摘要：Little attention has been paid to some aspects of Jean-JacquesRousseau’s intellectual activity compared with others. His affairs asa diplomat, his contribution to music, and his affection for botanyare only three of them. This article shows their connections withforms of expression in which words are replaced by other kinds ofgraphic representation, such as ideographic signs for their evocationand numbers for their efficiency and simplicity. Thesecontributions were collected in his first and last intellectualprojects: Project for Musical Notation (1742), a young man’sidealistic challenge presented before Paris Académie des Sciences–and rejected by them; and Characters of Botany (1776-1778), aprivate senescence enterprise.
