On Moral Criticism In Rousseau's Poetics

Rousseau was a writer with profound moral consciousness,and his moral thinking on art(especially poetry)ran through his writing career.He was dissatisfied that art served power and money,and believed that art as a "civilized beauty salon" should not be used as a means of entertainment and education for the public,so he denied the possibility of art conveying truth and the role of art in spiritual promotion.However,Rousseau did not fundamentally overturn the moral restriction on poetry in classical poetry.He denied poetry theoretically with a pessimistic and cautious attitude.In fact,he was actually reminding people of the decline of poetry caused by lack of morality.Therefore,Rousseau built a beautiful art sanctuary with moral love,and used writing to show that "Poetry should be a manifestation of moral emotions".The first chapter of this article focuses on Rousseau’s poetic origin,takes Plato,Aristotle,Horatius and French classicism as the main line of development,and highlights the integration and conflict of poetry and morality in traditional poetics.Plato charged that poetry was morally detrimental and denied the emotional characteristics of poetry.After that,refuting Plato becomes a tradition of poetic defense for poetry.Although Aristotle’s rectification of poetry continued Plato’s theory of imitation and political ethics,he affirmed the purifying function and ethical value of poetry.Horatius attached great importance to the emotional characteristics of poetry,and believed that the entertainment and enlightening functions of poetry were not incompatible.French classicism had systematically summarized the poetic thoughts of ancient Greece and Rome,and proposed that the use of rationality in poetry could make poetry have good teachings.The above poetic tradition laid the foundation of Rousseau’s poetic thought.The second chapter focuses on the theoretical level.Combined with the moral view in A Discourse on Inequality,this chapter deeply analyzes Rousseau’s view that "art corrupts morality" in Discourse on the Sciences and Arts.Rousseau pointed out the hypocrisy of civilized people,thinking that art was nothing more than the material that was used to please each other in social life.Rousseau reflected on the shortcomings in French classic poetics:excessive pursuit of observing the rules,love for exquisite elegance,and favor with the upper class.Because of these problems,poetry had greatly undermined people’s true morality.But on the other hand,Rousseau could not talk about morality without art.It was the use of the bayonet of art to cut through the mask of civilization and directly point to the incompleteness of human morality.After many years,Rousseau opposed the establishment of a theater in Geneva,which was consistent with the views in Discourse on the Sciences and Arts,and had a fiercely negative attitude towards drama.By revealing the serious problems in the development of drama in the era,he proposed a poetic theory centered on emotions,calling for true poetry that expressed moral emotions.The third chapter analyzes the moral emotions(mainly pointing to "love for humans")that should be expressed in the poems under Rousseau’s perspective,according to Rousseau’s poetic comments and creations.Through Rousseau’s defense of Alcester in Moliere’s Le Misanthrope,this part explains the profound significance of Rousseau’s "love for humans".The second part uses La Nouvelle Heloise—this is the most important fiction published by Rousseau after his opposition to art—as the main text,discussing Rousseau’s criticism of personal eros:in the love of the sexes,the instinct of Eros was dangerous,but if we could regard each other’s morals as the objects of love,then we could resolve the disordered,selfish eros.Moral love was the greatest possible connection between God and the individual.Rousseau argued that only divine moral love could bring about human perfection.This is the world that art should lead to.