Ordenar as paixões: reconhecimento e sociabilidade no Emílio de Rousseau - segunda parte

Abstract

This article recovers the problem of recognition in the theoretical framework of the previous text and, in reading Émile, ou de l’éducation, goes on to examine the order of passions principle as condition of sociability. This time, the commentary seeks to clarify the idea of recognition according to Rousseau based on two fundamental points of Émile, namely, the theater model for the pedagogical scenes and the principle of friendship for moral judgment formation. With regard to the scenes, Rousseau replaces the “negative education” principle based on the thesis of Lettre à d’Alembert sur les spectacles, namely, that the theatrical scenes are unable to change the customs, since, in the face of the “frame of passions”, the “scene in general” does not produce virtue, but only reinforces the inclinations already existing in the spirit of spectator. In relation to friendship, Rousseau deals with the problem of self-love by considering that, although relationships among friends are not enough to cancel the conflict of interests inherent in the struggle for recognition, the social arrangement engendered by them presents a satisfactory order from the point of view of the good order of the passions.