Julie, or the New Héloïse - Rosseau

The first thing that struck me about this text is the role reversal of 'norms'. In Abelard and Heloise, Heloise was the 'weakling' where as in Julie, Julie commands over the male partner, Saint-Preux.  Julie is the teacher vs. Abelard as the teacher. In some ways, Saint-Preux seems more passionate to me that the female whereas it is the opposite in A&H.

Very evocative language, very passionate.

Merging of characters (shared thoughts and feelings) (58, 115) - a love based on virtue rather than the physical/tangible - reminiscent of the divine love as advocated by Socrates in Plato's Symposium.

The concepts of benevolence, virtue and duty reminds me very much of Mencius.  Ideas replicate themselves around the world at different times.

Music and the arts a production of passion (106) - agreed! Although one can produce 'art' by just copying a piece of work, these types of work tend not to move people emotionally.

Humanitarian politeness (107) - an important concept! and so much more meaningful than politeness based on rank/class.  Perhaps a little lacking these days (and perhaps always).  In a sense, one is being virtuous and true to one's self, to one's principles.  Like Antigone although one could argue she wasn't exactly polite...

I do not agree with Rosseau that virtue means doing duty to family.  I do but not if your family is abusive, which I believe to be the case in Julie's case, concerning her father, more specifically.  Duty is a double edged sword like love or folly.  Duty to family should not be the absolute cases.  It needs to be a general rule but make room for a case to case basis (like Hume's philosophy).

The concept of virtue seems a bit strange to me.  In a way, it seems to be self-hating in denying your own happiness and to deny yourself the person who loves you and vice versa.  I do believe in the mantra that you need to love yourself to love others and you cannot do this if you are unhappy.  As such, to remain unhappy is doing a disservice to own's self and all others.  Virtue is a bit of a loaded term I suppose much like love, passion, etc.  As Steve said, through our modern lens, we would have wanted Julie and Saint-Preux to have eloped, start a new life - this in many ways seems more virtuous to me.

Treating slaves better is 'progress' but not really at the same time - it is a band aid solution and should not be accepted as virtuous!

I do appreciate his critique of high society however and the corrupting effects of institutional rules and the lack of autonomy resulting from this restriction.