Rousseau: The Sentiment of Existence

ISBN-13: 9780521007597 / Angielski / Miękka / 2006 / 214 str.

David Gauthier

Opis

The distinguished philosopher David Gauthier examines Rousseau's evolving notion of freedom, particularly in his later works, 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 answer comes in the Social Contract, where he seeks to create a citizen who identifies totally with his community, so that he experiences his dependence on it only as a dependence on himself. Implicitly recognizing the failure of these solutions, his third answer is one of the main themes of the Confessions and Reveries, where he creates himself as the man made for a kind of love that merges with another's into a self-sufficient unity.

Recenzje

"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

Spis treści

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.