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The Natural Goodness of Man in Rousseau's Confessions--A Reply to Augustine's Confessions

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The Natural Goodness of Man in Rousseau's Confessions--A Reply to Augustine's Confessions The Natural Goodness of Man in Rousseau's Confessions--A Reply to Augustine's Confessions Author: Wing Kwan Anselm Lam Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/734 This work is posted on eScholarship@BC, Boston College University Libraries. Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2009 Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. Boston College The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Department of Political Science THE NATURAL GOODNESS OF MAN IN ROUSSEAU’S CONFESSIONS: A REPLY TO AUGUSTINE’S CONFESSIONS A dissertation by WING KWAN ANSELM LAM Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2009 © copyright by WING KWAN ANSELM LAM 2009 Dissertation Abstract Title: The Natural Goodness of Man in Rousseau’s Confessions: A Reply to Augustine’s Confessions Author: Wing Kwan Anselm Lam Advisor: Professor Christopher Kelly Boston College Political Science Department Rousseau’s Confessions is controversial and influential since its first publication. Besides the dispute over the relationship of Rousseau’s autobiographical and philosophical works, by adopting the same title as the famous autobiography in the Christian tradition, Augustine’s Confessions, the effect is striking. However, few scholars were interested in their relationship and they write only a few lines about them or do not focus upon the key idea of Rousseau’s thought, the natural goodness of man, which contradicts the Christian doctrine of Original Sin. Rousseau promises to delineate his self-portrait as a man according to nature in his autobiography in contrast to the picture of a born sinner saved by God’s mercy in Augustine’s Confessions. By comparing with Augustine’s Confessions, it is clear that Rousseau’s understanding of human nature and the source of evil reject the traditional Christian view. It is Rousseau’s ingenuity to compose his Confessions structurally and thematically analogous to Augustine’s Confessions to refute Augustine’s theology and convey his answer to the problem of secular society. I demonstrate their relationship by comparing them according to their structural and thematic similarities. This study will contribute to the study of the relationship between modernity and Christianity and that between secularization and religion. i CONTENTS ABBREVIATION v INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER ONE TWO CONFESSIONS 4 1. Is Rousseau a Modern Christian Philosopher? 5 2. The Relationship Between Two Confessions 8 3. Rousseau’s Confessions i. Its Genesis 10 ii. The Self Portrait: A Man According to Nature 13 iii. Against the Doctrine of Original Sin 16 iv. The Genre of Confessional Literature 20 4. Rousseau’s Knowledge of Augustine 26 5. The Comparison Between Two Confessions 35 6. The Framework of the Study 37 CHAPTER TWO THE PRELIMINARY STATE OF MAN AT BIRTH 1. Goodness for Augustine and Rousseau 41 i. Augustinian Ethics: A Rightly Ordered Love of God 41 ii. The Characteristics of Augustinian Ethics 43 iii. Natural Goodness of Man in the Second Discourse 47 iv. The Characteristics of Rousseauean Good Man and 55 Good Life 2. Augustine’s Sinful Infancy and Boyhood i. A Jealous and Greedy Baby 58 ii ii. The Emergence of Pride and Shame 64 3. Rousseau’s Innocent Childhood i. No Intention to Harm 69 ii. The Emergence of Pride and Shame 73 4. Inherited Guilt and Personal Fall 77 CHAPTER THREE THE MOTIVATION FOR DOING WRONG 82 1. The Motivations of the Theft of the Forbidden Fruits and 82 that of Pears 2. Rousseau’s Account of the Motivation of the Theft i. The Story of the Fall and the End of Childlike Serenity 98 ii. The Theft for Natural Needs 101 iii. The Image of Werewolf 109 CHAPTER FOUR APPROACHES TO THE TRUTH 116 1. Platonism: A Glimpse of the Truth with the Eyes of the Mind 118 i. Augustine’s Journey of Philosophical Inquiry 118 ii. The Ascent of Mind 124 iii. The Limitations of Reason and the Need of Faith 127 2. Encounter with Zulietta: A Glimpse of the Natural Face of Man 134 i. The Inadequacy of Reason 137 ii. Denaturation by Reading of Books 141 iii. Denaturation by Amour-Propre 145 iv. History of the Soul Manifested by the Chain of Feelings 147 v. The Encounter with Zulietta 152 iii vi. The Natural Cause of the Vices 155 vii. The Portrait of Man According to Nature 159 viii. The Identification of Jean-Jacques with Zulietta 160 ix. Evil as Privation of Good 162 x. The Social Cause of Evil as Felt 165 xi. Wept as Jesus did for Human Suffering 167 CHAPTER FIVE CONVERSION AND THE SOURCE OF EVIL 170 1. Before Conversion i. The Testimonies of the Converts 174 ii. Trees and Weeping 181 2. The Conversion Event i. Reading of St Paul and Reading of Philosophical 187 Question ii. The Religious Self and The Natural Self 191 3. The Source of Evil i. Divided Will: The Legacy of Original Sin 194 ii. The Need of Grace and Its Means 203 iii. Divided Soul: The Social Cause of Evil 205 iv. Weakness and Wickedness 207 CHAPTER SIX THE GOOD MAN AND THE GOOD LIFE AFTER 217 CONVERSION 1. The Redeemed Sinner on the Pilgrimage to Heaven i. A New Life in God After Conversion 218 iv ii. The Divine and Natural Order of Morality 222 iii. Virtues, Vices, and Two Kinds of Love 226 iv. The Struggle Against Temptation After Conversion 228 v. Politics: Tension Between Eternal Law and Temporal 230 Law 2. The Naturally Good Man in Civil Society 234 i. The Genesis of Human Morality 235 ii. Virtue: The Strength to Fulfill Duty 238 iii. The Foundation of the Moral Obligation 245 a. Eternal Reward 246 b. This-worldly Recompense 249 iv. Divided Soul and the Source of Strength 254 a. God’s Grace or Natural Inclinations 258 b. Morality of Abstinence 261 CONCLUSION 267 BIBLIOGRAPHY 275 v ABBREVIATION Aug. Works The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century (2nd Release) Series edited by John E. Rotelle, O.S.A and Boniface Ramsey, O.P. © Augustinian Heritage Institute 1991- , Published in print by New City Press InteLex Corporation, 2001. Aug. Writings Writings of Saint Augustine, The Fathers of the Church, a new translation, Cima Publishing Co., New York, 1947. NPNF Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, translated by Philip Schaff, The Christian Literature Publishing Co., New York, 1890. Aug. Confs. Saint Augustine Confessions, translated with an introduction and notes by Henry Chadwick, Oxford University Press, 1991. Free Will Augustine, On Free Choice of the Will, translated, with Introduction and notes, by Thomas Williams, Hackett Publishing Company, Indianapolis, 1993. COD Augustine, The City of God against the Pagans, edited and trans by R. W. Dyson, Cambridge University Press, 1998. Beaumont Letter to Beaumont, in The Collected Writings of Rousseau, vol. 9, translated by Christopher Kelly and Judith Bush, edited by Christopher Kelly and Eve Grace, Dartmouth College, University Press of New England, Hanover, 2001. Confessions The Confessions, in The Collected Writings of Rousseau, vol. 5, translated by Christopher Kelly, edited by Christopher Kelly, Roger D. Masters, and Peter G. Stillman, Dartmouth College, University Press of New England, Hanover, 1995. FD First Discourse, in The First and Second Discourses Together with the Replies to Critics and Essays on the Origin of Languages, translated by Victor Gourevitch, New York, Harper & Row, 1986. SD Second Discourse, in The First and Second Discourses Together with the Replies to Critics and Essays on the Origin of Languages, translated by Victor Gourevitch, New York, Harper & Row, 1986. vi Dialogues Rousseau Judge of Jean-Jacques: Dialogues, in The Collected Writings of Rousseau, vol. 1, translated by Judith R. Bush, Christopher Kelly and Roger D. Masters, edited by Roger D. Masters and Christopher Kelly, Dartmouth College, University Press of New England, Hanover, 1990. Julie Julie or the New Heloise, in The Collected Writings of Rousseau, vol. 6, translated and annotated by Philip Stewart and Jean Vaché, edited by Roger D. Masters and Christopher Kelly, Dartmouth College, University Press of New England, Hanover, 1997. Moral Letters Moral Letters, in The Collected Writings of Rousseau, vol. 12, translated and edited by Christopher Kelly, Series edited by Roger D. Masters and Christopher Kelly, Dartmouth College, University Press of New England, Hanover, 2006. Voltaire Letter to Voltaire, in The Collected Writings of Rousseau, vol. 3, translated by Judith R. Bush, Christopher Kelly, Roger D. Masters and Terence Marshall, edited by Roger D. Masters and Christopher Kelly, Dartmouth College, University Press of New England, Hanover, 1992. SC On the Social Contract, in The Collected Writings of Rousseau, vol. 4, translated by Judith R. Bush, Christopher Kelly and Roger D. Masters, edited by Roger D. Masters and Christopher Kelly, Dartmouth College, University Press of New England, Hanover, 1994. Reveries The Reveries of the Solitary Walker, in The Collected Writings of Rousseau, vol. 8, translated by Charles E. Butterworth, Alexandra Cook, and Terence E. Marshall, edited by Christopher Kelly, Dartmouth College, University Press of New England, Hanover, 2000. Franquières Letter to Franquières, in The Collected Writings of Rousseau, vol. 8, translated by Charles E. Butterworth, Alexandra Cook, and Terence E. Marshall, edited by Christopher Kelly, Dartmouth College, University Press of New England, Hanover, 2000. Mountain Letters Written from the Mountain, in The Collected Writings of Rousseau, vol. 9, translated by Christopher Kelly and Judith Bush, edited by Christopher Kelly and Eve Grace, Dartmouth College, University Press of New England, Hanover, 2001. Mals. Letters to Malesherbes, in The Collected Writings of Rousseau, vol. 5, translated by Christopher Kelly, edited by Christopher Kelly, Roger D. Masters, and Peter G. Stillman, Dartmouth College, University Press of New England, Hanover, 1995. vii Emile Emile: or On Education, translated with Introduction and Notes by Allan Bloom, Basic Books, Inc., New York, 1979.
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