Martial Spirits and Marital Rites: Assessing Rousseau's Critique of Commerce's Devaluation of the Military and the Family

This dissertation will investigate Rousseau’s critique of how commercial society devalues soldiers and families and the responses provided by defenders of commerce. I will examine Rousseau’s corpus to demonstrate how Rousseau viewed commerce as a threat to both the responsibilities that men in a political community must be willing to fight and die for their country, as commercial societies intensify the hedonistic risk-averse calculations within members of the community. I will also show how Rousseau’s concerns towards commerce extended to the family, inhibiting the joys that can come with being part of a family and inhibiting citizens' willingness to have children for the good of the community. Once this critique is developed, the rest of the dissertation will look at several Enlightenment thinkers who defend the importance of commerce as a source of good due to the prosperity it brings and how it incentivizes the rule of law. Looking at the various proponents of commerce will reveal a tension in their thoughts that must be dealt with concerning the urge to push for commerce while recognizing the good of the martial and marital responsibilities a community must possess to function well. I will show that while Rousseau’s critique has some substance, the proposed cure of a nationalistic agrarian society is not compelling enough to the average person, demonstrating how proponents of commerce, despite its drawbacks, present a more grounded perception of the human condition. Despite the failure of Rousseau’s alternate solution, his diagnosis of the problems inherent in a commercial society is correct, and solutions to these problems remain elusive.