A genealogia do mal em Rousseau no percurso da História, da sociedade e da linguagem

Abstract

Since the beginnings of philosophy, reflection on the origin of evil has been, over time, a theme widely explored by many thinkers who have focused on this problem, especially since the advent of Patristics. But in relation to the phenomenon of evil, where would its origin be? Would it be something linked to human nature or acquired through a process of denaturation of human beings throughout history? Faced with these provocative questions, we will undertake a scientific investigation of a bibliographical nature based on them, taking as a basis the thought of the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, with regard to the genealogy of evil in the course of history, society and language, starting from the hypothesis of that the root of evil would not be in human nature, but in the emergence of civilization. In the context of the Enlightenment, while intellectuals considered that human rationality would be capable of solving all of humanity's problems from the perspective of an evolutionary and continuous process for the better, in contrast to all this optimism, Rousseau appears as a solitary voice that propagated the contrary to all belief at the time; when he felt provoked to participate in the competition promoted by the Academy of Dijon, which posed the following question: Did the Reestablishment of sciences and arts contribute to improving customs? Probably contrary to the Academy's expectations, Rousseau writes his First Speech and chooses to answer the question negatively; the work received an award from the Dijon Academy, and also received several reviews from his contemporaries. A few years later, the Geneva native participated again in the same institution's competition, which this time presented the question: What is the origin of inequality between men, and is it authorized by natural law? This time the work does not receive the award, but the society of its time received a text with reflections of great relevance and timeless that have permeated history and reach our days with the same, or perhaps even more, importance. Therefore, based on these two masterpieces by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, that is, the Discourse on the sciences and arts and the Discourse on the origin and foundations of inequality between men, as well as the Essay on the origin of languages , we will implement a bibliographical research work with the main objective of analyzing the origin of evil based on the historical path of society and language in the “progress of humanity”. All of our research will start from an interdisciplinary proposal between Philosophy and History, in dialogue, to a certain extent, with Anthropology.