Rousseauist Perfectibility and Darwinian Evolution

This article explores the philosophical and anthropological convergences and contrasts between Rousseau’s theory of perfectibility and Darwin’s theory of evolution, with particular attention to The Descent of Man. While Rousseau famously defends a discontinuist view of human nature as qualitatively distinct from that of animals, Darwin adopts a continuist and materialist framework. Yet a closer reading reveals an overlooked dimension of Darwin’s thinking: the idea that natural selection in humans may be mediated by collective aesthetic and moral judgments, especially through mechanisms of social recognition. This perspective points to a potential tension in Darwin’s account of the emergence of morality and sociability, insofar as it introduces mediations that are not easily reducible to purely mechanistic explanations. Rousseau’s work, for its part, reveals a marginal yet notable interest in forms of continuity between humans and animals. Moreover, his analysis of the moral transformation of the passions and of self-love outlines a genealogical model of morality that, in some respects, resonates with Darwin’s own reflections. By comparing these two conceptions of human becoming, the article sheds light on the possibility of a dialogue between philosophy and the natural sciences.