Rousseau's Reveries Of A Solitary Walker

Reveries of a Solitary Walker by the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau is a detailed musings completed by Rousseau towards the end of his lifetime of his stay on an isolated island. Rousseau describes his stay on the island as “two months as the happiest in his [Rousseau] life,” (Rousseau 2) showing how his experiences on the isle comprise what he deems to be part of the idea of a good life or the best life one can lead. In Rousseau’s description of his paradise, it is “not made up of fleeting moments, but is a simple and permanent state” (Rousseau 5). Rousseau’s good life consists of the changes that occur throughout his life and the freedoms that these changes give Rousseau. is based off of the idea that life is frequently changing, and in

Rousseau believes that a person is only able to find happiness when “the spirit finds a base solid enough on which to rest and gather there all its being without needing to recall the past or step into the future” (Rousseau 5). The place Rousseau desires is centered in the present and provides for its inhabitants the peace needed to achieve their goals. It must be a base because it must be firm and be a constant place for a person to return to after they have completed their responsibilities. Rousseau obviously wishes not to care about the past or worry about the future and believes that true happiness can only be reached when one has found a place where only the present matters. In this place on will experience “a happiness that is sufficient, perfect, and complete, that leaves in the soul no emptiness.” Rousseau statement that the happiness must be sufficient is preceded that the happiness is not one that is found in the pleasures of life, but rather in life. This because in Rousseau’s opinion the pleasures of life are not long lasting and will eventually leave the people they pleasure unhappy because they are fleeting. The island functions for Rousseau as a constant base which remains unchanged throughout time in order for Rousseau to explore his thoughts without the worrying about any of the consequences associated with shirking any of his

Rousseau says “the hope that he would be asked for nothing more than to be allowed this remote sojourn to which I had bound myself of my own accord.”(Rousseau 3). Rousseau’s choice of a secluded stay is only temporary because he has not been allowed his solitude for long. He implies that he was asked to return, showing how his “hope” was to societal requests, but he was ultimately unable to achieve this. When he says that he had done it of his own free will, he means that he was the cause of his own exile and continues his exile out of a desire to remain isolated and away from the burdens of society. It is his desire to be able to dictate his own actions without the influence of others that leads him to his island refuge, which he chooses to do without the input of