The Two-fold role of "passion" in Rousseau's theory of first language

In this study, the concept of first language and its relationship with the theme of "passion" in Rousseau's Essay on the Origin of Languages is studied. Some of Rousseau's basic arguments related to the origin of language coincide with the first invention of speech that is based solely on passions. Such impulses make human beings get together in a state of nature while the role of passion in human beings' lives cannot be reduced to that state of nature because this relationship is seen by Rousseau as at the border between the state of society and the state of nature. In this paper, it is argued that passions are the social in the natural, that is to say, they work both in the foundations of the first as well as in the complicated process of civilized language. For Rousseau, the first language is figurative, poetic, melodic and songlike which includes a more immediate way of communication than our writing-centered language. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of ALSC 2012