What was the last book you read.

@CrazyMusicLover Where does the interest for JJs personal life come from?

@Kwek00 Mostly his paraphilia and his idea of the primitive stage of humanity as the ideal. I wanted to know what kind of person he was that he felt the urge to return to the beginnings of civilization and whether his sexuality could have played a role in forming his philosophy. To be honest, I never learned about Rousseau's thoughts extensively or read his works before, I just observed from lectures that he mostly wasn't taken seriously, his thoughts were seen more as a curiosity. The impulse to learn more about him was mostly Zweig's Mental Healers I read before where he described neuroticism of 19th century that was supposed to come from sexual repression of puritan society and positivism invalidating the significance of emotionality of a person and then gave Rousseau's paraphilia as an example of deviation from normal sexuality. I find it interesting that the person who was thought to be a nature's mistake...or at least that's how the Zweig sounded, became famous for his utopian thoughts about returning closer to what he calls natural state of being.

Anyway, another thing is that I noticed how these days certain people actually deliberately returns to simpler ways of life, off-grid lifestyle where one gets more freedom from societal ties which is also a way of expressing a desire to "downgrade". Returning to older ways to seek more satisfying life in more physical activity and closer to nature. I wanted to explore this sentiment that was somewhat expressed already 3 centuries ago.

@CrazyMusicLover Interesting, especially the part about returning to a simpler ways of life.

In which language are you reading this book?

@CrazyMusicLover Who says that he wasn't taken seriously? He was one of the main thinkers that insipired the French Revolution. Even though he seems to be less popular in the anglosaxon world [i](like his biggest influences are in the latin, mostly french, and germanic territories in Europe)[/i], he still inspired some radicals like Thomas Jefferson. Ideas of his book on "The social contract" has been used from left to right. He didn't soley impact the liberal sphere that is attached to a conception of rationality, but he also dived into romanticism which was largely a counter movement to the liberal agenda. His arguments enable dictatorial regimes as well as liberal ones. His [i](in my opinion)[/i] naïeve vieuw on humans in their nature state is still haunting a large part of the left wings basic understanding of what is real. And his book "Emile" helped shaped how the western world looks at education.

Your last segment, is a key factor of romantics in the 19th century. And it has inspired movements that dwell in romanticism ever since. If you are going to look up paintings made by artists that dwell in romanticism, you'll often find pictures of the still life, away from modernity, the city, industrialisation, ... etc.

@Mugin16 English

Yeah, it would be interesting to know what is the final straw for people who suddenly decide to leave a city, quit a job, sell everything and move to the country with no prior experience about the life in a country. I know that pandemic and restrictions contributed greatly to it but I mostly mean people who have done that even before pandemic and lockdowns.

@Kwek00 Maybe I should have stated that it was mostly his view on humans in their nature state that hasn't been taken seriously, by lecturers anyway. He definitely was an important figure. Whole romantic movement has a special place in the history but that doesn't mean it's still not looked down upon by advocates of rationalism and pragmatism who consider every history period that focus more on emotion over reason as inferior or as a period of regression and decline. At least that's my impression.

@CrazyMusicLover That really depends on what side of the ideological isle the lecturer stands. But yeah, I too think it's really naïve. But as I said, it made a huge impact on the left wing of politics. And of course it's looked down on by rationalists and pragmatism because romantism is it's antithesis, it's the reaction against this age of reason. The core ideas of romancticism are:

Feeling [i]over[/i] Thinking
Subjectivity [i]over[/i] Objectivity
Emotions [i]over[/i] Rationality
Idealism [i]over[/i] Pragmatism
Ambiguity [i]over[/i] Clarity
Creativity [i]over[/i] Copying
Spirituality [i]over[/i] Materialism
Quality [i]over[/i] Quantity
Nature [i]over[/i] Mechanisation [i](or Artificiality)[/i]
Nostalgia [i]over[/i] Progression
The Synthesis is more important then the analysis.