Rousseau
The Sentiment of Existence
Published on 24. April 2006
Book
Hardback
214 pages
978-0-521-80976-4 (ISBN)
Description
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?
Reviews / Votes
"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
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
505 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-521-80976-4 (9780521809764)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
David Gauthier is Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh. The author of many articles and several books, most recently Moral Dealing, he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Content
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.