The foundations of Rousseau political theory

• Grant number: 12/50477-5
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants - Publications - Books published in Brazil
• Start date: September 01, 2012
• End date: August 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Rolf Nelson Kuntz
• Grantee: Rolf Nelson Kuntz
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This doom seeks to show how Rousseau elaborates his political theory, taking into account the importance that experience assumed in his thought. The work of the genevan is passed in review, with special attention to the discourse on the origin of inequality, the essay on the origin of languages, the Emílio and the social coil tract. As the starting point, the following observation is taken: is, for the one hand the political topics in these writings the formation and functioning of societies, the reflection on the power and the conditions of its exercise etc. Could be treated theoretically for the other hand, it was not possible in the 18th century to ignore experience as conceived by history and ethnography in the manner of scientific works at the time. Therefore, given the impossibility of the resource in the social field to a experimentation as in natural sciences, Rousseau tries to conciliate the abstract aspect of his objects to the commitment he assumed with realism: the solution corresponds to what is now called "model", as in classical mechanics of modernity as in economic theory of the present days. (AU)