Abstract

Rousseau's measure of successful politics is a society's success at governing itself in accordance with its general will. But the general will might fail--because the members of society are guided by their own private interests, or because the range of their preferences for societal action is too broad. Both possible sources of failure can be counteracted by the shaping of attitudes by culture. ;To see how culture affects individuals it is necessary to trace Rousseau's speculative history of human nature. In the state of nature men are dominated by amour de soi, a form of self-love that makes them utterly independent of each other. As they emerge from the state of nature into nascent society they develop amour propre, a form of self-love by which they derive self-esteem from the esteem of others. Rousseau attributes the political degradation of society as it is to the dominance of amour propre. In his utopian vision of society as it could be, however, both amour propre and amour de soi, are transformed--into patriotism and civic virtue. ;In Rousseau's ideal vision cultural institutions are charged with effecting the transformation of self-love into civic virtue. In this way culture overcomes the obstacles to the general will. But his ideal conception of culture should be seen as serving a critical function. Thus, his attack on theatre exemplifies his tactic of showing how existing cultural practices pose obstacles to political success