Literature I / Rousseau’s Confessions: the Self as Its Own Justification
Practice question · Put in order

Arrange the stages of Rousseau’s confessional argument as the book presents them.

Hints
  1. The argument runs from a general doctrine to a specific plea.
  2. Natural goodness comes first; the plea to be judged truly comes last.
Show the answer
  1. I was born naturally good, like everyone
  2. Society and circumstance corrupted that nature
  3. Here are my worst actions, told without concealment
  4. The telling itself proves my sincerity
  5. Therefore judge me as I truly was, not as my enemies say
Why

Laid out in order it is plainly forensic: a doctrine, a cause of the damage, evidence offered against interest, an inference from that evidence, and a request for a verdict. That structure is why the Confessions reads so differently from Augustine’s, whose narrative ends in conversion rather than judgement.

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