Rousseau
Rousseau
Rousseau is often portrayed as an educational and social reformer whose aim was to increase individual freedom. In this volume David Gauthier examines Rousseau's evolving notion of freedom, where he focuses on a single quest: can freedom and the independent self be regained? Rousseau's first answer is given in Emile, where he seeks to create a self-sufficient individual, neither materially nor psychologically enslaved to others. His second is in the Social Contract, where he seeks to create a citizen who identifies totally with his community, experiencing his dependence on it only as a dependence on himself. Rousseau implicitly recognized the failure of these solutions. His third answer is one of the main themes of the Confessions and Reveries, where he is made for a love that merges the selves of the lovers into a single, psychologically sufficient unity that makes each 'better than free'. But is this response a chimaera?
- Discusses Rousseau's writings from the Discourses to the Reveries
- Shows how Rousseau's account of humankind's first words - 'Love me!' and 'Help me!' are central to his discussion of freedom and self
- Includes Rousseau's once widely read novel, Julie, or The New Eloise, in its account of Rousseau's views of love, freedom, and the self
Reviews & endorsements
"Gauthier's reading of Rousseau's works, especially in terms of the key ideas of dependence and freedom, is, in many places , highly illuminating and does begin to bring to light the structures of an underlying unity." - Ann Hartle, Emory University
"a provocative essay on Rousseau from a noted scholar of Hobbes and one that will be of interest to scholars and students alike." - Rebecca Kingston, University of Toronto
"The conversation Gauthier assembles is impressive...Gauthier's presentation of the fabric of writing that makes up Rousseau's work accurately reflects its dialectical patterning and reveals some unexpected threads among its connected strands."
Zev M. Trachtenberg, University of Oklahoma, Ethics
Product details
March 2011Adobe eBook Reader
9780511279812
0 pages
0kg
This ISBN is for an eBook version which is distributed on our behalf by a third party.
Table of Contents
- Preface
- 1. Legends of the fall
- 2. Making a man
- 3. Politics of redemption
- 4. In Julie's garden
- 5. Making Jean-Jacques
- 6. Citizen of Geneva
- 7. The last promenade.
