Few thinkers have enjoyed so pervasive an influence as Rousseau, who originated dissatisfaction with modernity. By exploring polarities articulated by Rousseau-nature versus society, self versus other, community versus individual, and compassion versus competitiveness-these fourteen original essays show how his thought continues to shape our ways of talking, feeling, thinking, and complaining.
The volume begins by taking up a central theme noted by the late Allan Bloom-Rousseau's critique of the bourgeois as the dominant modern human type and as a being fundamentally in contradiction,...

Thucydides has long been celebrated for the unflinching realism of his presentation of political life. And yet, as some scholars have asserted, his work also displays a profound humanity. In the first thorough exploration of the relation between these two traits, Clifford Orwin argues that Thucydides' humanity is not a reflection of the author's temperament but an aspect of his thought, above all of his articulation of the central problem of political life, the tension between right and compulsion.

This book provides the most complete treatment to date of Thucydides' handling of...