In Rousseau, we find the mirror image of Nietzsche’s politics. While both have been called romantics, we find enough nuance to consider both something beyond this - and yet, Rousseau & Nietzsche agree in finding problematic the supposed “progress” of the modern world, and both turn their gaze back to the time before civilization to contrast with modern life. But where Nietzsche sees a war of all against all, Rousseau sees a state of natural happiness. Rather than a “going back” to this natural utopia, as Rousseau’s philosophy is sometimes described, instead Rousseau’s project is an indictment of the injustice of civilization and the goal of remedying this injustice. For Rousseau, man can only be made free once again if society is brought into accord with the general will - the underlying will of the populace at large. In this, harmony between the individual and society is achieved, and true democracy realized. There is hardly any figure who receives more scorn from Nietzsche than Rousseau, but because Rousseau is eerily similar to Nietzsche in many respects, learning the basics of his politics is essential to understanding Nietzsche. Join us while we cover Nietzsche’s opposite in political philosophy.
