Frail Happiness: An Essay on Rousseau

by Todorov, Tzvetan; Scott, John T.; Zaretsky, Robert D.

• ISBN13: 9780271021102
• ISBN10: 0271021101
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-04-01
• Publisher: Pennsylvania State Univ Pr

Summary

"We are all confronted, at one time or another, with choices as to what sort of life we will lead". So Tzvetan Todorov begins Frail Happiness, a provocative meditation on the thought and writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Todorov turned to Rousseau, he tells us, because he no longer found the professional language of scholarship an effective means for addressing such issues and because he found in Rousseau a seemingly immediate language that could articulate what is difficult and problematic in human life.

Rousseau is often said to have "discovered and invented our modernity", and Todorov's interpretation of Rousseau centers on the question of what sort of life we can live in modern times. Like modernity itself, the answer is complex: there are several ways of life that Rousseau contemplates and that Todorov considers along with him. He finds in Rousseau three possibilities: the life of the citizen, the solitary individual, and the moral individual. Todorov explores these three ways and their relevance for us two centuries later. Although all have commendable

Author Biography

Tzvetan Todorov is director of research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in Paris.

Table of Contents

Preface to the English Edition	vii
Tzvetan Todorov
Translators' Introduction	xi
A Note on the Text	xxxi
Preface	1	(4)
The Structure of the Doctrine	5	(16)
The Citizen	21	(10)
The Solitary Individual	31	(24)
The Moral Individual	55	(12)
Chronological List of Works by Rousseau (1712-1778) Cited in the Text	67	(2)
Major Secondary Works Consulted	69