How do humans become human(e)? On Rousseau’s Second Discourse and Emile
Résumé
Facing the variety of men, Rousseau rejects theological, philosophical but also purely zoological explanations about the specificity of man, because these theories tend to reduce it to an eternal essence, or to physiological properties. He thus changes the question « What is man ? » in a new one, ie : « How do humans become human(e) ? ». Doing so, he simultaneously proposes a specific method to face and treat the problem. Men’s existence varies so much, because their nature, a term which is prefered by Rousseau to the term essence, is to be understood in the medium of time, and is to be shown in the medium of a narrative. Humans become human(e), while they were just animals. Humans are getting more and more determined, while they were something like the perfect zero. In Rousseau, geographical and social variety of human being is explained by history.
This paper will present and compare both issues of « hominisation » and of « humanisation » in the second Discourse and in Emile, and their reception in french studies (Lévi-Strauss, Goldschmidt, Duchet, Labussière, Binoche).