about this.

>>6975938
he was an histrionic fuccboi

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/apr/29/philosophy

>>6975938
>French/American revolutions,

Yeah, no. Don't overhype Rousseau. Most of the intellectual ideas behind these revolutions came from more influential political philosophers like Montesqieu, Locke, Beccaria.

> inb4 what about his views of the Social Contract?

Locke's view were on the social contract were adapted. Rousseau's take on this was a bit more authoritarian, as individual rights are subjugated to the opinion of the masses (majoritarian view of democracy/social contract).

was planning on reading bloom's emile. don't think that has much to do with his politics (though education is a political act)

>>6975938
Da fuck? Everyone studying the history of ideas reads Rousseau you idiot.

Rousseau was a massive faggot and wrong about everything.

>>6976151
If you believe in the Noble Savage, then you're either completely ignorant or a total retard.

>>6976261
who the fuck studies "history of ideas"?

>>6976281
Countless scholars in history and philosophy m8

>>6976281

History of ideas is pretty common at my university

>>6976151
Hobbes didn't really get empathy. Read something on mirror neurons or the addenda to the selfish gene theory (e.g. group selection, the one whose name I remember still).

It's not that nobody reads him, but he's introduced at such an early stage. Everyone reads him during undergrad and never has the urge to go back and really soak up his ideas.

>>6976294
Meant to reply to:
>>6976136

>>6976151
"I have received your new book against the human race, and thank you for it. Never was such a cleverness used in the design of making us all stupid. One longs, in reading your book, to walk on all fours. But as I have lost that habit for more than sixty years, I feel unhappily the impossibility of resuming it. Nor can I embark in search of the savages of Canada, because the maladies to which I am condemned render a European surgeon necessary to me; because war is going on in those regions; and because the example of our actions has made the savages nearly as bad as ourselves."
>BTFO

>>6976317
>and because the example of our actions has made the savages nearly as bad as ourselves
trolling hard

>>6975938
real recognize real
too many fake niggas in academia

>>6976136
You're right about his personality but it isn't relevant here.

You're completely wrong about his theory of the noble savage. Hobbes didn't say "wolves preying upon wolves" but "man is a wolf to man, and a god" (wolf outside the city, god inside the city). And indeed we evolved to form affective bond and need the support of a community (look at the effects of social isolation, for instance). So Rousseau *and* Hobbes have a point in that sense.

Since he's actually one of the fathers of democratic liberalism, yes, he's kinda important. And yes, he's not a great of a writer (his writing does the job, if nothing else), but that is barely relevant as he is far from being unreadable and obscure.

>>6975938
People read him. He's not read much on /lit because he's not part of the meme-core. /lit simply doesn't care that much about the 18th century, about French philosophers who are not "give her the dick" Descartes or "let's shitpost about sjw" postmodernists, or about political philosophy that is not grounded in Marxist, fascist or Christian theories.

>>6975938
I have been writing an updated version / addendum to "Emile" for four years.

>>6976233
Interesting read:
>Hume be reputed as a chill ass nigga
>Rousseau be a cunt, but Hume doesn't care
>Hume offers protection to Rousseau
>they write each other letters worthy of the most homo-closeted bromance ever
>Rousseau arrives in England, becames local attraction
>Hume starts becoming jealous
>suddenly wild Rousseau paranoia strikes again
>Rousseau accuses Hume of having plotted against him
>unexpected.jpeg
>Hume is very, very angry
>starts writing to friends in France to expose Rousseau as a buffoon
>feud intensifies
>Hume fears Rousseau's eloquence, thinking he could ternish his reputation for the posterity
>newspapers accross both sides of the Channel start picking sides
>gas the philosophers, Enlightenment letters war now
>Rousseau start saying nonsense about Hume wanting to catch him like a fucking pokemon or what
>various guys, from Smith to D'Alembert, be like "chill out guys not such a big deal yo"
>Voltaire weighs in to add some heat on Rousseau's ass, several follow him
>total nigga gangrap shitfest
>after investigations, turns out Hume didn't really want to take care of Rousseau by himself in the first place, and even gave ammo to a mean joke against him
>Rousseau being a crazy-ass nigga, there is no way that was gonna end well
>"Chillest nigga" Huma had shifted his gears and suddenly become "Lord Assblasted", spreading lies about Rousseau
>meanwhile Rousseau keeps being a satyr madman fooling around in the forest with some bitch

Pretty cool. Made me feel less ashamed about the awkward controversies I had on 4chan or irl, because boy it's nothing compared to THAT level of awkward.

>>6976590
>awkward controversies I had on 4chan or irl
post stories

>>6975938
I read some rather lengthy excerpts from Emile in a class on the philosophy of education; can't speak for everybody, but there are those who still think him relevant.

>>6976241
>French Revolution
>Locke

did you pass high school world history or...?

>>6976590
>Hume starts becoming jealous

Are you sure, it's been a while since I read Russell's account which I remember differently. He says something like Hume always wanted to maintain the friendship and found him eternally loveable even when he was paranoid but that Rousseau moved back to squalor on his own accord.

>>6976701
Did you read the article?

>>6975938
I've read only emile, but he writes like the pretentious/nerdy guy "you don't want to sit next on bus" during high school

>tfw you study in Switzerland
>tfw it's Geneva
>tfw birthplace of Rousseau
>tfw every philosophy course has to beat your head up with that
>tfw it starts in high school
>tfw you've been assigned his complete works. Five times.
>tfw you understand him better than any other philosopher
>tfw when you discover that Rousseau is only mkay in other places
>tfw you'll never be taken seriously
>tfw all you can do is jerk off on his complete works that sit opposite to your bed, after worshipping him like every night

>>6977002
Geneva is really gray, and the red light district is not red and creepy.

:/

>>6977048

Why the fuck are those two pictures just doubled

I would also love it if someone could explain every last part of that diagram in laymans terms, just for fun

>>6977058

>I would also love it if someone could explain every last part of that diagram in laymans terms, just for fun

+1

>>6977058
>tfw took undergrad physics and have not a clue
well that was a waste of 24k

>>6977002
You could tell us something you learned about him instead of feeling sorry to yourself and contributing nothing. Just a thought.

I don't think Rousseau is completely wrong though. Evolution has led us to a place in human history in which we are able of brutal, violent (and socially detrimental) acts that wren't capable when, say, humanity was just becoming sedentary, with the birth of agriculture.

It's not like we are better than our ancestors in absolute terms. Rousseau's idea of the noble savage may be wrong to a large degree, but it's also wrong to say that we have completely evolved out of barbarism, stupidity, violence and/or perversion.

>>6977130
Also the Hobbes' concept of the natural state of things may be not as different as the actual current state of things. Yes, we have suficient prosperity, we are privileged in many ways (we have internet, water, food, whatever), but at what cost? Are we more free or smarter than before? In what sense?