Rousseau's Political Writings: Discourse on Inequality, Discourse on Political Economy, On Social Contract (Norton Critical Edition)

by Rousseau, Jean Jacques; Bondanella, Julia Conaway; Ritter, Alan; Bondanella, Julia Conaway

• ISBN13: 9780393956511
• ISBN10: 0393956512
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1987-10-17
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Summary

This Norton Critical Edition includes the three most important of Rousseau's political writings: Discourse on Inequality, Discourse on Political Economy, and On Social Contract. Each piece is fully annotated. Backgrounds includes a sketch of Rousseau's life, selections from his Confessions, and comments on Rousseau's work and character from such illustrious contemporaries and early critics as Voltaire, Hume, Boswell and Johnson, Paine, Kant, and Proudhon. Commentaries includes assessments of Rousseau's political thought by a wide variety of scholars and critics including Judith Shklar, Robert Nisbet, Simone Weil, and Benjamin R. Barber.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Translator's Note	ix
Rousseau's Political Writings	1	(174)
Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality Among Men	3	(55)
Discourse on Political Economy	58	(26)
On Social Contract or Principles of Political Right	84	(91)
Backgrounds	175	(44)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau: A Biographical Sketch	177	(5)
From Rousseau's Confessions	182	(9)
Reactions to Rousseau	191	(28)
Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire	191	(4)
David Hume	195	(4)
James Boswell and Samuel Johnson	199	(4)
Giacomo Casanova	203	(1)
Adam Smith	204	(2)
Thomas Paine	206	(1)
Immanuel Kant	207	(1)
Joseph de Maistre	208	(3)
John Adams	211	(2)
Benjamin Constant	213	(2)
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon	215	(3)
Leo Tolstoy	218	(1)
Commentaries	219	(88)
The Political Thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau	221	(11)
Jean Starobinski
Liberty and Authority in On Social Contract	232	(12)
R. A. Leigh
Rousseau & Equality	244	(16)
Robert Nisbet
Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Equality	260	(14)
Judith N. Shklar
Rousseau's Majoritarian Democracy	274	(7)
Robert Paul Wolff
A Note on the Complete Abolition of Political Parties	281	(11)
Simone Weil
Political Participation and the Creation of Res Publica	292	(15)
Benjamin R. Barber
Bibliography	307	(2)
Index	309