"The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self" 2.1

Earlier comments on Carl Trueman's latest book, "The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self" here, here, and here.

Chapter 3 (The Other Genevan) demonstrates Trueman's most original work thus far. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (and not John Calvin) gets a close treatment. Trueman credits Rousseau's Confessions as the most important psychological autobiography since the Confessions of Augustine of Hippo. Unlike the namesake work, however, Rousseau identifies the cause of his "sins" not in the sinful will but in the amour propre--the distorted desire for recognition created by society. Evil actions comes from without, not within the human person. No doctrine of original sin in Rousseau's theology.

Rousseau may be off to a bad start but Trueman observes an important, positive feature in Rousseau's subsequent works. Following Adam Smith, Rousseau identifies the sentiments as the locus for ethical reflection. The sentiments are not rational and cannot be derived by analytic reasoning. Instead, for Rousseau the foundation for ethics was aesthetics: "The virtuous person is the one whose instincts, whose sentimental or emotional responses to particular situations, are correctly attuned." (121) Thankfully, Trueman does not simply discount Rousseau's approach to ethics. As all should appreciate, "sentiments, emotions, and aesthetic consideration form an important part of ethical activity." (122) After all, on several occasions the Gospels refer to Jesus' "compassion" (σπλαγχνίζομαι (splanchnízomai)) as the motive for his actions. (Some of my reflections on the waning of the category of beauty among Christians and conservatives here.)

Rousseau was not an ethical subjectivist. He believed in "a universal human nature possessing a conscience that [was] the same for everyone." (122) Without a robust notion of sin, however, Rousseau's ethical optimism was unfounded. Even if our consciences are the same, our perverted wills suppress what should be clear. Yet his faith that evil is "out there" in society and not deeply rooted in fallen human nature is a current commonplace. Thus, on Trueman's account "Rousseau lays the foundation for expressive individualism through his notion that the individual is most authentic when acting out in public those desires and feelings that characterize his inner psychological life." (125) How that foundation ultimately became the superstructure remains to be argued.