On Babbitt's Criticism Of Rousseau

Babbitt's criticism of Rousseau runs through his life.Six monographs contain or criticize Rousseau entirely.Babbitt's critique of Rousseau at the theoretical level involves the fields of morality,nature,imagination,emotion and so on.Rousseau affirmed that "human nature is inherently good" in terms of morality.Babbitt believes that the concept of "the nature of human nature is good" makes the subject of guilt become a society,so that individuals can evade their own moral responsibility.Rousseau put feeling,emotion and so on first and foremost.In Babbitt's view,this means ignoring the inevitability and seriousness of moral thinking and moral choice.Rousseau advocated nature,preferred rural scenery,respected man's natural instinct,and advocated that man should return to nature.In Babbitt's view,this means a return to barbaric primitivism.Babbitt attacked Rousseau's view of imagination,believing that the imagination advocated by Rousseau was an illusory Arcadian fantasy.Rousseau's emotional naturalism emphasizes the freedom of emotion and the uniqueness of emotion.Babbitt believes that the freedom of emotion is indulgence,and the uniqueness of emotion hurts the universality of emotion.Babbitt refused to accept Rousseau's emotional naturalism.Babbitt criticizes Rousseau in order to deconstruct romanticism.Babbitt identified Rousseau as the father of romanticism.He believed that the idea of romanticism did great damage to modern civilization.Babbitt denounced the absurdity of romanticism and its destruction to western civilization.Babbitt believes that romanticism's exaltation of passion,the pursuit of originality and self,and the obsession with paranoid imagination are extremely absurd in theory and extremely harmful in practice.Babbitt criticized Rousseau and romanticism on the basis of humanism.The concepts of "moderation","self-control" and "one and many" of classical humanism all influenced Babbitt.Babbitt absorbed the concept of classical humanism and formed his new humanism on this basis.The "newness" of Babbitt's neo-humanism is shown in: first,that the monism of human nature has been split into duality;second,that the external conflict between man and God has evolved into the internal conflict of human nature;third,that modern people need to use quasi-divine civilized human nature against natural human nature.Babbitt attacked Rousseau and romanticism from the perspective of neo-humanism and constructed his own neo-humanism in criticism.Babbitt's ideas influenced modern conservatives.As a result of his efforts,the important core and value of conservatism can be inherited.Babbitt's respect for tradition consolidates Americans' absorption of collective experience and wisdom.Babbitt's criticism of Rousseau and romanticism based on the reality of American society,to a certain extent,aroused people's desire to deal with social moral chaos and coruscated people's enthusiasm for treating declining civilization.The problems Babbitt addressed at that time still exist in our modern time.The prevalence of materialism,the proliferation of individualism and the collapse of moral concepts are still disasters we are facing with.Although Babbitt aims at the problem of the United States,with a worldwide vision,he has some understanding of the experience of the East and a unique insight into the cultures of the East and the West.Therefore,probing into Babbitt's criticism of Rousseau can also provide meaningful inspiration and path for Chinese society to get rid of the predicament of the times.