Emile, or a Life Apart from Society

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14394/etyka.438

Abstract

The article offers an interpretation of Rousseau’s Emile as an account of a social situation in which a man can be recovered from alienation and live according to his nature; the other three situations are: the republic, a small community outside society, and solitude. Rousseau’s Emile lives in a society but he keeps distance from its members; indeed, he lives on the margin of the community. Being a stranger in the Simmelian sense, he shares with the members of the society everything that is common to human beings with the exception of what makes them members of the community. Emile is then alien to them but he is not alienated, for it is him, not them, who lives according to human nature. Rousseau claims that Emile could live in each of the other situations. However, as it is argued in the paper, if Emile wants to live only in freely chosen social situations, he must live in solitude, for which he is in fact best suited.

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Published

2007-12-01

How to Cite

Waśkiewicz, Andrzej. 2007. “Emile, or a Life Apart from Society”. Etyka 40 (December). Warsaw, Poland:62-76. https://doi.org/10.14394/etyka.438.

Issue

Vol. 40 (2007)

Section

Papers

License

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