Para uma fundamentação do pensamento de Rousseau: natureza, razão, sensibilidade

Abstract

The recognition of the theoretical dispute between Rousseau and Helvetius was the problem that has raised the main question of this research and has resulted in the therefore study. A lack of clarity can be noticed when it comes of identifying the real meaning of this debate. Would it have contributed to the development and the complexity of the philosophy of those involved in such duel? On the other hand, it is a knowledgeable fact that the problem could be formulated because a collection of writings, direct or indirectly, was produced, somehow, to respond to the objections made from one part to the other. That seems to be the case of Rousseau who wrote some of his texts with the clear purpose of answering Helvetius critics and by doing so added more fuel to the controversy. Both would face a debate over the main topics of mankind, sensibility, nature, subjectivity and, mainly, politics and society. It is well known that Rousseau would have started several debates over the most varied problems of his era. The Genevan, thus, could be seen questioning theses like: the restriction of the human faculties to its physical sensibility, the refuse of the materialism, the concern with the functioning of the subjective human faculties, the rejection of the optimism of a productive education and its consequences to the moral and political field. According to this research work, it is acknowledged the fact that both his anthropology theory would be more accurate and its consequences to the moral and political field would be more structured if they were organized in terms of its theoretical background. Those findings would be more precise if based on the epistemological assumptions of the subjective development of the individual being. Therefore, the metaphysical meditations of the Vicar of Savoie when formulating its cogito, from our point of view, seems to converge the general thinking of Rousseau: the sensitive knowledge and the consciousness, related to nature, would be key elements of understanding his efforts on establishing the grounds for the main researches results.