The Political Philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau The Impossibilty of Reason

by Qvortrup, Mads

• ISBN13: 9780719065811
• ISBN10: 071906581X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-06-26
• Publisher: Manchester University Press

Summary

This exciting new text presents the first overview of Jean Jacques Rousseau's work from a political science perspective. Was Rousseau--the great theorist of the French Revolution--really a conservative? This original study argues that the he was a constitutionalist much closer to Madison, Montesquieu, and Locke than to revolutionaries. Outlining his profound opposition to Godless materialism and revolutionary change, this book finds parallels between Rousseau and Burke, as well as showing how Rousseau developed the first modern theory of nationalism. The book presents an integrated political analysis of Rousseau's educational, ethical, religious and political writings, and will be essential reading for students of politics, philosophy and the history of ideas.

Author Biography

Mads Qvortrup earned his doctorate at the University of Oxford. Having taught for several years at the London School of Economics, he was appointed head of the British government's Comprehensive Gun Crime Review in 2003.

Table of Contents

Introduction and Method * Prologue * The Politics of the Soul: The Life and Times of Jean-Jacques Rousseau * The Disenchantment of the World * Checks, Balances and Popular Participation: Rousseau As a Constitutionalist * A Civic Profession of Faith: Rousseau and Nationalism * The Last of the Ancients, the First of the Moderns? * Epilogue: in the Beginning Was Song * Appendix--Chronology of Rousseau's Life