“ It is easy to see that the moral part of love is a factitious feeling, born of social usage, and enhanced by the women with much care and cleverness, to establish their empire, and put in power the sex which ought to obey. ”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality Among Men (1755). copy citation
| Author | Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
|---|---|
| Source | Discourse on the Origin of Inequality Among Men |
| Topic | cleverness sex |
| Date | 1755 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | Translated by G. D. H. Cole |
| Weblink | https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Discourse_on_the_Origin_of_Inequality_Amo... |
Context
“The physical part of love is that general desire which urges the sexes to union with each other. The moral part is that which determines and fixes this desire exclusively upon one particular object; or at least gives it a greater degree of energy toward the object thus preferred. It is easy to see that the moral part of love is a factitious feeling, born of social usage, and enhanced by the women with much care and cleverness, to establish their empire, and put in power the sex which ought to obey. This feeling, being founded on certain ideas of beauty and merit which a savage is not in a position to acquire, and on comparisons which he is incapable of making, must be for him almost non-existent; for, as his mind cannot form abstract ideas of proportion and regularity, so his heart is not susceptible of the feelings of love and admiration, which are even insensibly produced by the application of these ideas.”
source
