LA FORCE DES SIGNES : ROUSSEAU ET L’AUTORITÉ DES CHOSES

The article focuses on the dialectic between force and authority in Rousseau’s thought, in the light of his theory of sign. The relationship between force and authority is one of the classic questions of political philosophy, to which Rousseau answers in an original and provocative manner. In his pedagogical and political writings, Rousseau shows how authority, to be effective, must be dissociated from a coercive force. The monopoly of force, which cannot be exercised directly by the pedagogue and the legislator, is thus assigned to things. Either the pedagogue or the legislator confer particular importance to the function of the sign, which, if duly taken into account, can exercise a truly effective indirect authority, able to shape the morality of the subject (child or citizen).