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The 18th century thinker Jean-Jag Russo was many things.

Political theorist, educationist, botanist, composer, novelist, autobographer,

polemicist and recluse.

But he was, perhaps above all, a psychologist. Chris Bertram is a Russo scholar at Bristol University

Chris Bertram welcome to Philosophy Bites.

Hi the topic we're going to focus on is Russo's moral psychology.

Now just before we get onto the moral psychology, could you say a little bit about who

Russo was?

Yeah, Russo is an 18th century philosopher, but also a composer, writer of novels.

In fact, an all-around intellectual.

He came from Geneva, born there in 1712.

He really came to prominence in middle age as an autodide act in the Paris of the salons in the 1750s

and he's Paris of the Salons in the 1750s.

And he's famous now for a series of works,

the Social Contract, the Discourse on Equality,

Emil, which is a work of political philosophy.

He wrote a novel called Julie, and at the time it was a tremendously exciting and semi-erotic treatment

of human relationships. You read it today it's a little bit

...