L’éthique de la nature chez Rousseau guène Faye

This article analyzes Rousseau's thoughts on nature. Seeking answers to today's ecological questions, we felt it important to revisit the texts of philosophers from centuries before the advent of ecological thought as it is presented today. Thus, we examine Rousseau's thinking on nature. Rousseau began with his perception of nature. In his view, nature is like an organism whose elements maintain mutual relationships from which they derive their value and which give nature its value. This consideration leads him to believe that the order of nature obeys a certain teleology that must be absolutely respected to avoid its denaturing and perdition. Consequently, since humankind is a natural being, any action that transforms this nature is a source of evil. He thus rejects artifice, since it contributes to the denaturing of humankind and causes harm. But this perception of nature by Rousseau is simplistic and caricatured in that it fails to consider the complex dimension of nature, or the idea of nature, and the demands of human life that are necessitated by any transformative action on natural beings.