Shazhinbatyn, A. Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Ethno-Anthropological Concept

Abstract: The author of the article analyzes ethnomethodological concept offered by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The author underlines that the philosopher had a very singular concept of the phenomenology of ethnos. His views on that matter differed from the Eurocentristic concept created during the age of Enlightenment in the XVIII century. Based on ethnographic researchers, Rousseau created a completely different definition of human self-identity. The French philosopher disagreed with Descartes who believed the internal efforts towards improvement of «Self» to be the grounds for the process of self-identity formation. Rousseau assumed that human’s self-concept of himself and an ethnos’ concept of its essence could not exist without other humans or ethnic units. The concept of «Self» is narrowed because by accepting the image of the other person, an individual realizes that his concepts and ideals are limited. It is true for an ethnos, too. Human tries to see himself as a reflection of the other creature or culture. This is why Claude Levi-Strauss used to say that Rousseau was the founder of the humanities. The idea of self-recognition of human himself as well as the other culture described by Rousseau was then developed in terms of Post-Modernism philosophy.

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