The Social Contract and The First and Second Discourses

by Jean-Jacques Rousseau; Edited and with an Introduction by Susan Dunn; With essay

• ISBN13: 9780300091410
• ISBN10: 0300091419
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2002-02-08
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

Jean-Jacques Rousseau's ideas about society, culture, and government are pivotal in the history of political thought. His works are as controversial as they are relevant today. This volume brings together three of Rousseau's most important political writings -- The Social Contract and The First Discourse (Discourse on the Sciences and Arts) and The Second Discourse (Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality) -- and presents essays by major scholars that shed light on the dimensions and implications of these texts.

Susan Dunn's introductory essay underlines the unity of Rousseau's political thought and explains why his ideas influenced Jacobin revolutionaries in France but repelled American revolutionaries across the ocean. Gita May's essay discusses Rousseau as cultural critic. Robert N. Bellah explores Rousseau's attempt to resolve the tension between the individual's desire for freedom and the obligations that society imposes. David Bromwich analyzes Rousseau as a psychologist of the human self. And Conor Cruise O'Brien takes on the "noxious, "

Table of Contents

Susan Dunn: Introduction: Rousseau's Political Triptych	1	(35)
Chronology of Rousseau's Life	36
The First Discourse: Discourse on the Sciences and Arts	43
The Second Discourse: Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality Among Mankind	69
The Social Contract	149
Rethinking The First and Second Discourses and The Social Contract
Gita May: Rousseau, Cultural Critic	257
Robert N. Bellah: Rousseau on Society and the Individual	266
David Bromwich: Rousseau and the Self without Property	288
Conor Cruise O'Brien: Rousseau, Robespierre, Burke, Jefferson, and the French Revolution	301