Is it fair for us to judge a philosophy by its founder
or practitioners? Perhaps the better question is, can a person who is generally
considered “bad” in a society, still provide good and useful ideas to be used
by the society? I would consider Rousseau a “bad” man. Not only as an
individual, but as a philosopher as well. As Russell so quickly pointed out, it
was Rousseau’s doctrines at work in the Third Reich. Does this mean we are
justified in dumping out every idea that came from Rousseau? Though it pains me
to say it, I think not. I am a Christian, and I fully concede that a large
number of professing Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, fail to live out
the principles of their supposed belief. If I were to judge the religion solely
on the lifestyles of its practitioners (which some do), I cannot say that I
would not come to all that different of a conclusion than they have.
When
we separate Rousseau’s philosophies from the man himself, then we may see them
with unclouded eyes and arrive at honest conclusions. On the face, they seem to
be too trusting, or at least too naïve, due to their support of totalitarian
regimes. If a dictatorship is to work for the betterment of mankind, than there
had best be assurance that the dictator is virtuous. When we burrow deeper,
however, we find Rousseau has a far divergent definition of virtue than most of
us. Such oversights welcome the Hitlers and Stalins. In this case then, it
appears the philosophy of a bad man is actually bad, when weighed in fairness.
You can never judge someones ideas or philosophy based on the fact that they are considered a "bad" person. Sometimes they may be right and if we throw it out completely just because who they are, we may never find that out.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you wholeheartedly. While someone who is a bad person or has done in many ways, they can still provide good for the society itself. Even some of the bad things they did may provide something useful for the rest of the world. We cannot take and criticize all the ideas of a bad person or we could end up preventing society from advancing
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