Osservazioni sul concetto di arte e natura nello scritto Examen d’un écrit de J-J. Rousseau di J. de Maistre

Abstract

The aim of this introduction is to present a little known text by J. de Maistre, published forthe first time only in 1870 inside the Oeuvres inédites du comte Joseph de Maistre (vol.IV, Vaton 1870), trying to focus on two main themes: the philosophical meaning of theterms ‘art’ and ‘nature’ in the Savoyard counter-revolutionary thinker. Although Maistre’scritic is directed towards the Rousseauian Discourse on the Origin and Basis of InequalityAmong Men (1755), the background of the discussion involves some wider theoreticalquestions about the metaphysical order of the world, its creatures, and about ‘art’as the result of human historical capabilities.