Abstract

Composed of two parts, this dissertation inquires into the understanding of natural freedom possessed by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. ;In Part I , it is argued that only an integrative exegesis of the Emile and the second Discourse can reveal the meaning Rousseau ascribes to natural freedom. A method of exegesis is developed, and it is explained how this method will be applied in Part II to the study of the idea of freedom in Rousseau's thought. ;In Part II , this method of exegesis is employed to examine Rousseau's notion of natural freedom. Chapter Five argues that natural freedom must be understood in the context of Rousseau's recommendation, defended in the Emile, "to choose" or prefer a more natural life over the life of the citizen. Natural freedom emerges as that freedom made possible by virtue of man's possession of a "Physical side," understood to be distinct from his "Moral side." Chapter Six examines the meaning of physical freedom for Rousseau, and unveils his teaching about its pleasurableness but also its ominousness. As a human experience or feeling, natural or physical freedom is felt in two distinct standing-states of human physical existence: the state of satiety, or "the freedom of not suffering"; and the state of vitality, or the freedom made possible by strength and the coordinated functioning of the sense faculties. Were these two states able to be harmonized by ideal cultivation, man would experience "perfect" natural freedom; in the actual world, man more often experiences a limited or perverted freedom, because the "second nature" he acquires in society addicts him to sating himself, and his vitality withers. Finally, Rousseau's hypothesis of ideal education reveals a dream of perfect vitality, in which a properly raised man would enjoy his whole being by enjoying the full potential of his strength, the sharpness of sight, hearing, and touch, and the beauty of nature made vivid to him by virtue of his coordinated apperception. The experience of ideal vitality, as Rousseau understands it, would make man as free and happy "as his constitution permits," and it would yield him a profound sense or awareness of "his place here on earth."