Why do Helvétius's writings matter? Rousseau’s Notes sur De l’esprit

ABSTRACT

De l’esprit was read and commented on by Rousseau, Diderot, and Voltaire, in 1758. So was De l’homme when it appeared posthumously in 1773. We will go into this series of books, marginalia, and refutations, to address the question: what exactly was widely discussed between the three authors during the 1750s? Is it ‘materialism’? Our first point is to interpret the potential distortions, re-workings or re-appropriations in Rousseau’s marginalia, known as Notes sur De l’esprit, especially here about the so-called theory of passive judgement. We will then see that there certainly is, in the discussion between Rousseau and Helvétius, a real opposition on the question of matter and its properties, as the examination of the Favre manuscript and the revised version of Émile would easily prove it. But this question is not the key to Rousseau’s first reaction to Helvétius's De l’esprit. I shall focus on the moral and anthropological dimensions of the discussion in the Notes. From this point of view, we will suggest that the experience of real friendship has been part of the refutation of Helvétius by both Rousseau and Diderot, even long after their former very close friendship had been so definitely broken.

KEYWORDS:

• Helvétius
• Rousseau
• materialism
• theory of judgement
• self

Acknowledgements

I am most grateful to Patricia Springborg for her careful, patient and friendly help in anglicizing my work. She has been a priceless partner. I would also like to thank Falk Wunderlich and Michael Beaney for helping me to clarify my thoughts.

Notes

1 During the winter 1758–1759, Rousseau annotated De l’esprit; he re-read his book while revising Émile. Helvétius never read Rousseau’s marginalia. Masson published them in Masson, ‘Rousseau contre Helvétius’s and in Rousseau, Œuvres complètes. Diderot left very few marginalia, see Diderot, ‘Notes et marques en marges de De l’esprit d’Helvétius’s, 261–98. He reviewed the book in the Correspondance littéraire 15 August, 15 September and 15 October 1758, see Diderot, ‘Réflexions sur De l’esprit’, 302–12. Voltaire left many marginalia on his De l’esprit, see Voltaire, Œuvres complètes, 279–326. De l’homme was published posthumously in 1773, though it probably was ready since the end of 1769. Helvétius wanted to publish it himself, see Helvétius, De l’homme. In De l’homme, he wrote a long ‘refutation’ of Rousseau, essentially based on La Nouvelle Héloïse and Émile. Diderot carefully read this work of Helvétius during his stay in Holland, and he left on his book what we call Réfutation suivie de l’ouvrage d’Helvétius intitulé L’Homme (see Diderot, ‘Réfutation suivie de l’ouvrage d’Helvétius intitulé L’Homme’, 421–767), as it was titled in the Correspondance littéraire where it appeared from January 1783 to March 1786.

2 See Frédéric-Guillaume de Montmollin to Jean Sarasin, 25 September 1762: the former reports a conversation that he could have had with Rousseau, who might have said that Émile ‘s’élè[ve], non pas précisément directement, mais pourtant assés clairement contre l’ouvrage infernal de l’Esprit, qui, suivant le principe detestable de son Auteur, prétend que sentir et juger sont une seule et même chose ce qui est évidemment établir le matérialisme’ (Leigh, Correspondance complète, letter 2191, p. 115). Rousseau himself amended the letter and added this sentence with his own hand. The conversation may be fictitious (Leigh, Correspondance complète, pp. 119–20). See also Voltaire to D’Alembert, 28 August 1765 (Voltaire, Correspondence and Related Documents, D. 12854, pp. 274–5) and Voltaire to Thiériot, 30 August 1765 (Correspondence and Related Documents, D. 12859, pp. 278–9).

3 Vincent-Louis Dutens to Rousseau 5th March 1767 (Leigh, Correspondance complète de Jean Jacques Rousseau, letter 5766, pp. 204–5) and 19th March 1767 (Leigh, Correspondance complète de Jean Jacques Rousseau, letter 5783, pp. 226–8). Rousseau and Davenport 9th and 14th February 1767 (Leigh, Correspondance complète de Jean Jacques Rousseau, letters 5717, pp. 120–4 and 5729, pp. 143–4.

4 See Mélanges extraits des mss de Mme Necker, 1798, 3 vol, ii, p. 246, in D. Smith, Bibliography of the Writings of Helvétius, 366.

5 Dutens to Rousseau (Leigh, Correspondance complète de Jean Jacques Rousseau, letter 5766, p. 204).

6 To Jacob Vernes, 22nd October 1758 (Leigh, Correspondance complèt, v, letter 715, p. 185); see also the draft of the letter to Jean-Antoine Comparet, beginning of September 1762 (Leigh, Correspondance complète, xiii, letter 2147, p. 37).

7 I will address this point in the conclusion of this article.

8 Rousseau writes: « plus d’esprit de moi » (!).