Jean-Jacques Rousseau

de Denis Faïck

Contradictions in Rousseau's work seem insurmountable, a priori. Affirming a bipolarity, a binary division of his thought, but claiming that it is temporary. One pole, in fact, has a positive value while the other is only by default. In the absence of a genuine city where changing the ideal citizen, in the absence of a world where things only have value, Rousseau took refuge in solitude imagining the world to which he aspired. Thus, isolation, desire and imagination would have no relevance in the real world citizenship. One creed to Rousseau: the city and things.