ROUSSEAU - METHOD

<BODY> <CENTER><FONT SIZE=5><B><FONT SIZE=6>ROUSSEAU</FONT><BR> HISTORIAN OF THE HEART</B></FONT></CENTER><P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>Method</B></FONT><P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>PHILOSOPHICAL VISION</B></FONT><BR> Rousseau rejected traditional philosophical methods. Truth could not be reached through <A HREF="../t03/g012.html" TARGET="_top">empirical</A> or <A HREF="../t03/g032.html" TARGET="_top">metaphysical</A> analysis of the historical situation. Man's "reason" was corrupted by society. Instead, Rousseau took as his major source, his own "inspired" intuition. He withdrew into himself to seek "the eternal principles written in the depth of his heart". The result - a new vision of human nature. Man is by nature good and only corrupted by society. To explain man's current unhappy state, Rousseau imaginatively reconstructs his fall from a "state of nature". He proposes a better way - an education and a political system which promotes human virtue and happiness, while reconciling individuality and freedom with the needs of society.<P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>PROTO-ANTHROPOLOGIST?</B></FONT><BR> Rousseau's reference to man in a "state of nature" was not original. <A HREF="../t06/t06f12.html" TARGET="_top">Hobbes</A> and <A HREF="../13/13f01.html" TARGET="_top">Locke</A> in England, and the philosophes in France, used this phrase to describe man pre-civilisation and pre-institution. But where others saw this "natural man" as a historical reality, for Rousseau, he was simply a theoretical construct. Rousseau sought merely to examine what human life might be like if certain elements of culture were removed, not to trace historical origins. His interest lay in what life could have been like, not how it once was. <A HREF="../24/24f01.html" TARGET="_top">Lévi-Strauss</A> claims that Rousseau's approach was a precursor to 20th century theoretical models of research, even describing him as a proto-anthropologist. <BR clear=left><BR> <HR width=100%> <A HREF="http://www.creatorix.com.au"><IMG SRC="../creatorix.gif" WIDTH="85" HEIGHT="40" BORDER="0" ALT="Creatorix" align=right></A> </BODY>