Abstract

Although he is not noted for practical solutions to real-world political problems, Rousseau maintained that he alone in his century published truly useful books. I argue that Rousseau's books are useful because they both diagnose the causes of human misery and attempt to cure the ills they identify. Rousseau devises a new rhetoric of self-revelation with which he represents himself to his readers as a friend; as their friend, he seeks to inspire them with love for virtue. He hopes his personal influence can do for corrupt peoples what republican institutions accomplish for citizens: supply the wisdom and will needed to attain virtue. ;The importance of friendship to Rousseau is not obvious; it seems to be incompatible with autonomy. Studying the Second Discourse reveals, however, that Rousseau's account of natural right is eudaimonistic: freedom is valuable for its contribution to happiness. The key obstacle to happiness in society is amour-propre, which is inflamed by inequality. Rousseau rejects Locke's liberalism because it fails to overcome amour-propre, which tends toward despotism. Solitude offers an apparent escape from amour-propre, but an examination of the Reveries reveals that the attempt to free oneself from the physical and psychological constraints of humanity necessarily fails. ;Emile teaches that human beings can escape wretchedness in society only by cleaving to virtue. Rousseau holds that only a man of extraordinary wisdom and strength of will--like the tutor--can attain virtue unaided. An ordinary man himself, Emile learns virtue by imitating Jean-Jacques; because he perceives his friend as an extension of himself, Emile can imitate his virtues without thereby becoming alienated from himself. ;Finally, I argue that Emile aims to inspire readers to imagine its author, Jean-Jacques, as a close personal friend. Rousseau writes in this way because he concludes that his readers require a wise friend's beneficent moral authority if they are to reform their lives just as Sophie and Emile need the tutor. I conclude, however, that Rousseau's attempt to make his readers into friends does not really succeed because it injects a dangerous aspiration to intimacy into politics