Considerations for a constellation-based reading of freedom in Rousseau

Abstract

This essay constitutes a thought experiment approaching the reading of Rousseau, specifically the idea of ​​freedom, and the notion of constellation, based on Walter Benjamin's contributions in "The Origin of German Tragic Drama" regarding the discussion of the status of knowledge in what concerns ideas forming "an irreducible multiplicity" (Benjamin, 1984; p. 65). Developed within the context of the nature of ideas and the exposition of concepts, the essay focuses on the polysemous character of the idea of ​​freedom in Rousseau and its variations in the works: Discours sur l’origine et les fondements de l’inegalité parmi les hommes (Rousseau, 1964a), Du Contrat Social (Rousseau, 1964b) and Émile (Rousseau, 1969); as well as its explication in an alternative interpretation of the different meanings within the framework of understanding its epitomes. The proposal for a constellation-based reading is configured in the thought experiment of analyzing the conception of freedom within the restricted set of works, which, in specialized literature, circumscribes what Grosrichard (1967, p. 43) calls "reactionary work." The latter is characterized as a provocation in itself, found within the order of thought itself; or, in the author's limiting understanding as "a man of paradoxes" (Rousseau, 1964e, pp. 230-236; 1969, p. 323), highlighted in two different contexts. Thus, it is within the general framework of understanding the relevant aspects of Rousseau's essayistic tradition as a "man of letters" (Bouvier, 1912) that a spectral understanding of his literature can be found, within the inherent condition of language and the insurmountable limit of language by thought. This is evident in various writings, such as his concern with method in *Idée de la méthode dans la composition d’un livre* (Rousseau, 1964c), in which he describes the writer's work as limited to the condition of words, in a permanent dialogue with the reader, not only regarding the form of argumentation, but mainly as an effort to explicate the ideas found within the ambiguities of language and thought, in the paradoxical character of his work.