Robert Wokler was one of the world's leading experts on Rousseau and the Enlightenment, but some of his best work was published in the form of widely scattered and difficult-to-find essays. This book collects for the first time a representative selection of his most important essays on Rousseau and the legacy of Enlightenment political thought. These essays concern many of the great themes of the age, including liberty, equality and the origins of revolution. But they also address a number of less prominent debates, including those over cosmopolitanism, the nature and social role of music and the origins of the human sciences in the Enlightenment controversy over the relationship between humans and the great apes. These essays also explore Rousseau's relationships to Rameau, Pufendorf, Voltaire and Marx; reflect on the work of important earlier scholars of the Enlightenment, including Ernst Cassirer and Isaiah Berlin; and examine the influence of the Enlightenment on the twentieth century. One of the central themes of the book is a defense of the Enlightenment against the common charge that it bears responsibility for the Terror of the French Revolution, the totalitarian regimes of the twentieth-century and the Holocaust.

One of the most profound thinkers of modern history, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78) was a central figure of the European Enlightenment. He was also its most formidable critic, condemning the political, economic, theological, and sexual trappings of civilization along lines that would excite the enthusiasm of romantic individualists and radical revolutionaries alike. In this study of Rousseau's life and works Robert Wokler shows how his philosophy of history, his theories of music and politics, his fiction, educational and religious writings, and even his botany, were all inspired by visionary ideals of mankind's self-realization in a condition of unfettered freedom. He explains how, in regressing to classical republicanism, ancient mythology, direct communion with God, and solitude, Rousseau anticipated some post-modernist rejections of the Enlightenment as well. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

This meticulously edited collection is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents: Emile, or On Education The Social Contract Discourse on the Origin of Inequality Among Men Discourse on the Arts and Sciences A Discourse on Political Economy Confessions New Heloise (An Excerpt)

*Includes pictures *Analyzes Rousseau's life and most famous works *Includes footnotes and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents "A country cannot subsist well without liberty, nor liberty without virtue." - Rousseau "Virtue is a state of war, and to live in it means one always has some battle to wage against oneself." - Rousseau The grand narrative of the Enlightenment, usually recounted and understood in terms of progress and modernity, generally appears as a simplified evolution from the trappings of superstition, feudalism, and everything "irrational" to a world more similar to today's world. Alongside the Renaissance, the Enlightenment is credited for the transition to an adherence to reason, secularism, and promotion of values such as individual and collective freedom and liberty. Of course, one of the towering figures of the age was Jean Jacques Rousseau, whose works were essential to the ideological developments of the 18th century. The prestige of French literature in the 18th century resides especially in its revolutionary character; while the writers of the previous century used to support the social order through their works and showed sympathy and even attempted to explain the political order of the time, in the 18th century, art, literature, philosophy and science all contribute actively and fiercely to the fight against the absolutist monarch and his regime. While this was a current manifesting all throughout Europe, there were differences in practice, especially between close countries (as was the case of England and France). There are many books and articles published constantly on the life and works of Rousseau. What generated such an abundance of writings is the turbulent life he led and the courage and audacity he manifested while fighting the prejudices of the time and establishing his ideas firmly within the academic community. His life can best be described as a constant conflict, whether it was conflict with his wife, his employers, his colleagues and even his friends. However, such situations led to the birth of masterpieces which have been influencing the advancement of critical thinking up to the present day. The roots of his personality may be found in his childhood, as the death of his mother and the fleeing of his older brother left him with a father who impressed upon him the love for studying and reading but could not cover for the other needs of a child. Thus, the absence of a family would affect his later relations with people, and it would even compel Rousseau to abandon all his five children in an orphanage, an ironic fact given that he published a treaty on education. It's quite likely that Rousseau realized the nature of the battles he fought. In fact, towards the end of his life, whether he was motivated by repentance or simply a need to advance his work, he provided his readers with explanations of all his actions and ideas. The "Confessions" were published after his death, and it is now considered by many to round his life's work into a single opus. Legends of The Enlightenment: The Life and Legacy of Jean Jacques Rousseau examines the life and works of one of the most famous writers of the 18th century. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about Rousseau like never before, in no time at all.

Of all the critiques of the Enlightenment, the most telling may be found in the life and writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. This searching, long overlooked auto critique receives its first full treatment by Mark Hulliung. Here he restores Rousseau to his historical context, the world of the philosophes, and shows how he employed the arsenal of Voltaire, Diderot, and others to launch a powerful attack on their version of the Enlightenment. With great intellectual skill and rhetorical force, Rousseau exposed the inconsistencies and shortcomings of the Enlightenment: the psychology of Locke, the genre of philosophical and conjectural history, the latest applications of science to the study of society and politics, and the growing interest in materialist modes of thought. As the century moved on, Hulliung shows, the most advanced philosophes found themselves drawn to conclusions that paralleled Rousseau's?an agreement that went unacknowledged at the time. The Enlightenment that emerges here is richer, more nuanced, and more self-critical than the one reflected in many interpretations. By extracting Rousseau from personal entangle-ments that stymied debate in his time and that mislead critics to this day, Hulliung reveals the remarkable?and remarkably unacknowledged?force of Rousseau's accomplishment. This edition includes a brilliant new introduction by the author.

In this study of Rousseau's life and works, across a range of disciplines, Robert Wokler shows how his thinking and writing were all inspired by an ideal of mankind's self-realization in a condition of unfettered freedom.

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, caught between the sentiments of nature and the demands of society. It then turns to Rousseau's crucial polarity of nature and society and to the later conceptions of history and culture it gave rise to. The third part surveys Rousseau's legacy in both domestic and international politics. Finally, the book examines Rousseau's contributions to the virtues that have become central to the current sensibility: community, sincerity, and compassion. Contributors include Allan Bloom, François Furet, Pierre Hassner, Christopher Kelly, Roger Masters, and Arthur Melzer.