ABSTRACT. The intelligence of Sentiment According to Rousseau. This article aims to consider the reflections that Jean-Jacques Rousseau develops on the feeling of self-affection in the Discours sur l’origine de l’inégalité and in Émile. This type of self-affection does not lead everyone to consider themselves as the sole object of their attention. On the contrary, it invites us to apprehend a kind of sensitivity that necessarily overflows into their environment. By insisting on how this feeling articulates us immediately and intimately with nature, the thought of Rousseau makes it possible to formulate the hypothesis of an expansion of feeling, which is likely to encounter contemporary climatic questions. It also leads us to develop a reflection on the necessity and the means of transforming our presence into a damaged nature.

Keywords: affect, existence, origin, nature, ecology.