Genealogical narrative and self-knowledge in Rousseau's Discourse on the Origin and the Foundations of Inequality among Men

SUMMARY

Why did Rousseau cast the substance of the Second Discourse in the form of a genealogy? In this essay the author attempts to work out the relation between the literary form (genealogical narrative, as the author calls it) of the Discourse's two main parts and the content. A key thesis of Rousseau's text concerns our lack of self-knowledge, indeed, our ignorance of our ignorance. The author argues that in a number of ways genealogical narrative is meant to respond to that lack. In the course of his discussion he comments on Rousseau's puzzling remarks in the Second Discourse about his expository method. Further, given the thesis that we lack self-knowledge, Rousseau owes us an account of his genesis as self-knowing genealogist. He attempts to do so in part through his narrative of the ‘illumination of Vincennes’. The author examines that narrative as well, reading it and the Discourse in light of each other. Can Rousseau resolve the problems of self-reference that the philosophical use of genealogy often leads to? The article discusses this complex metaphilosophical problem, along with views about the value of genealogical accounts, in light of recent work by Robert Guay, John Kekes, Alasdair MacIntyre, and Frederick Neuhouser, among others.     

Reply to My Critics

Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men stands as one of the great works of American literature and has been interpreted as offering powerful lessons about the nature and problems of democratic politics. Many of these interpretations attempt to ascertain meaning by looking at the effect of Willie Stark on the other characters. The author argues that a more enriching interpretation of the book can be found by interpreting the text through a Tocquevillian lens, whereby the focus of inquiry is the "king's men," embodied in the character of Jack Burden. This focus reveals that the novel illuminates many of the dangers Alexis de Tocqueville identified as originating in the democratic social state, while also offering important supplements to Tocqueville's proposed solutions to these problems.