All Men Seek Happiness...

Blaise Pascal was the French mathematician and philosopher who correctly noted and wrote:

Tous les hommes recherchent d’être heureux; cela est sans exception; quelques différents moyens qu’ils y emploient, ils tendent tous à ce but. Ce qui fait que les uns vont à la guerre, et que les autres n’y vont pas, est ce même désir, qui est dans tous les deux, accompagné de différentes vues. La volonté ne fait jamais la moindre démarche que vers cet objet. C’est le motif de toutes les actions de tous les hommes, jusqu’à ceux qui vont se pendre.

Or in English, if you prefer:

All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves. (Pensées [New York: E. P. Dutton, 1958], 113, Thought #425) 

Rousseau, Part 1

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a philosopher from the 18th century (1712-1778) who lived mostly in France and Geneva.  We'll be visiting a Rousseau site with our French school tomorrow (Thursday), so look for part 2 of this post later this week!

Rousseau is an important historical figure for many reasons, but among them are that some of his ideas were used in France's revolution, and he is considered to have indirectly fathered some of the ideas of New Englanders and other now-famous American writers: Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, James Fennimore Cooper, Thomas Paine, and Noah Webster. Additionally, he was:

• a Deist but "saw the presence of God in his creation, including mankind, which, apart from the harmful influence of society, is good, because God is good" (according to wikipedia)
• a Calvinist in Geneva, then Catholic in France and later claimed Calvinism in Geneva again
• a philosophe who rejected original sin and divine revelation in Emile (Calvinists and Catholics condemned him)
• an advocate of religious toleration, believing all religions are equally worthy when leading to virtue
• a proponent of stay-at-home mothers and breastfeeding (wet nursing was popular at the time)
• a lover in Italy and in our area when he was 15~27

All religion and philosophy is dead that does not glorify God and the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Much of what Rousseau said and did has killed people (spiritually) through false teachings like Deism, but we should not be surprised that in God's kind providence, we find some of his writings and thoughts helpful and good (e.g. thoughts about breastfeeding instead of wet nursing).