Julie, or the New Heloise ( French : Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse) is an epistolary novel by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, published in 1761 by Marc-Michel Rey in Amsterdam. The original edition was entitled Lettres de deux amans habitans dune petite ville au pied des Alpes (Letters from two lovers living in a small town at the foot of the Alps). The novels subtitle points to the history of Héloïse d’Argenteuil and Peter Abelard , a medieval story of passion and Christian renunciation. The novel was put on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Although Rousseau wrote it as a novel, a philosophical theory about authenticity permeates through it, as he explores autonomy and authenticity as moral values. A common interpretation is that Rousseau valued the ethics of authenticity over rational moral principles, as he illustrates the principle that one should do what is imposed upon him by society only insofar as it would seem congruent with ones secret principles and feelings, being constituent of ones core identity. Thus unauthentic behavior would pave the way to self-destruction.
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 09:41:57 +0000