SOURCE: Barran, Thomas. “Rousseau and Fonvizin: Emile as a Source for The Minor.” Ulbandus Review 2, no. 2 (fall 1982): 5-22.

In the following essay, Barran argues that The Minor is indebted to key ideas about politics, ethics, and social customs set forth in French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau's Emile.

Many scholars of eighteenth-century Russian literature dismiss the possibility that Rousseau's ideas exerted any influence on the work of Denis Fonvizin.¹ They argue that Fonvizin rejected Rousseau's belief in man's primal innocence, along with the political ideal of popular sovereignty set forth in The Social Contract. While it may be true that Fonvizin disagreed with these beliefs, this does not mean that he rejected Rousseau's thought in its entirety. The innocent savage and the ideal democracy represent only the ahistorical beginning and end points of Rousseau's philosophy of man, and it is not necessary to accept Rousseau's speculations about human origins...