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Rousseau’s
Reveries: the Juvenile Independence
of the Solitary Walker
Dominic Stefanson
School of History and Politics
University of Adelaide
Refereed Paper presented to the
Australasian Political Studies Association Conference
University of Adelaide University
29 September – 1 October
2004.
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Dominic Stefanson: Rousseau’s Solitary Walker
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Abstract:
For Rousseau, societal life made
people neglect their innate qualities of
independence and transparency causing them to be fractured, deceitful,
slavish and
deeply unhappy. This paper focuses on Rousseau’s
individual solution to the
problem of society, concentrating specifically on the god-like ascension
to self-
sufficiency of the contemplative philosopher (Rousseau
himself) presented in the
autobiographical Reveries of the Solitary Walker. The paper
elucidates Rousseau’s
understanding of independence as it is expressed in the Reveries and
argues that the
rewards and benefits that a civilised man can hope to draw from
restoring his
independence diminish significantly between the Social Contract and
the Reveries of
the Solitary Walker. The Social Contract offers a wondrous
improvement in the
condition of men who partake in a shared independence. It enables them
to grow
and prosper as individuals. In contrast, the personal independence Rousseau claims
to enjoy in his late autobiographical works is unconditional negative
freedom. He
acclaims a life of solitude unburdened by the weight of reality where he
is free to
reject all constraints and obligations. What Rousseau
proposes to achieve with his
new found personal independence is largely doing nothing.
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Dominic Stefanson: Rousseau’s Solitary Walker
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For Rousseau, the story of the human
condition can be seen in terms of man’s
independence. In his natural, prehistoric condition man enjoyed
independence and
lived a good life, but every step in the history of human evolution led
man further
away from his natural independence and into ever increasing misery and
degradation. This was the thesis of Rousseau’s
first published works, the two
Discourses, and one that he would restate clearly at the end of
his life. “Nature made
man happy and good, but society depraves him and makes him miserable.”
1
Man’s
potential redemption rests on regaining his natural independence.
Rousseau’s prescriptive thought is
based on recreating the independence and
consequent wholeness of natural man and thus redressing the
inequalities, abuses
and dependence men suffer in civilised society. Rousseau’s
prescription for man’s
redemption can be divided into an individual solution and a collective
solution.
2
The collective solution, given voice in the Social Contract, takes
the form of a newly
conceived state where the conditions of natural independence are
artificially
recreated by providing every individual with self-sovereignty by giving
him an
equal voice in a political sovereignty that governs all. The model of
individual
redemption that this article will concentrate on is depicted in the Reveries
of The
Solitary Walker [posthumous 1778] and in the second part of The
Confessions
[posthumous 1778]. In these autobiographical texts, Rousseau
presents himself as a
man who, having been rejected by his fellow men and had his heart
“purified in the
crucible of adversity,”
3
has overcome the abuses of society and regained his natural
1
Rousseau, J-J., Dialogues, Œuvres Complètes, eds.,
Gagnebin, B. & Raymond, M., Bibliothèque de la Pléiade,
Gallimard, Paris, Vol.1-5, 1959, 1961, 1964, 1969,
1995, v.I, p.934. This translation and all others from the Œuvres
Complètes are the
author’s. Rousseau does not use man in the
generic sense of humanity, he specifically means
male. The exclusion of women from the Social
Contract is well-known. The exclusion of women from the model
presented in the Reveries of the Solitary Walker is
equally, for Rousseau, essential. For an
explanation of why this is
the case see Coquillat, M., A Male Poetics, Gallimard,
Paris, 1982, selected passages trans. Burch, N., Women a
Cultural Review, 11(3), 2000,
pp..223-237. I have chosen to echo Rousseau’s
use of man because examining the
changes that would be necessary to the framework of
assumptions within which Rousseau originally
conceived
the solitary walker in order to accommodate females is
beyond the scope of this paper.
2
Rousseau’s
individual solution provides redemption for an individual living in a corrupt
society. The
individual solution can in fact be divided into two
different solutions. Firstly, there is Emile, who is an ordinary
man who is trained to live independently. Secondly, Rousseau, in his late autobiographical writings
offers
himself as a model for an individual who soars above
society as a result of his own genius. Starobinski, J., Jean-
Jacques Rousseau. La transparence et l’obstacle: suivi de
Sept essais sur Rousseau, Gallimard, Paris, 1971, pp.24-25;
Cooper, L., Rousseau,
Nature, and the Problem of the Good Life, The Pennsylvania State University
Press, University
Park, Pennsylvania, 1999, pp.1-2, 17-19. Shklar
collapses the two individual solutions into one. Shklar, J., Men
and Citizens: A Study of Rousseau’s
Social Theory, Cambridge University Press, 1969, pp.5-11.
3
Reveries of the Solitary Walker, trans.
France, P., Penguin Books, 1979, Walk 1, p.33. Henceforth cited in the text as
R.S.W., with the number of the walk
(chapter) and the page number.
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independence and consequent psychic harmony and happiness.
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The journey to self-
sufficiency and independence is undertaken by Rousseau
without outside assistance
and it is only possible because of his immense perceptive skills and
cognitive ability.