Pessimismo e optimismo em Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Abstract

The Lettre de J. J. Rousseau a M. de Voltaire of 1756 comes forward as a consequence of Rousseau’s reading of Voltaire’s Poèmes sur le désastre de Lisbonne, et sur la loi naturelle. Rousseau finds this text to be pessimist in nature, deciding to answer with a contrary opti- mistic thesis. But what is the nature of Rousseau’s optimism? We propose to explore the way in which Rousseau uses the optimism/pessimism dichotomy to articulate certain aspects of his philosophical and political thought, by way of which he will posit himself as vigilant optimist. Voltaire’s poem came as a pretext for Rousseau to present a concern ubiquitous to his thought, that of a true access to the knowledge of human nature.