Rousseau beyond oneself: Nietzsche and the psychological profile of Rousseauism

Abstract

Abstract: The main purpose of this article is to rehabilitate and deepen a feature of the relation between Nietzsche and Rousseau that has been relegated by the Nietzsche research, possibly by considering it obvious and by supposing that there is nothing more to say about, i. e., Nietzsche critic of Rousseau. Then, we propose to bring to light this feature, with an emphasis on the very scope the German philosopher is considering in his critical comments: the unconscious sphere, that gave directions to Rousseau'´s philosophy and to rousseauism. In this sense, we shall discuss the attack on the ancient notion of soul by Descartes in 17th century, the increasing weakening of this notion on account of the Scientific Revolution from 17th and 18th centuries, the reaction of some of 18th century representatives to what we may refer as a disenchantment of the world, the reaction of Rousseau. According to Nietzsche, the reaction of Rousseau, more than an autonomous philosophical contribution, would be an unconscious incidence of the the philosopher and his followers in ancestors devices of man-nature relation, namely, figuring a Golden era in a past of gods and heroes and ascribing to external environment threats percieved as internal ones.