Belkin Wireless Router Ce0560 Manual Dexterity. Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s First and Second Discourses, written respectively in 1750 and 1755, lay out a philosophical foundation of Rousseau’s view of human nature, illustrating the diverse nature of Enlightenment thinking, whose traditional historiography has accepted the rise in the arts and sciences uncritically. The First Discourse answers the question of the effect of the study of arts and sciences on the morals of society. Here, Rousseau discusses the historical evidence of many of the “great societies” of the world, explaining each society was ultimately unraveled by its relative period of “enlightenment” in their stages of historical development. Conversely, Rousseau reinterprets generally accepted views of the foundations of political society and the “state of nature” in The Second Discourse. Contrasting the absolute freedom enjoyed by “savage” man prior to any social contract, Rousseau delineates the degeneration of civil and political rights in the political evolution of a society, whereby the roots of political inequality, the link with tyranny, and the right to revolt are connected.

In The First Discourse, Rousseau draws on considerable classical historical knowledge in a blistering critique on the role of the arts and sciences in society. Holding up Sparta and Republican Rome as the paragons of social development, Rousseau argues the study of the arts and sciences brings absolutely no good to the common citizen, and in fact, serves to sap citizens of their “political virtue” as well as their martial vigor. While explaining the truly gifted should continue to study these subjects, and play integral parts in political leadership, the developments of the arts and sciences represent a stage of development that corresponds to moral corruption, luxury, licentious behavior, and slavery. This position is well-summarized by his quote that “the Romans had been content to practice virtue; all was lost when they began to study it.” (Rousseau, 45) Rousseau advocates the embrace of a simple political virtue/patriotism, which would fortify a nation’s social bonds, whereas the arts and sciences only serve to erode them.