The question of nature in Julia, or the New Heloise

Abstract

It is necessary to consider the question of nature in Jean-Jacques Rousseau, using his epistolary work, Julie, or the New Heloise, as a reference. To this end, we seek, in a descriptive manner, to reflect on the diverse possibilities of thinking about what is natural; that is, we reflect, from a phenomenological description, on the possible concepts of nature that make Rousseau the Enlightenment thinker who inserts the question of Nature into the Enlightenment as one of the main focuses to which humankind should turn in its quest for self-knowledge. We then begin with what has been presented as a preface, extending, step by step, to different Letters where references to Nature are found. To what are these references referred when the question of nature comes to the fore? This is the question that arises when examining the messages and narratives of the letters of Julie and Saint-Preux, as well as those of other characters in Rousseau's work, such as Clara and Wolmar. Married to Wolmar to fulfill social convention, which stated that marriage was based on the father's wishes, Julie remains enamored of Saint-Preux, thus contradicting the nature that identifies with human essence, a nature that differentiates between men and women, alluding to what would later be developed when discussing the relationship between Émile and Sophie, while acknowledging the differences between Sophie and Julie. It can be seen, therefore, that in Letter X, Saint-Preux addresses Lord Edward to tell him of the conclusions Julie has reached regarding the relationship between spouses, considering the natural differences between the sexes. Therefore, he states that in France, the opposite of what nature itself proposes is done: the separation of the sexes through their distinct occupations, avoiding daily relations between men and women. In this way, it is possible to observe the distance between the French customs of his time and what nature proposed, which was very clearly evident in the separation of Saint-Preux and Julie, so that the will of the latter's father could be fulfilled, who, in turn, imposed the dictates of tradition as an expression of conventions contrary to nature.