Letter to Beaumont, Letters Written from the Mountain, and Related Writings

Letter to Beaumont, Letters Written from the Mountain, and Related Writings PDF Author: Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Publisher: UPNE
ISBN: 1611682851
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
Published between 1762 and 1765, these writings are the last works Rousseau wrote for publication during his lifetime. Responding in each to the censorship and burning of Emile and Social Contract, Rousseau airs his views on censorship, religion, and the relation between theory and practice in politics. The Letter to Beaumont is a response to a Pastoral Letter by Christophe de Beaumont, Archbishop of Paris (also included in this volume), which attacks the religious teaching in Emile. Rousseau's response concerns the general theme of the relation between reason and revelation and contains his most explicit and boldest discussions of the Christian doctrines of creation, miracles, and original sin. In Letters Written from the Mountain, a response to the political crisis in Rousseau's homeland of Geneva caused by a dispute over the burning of his works, Rousseau extends his discussion of Christianity and shows how the political principles of the Social Contract can be applied to a concrete constitutional crisis. One of his most important statements on the relation between political philosophy and political practice, it is accompanied by a fragmentary "History of the Government of Geneva." Finally, "Vision of Peter of the Mountain, Called the Seer" is a humorous response to a resident of Motiers who had been inciting attacks on Rousseau during his exile there. Taking the form of a scriptural account of a vision, it is one of the rare examples of satire from Rousseau's pen and the only work he published anonymously after his decision in the early 1750s to put his name on all his published works. Within its satirical form, the "Vision" contains Rousseau's last public reflections on religious issues. Neither the Letter to Beaumont nor the Letters Written from the Mountain has been translated into English since defective translations that appeared shortly after their appearance in French. These are the first translations of both the "History" and the "Vision."

Letter to Beaumont, Letters Written from the Mountain, and Related Writings

Letter to Beaumont, Letters Written from the Mountain, and Related Writings PDF Author: Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Publisher: UPNE
ISBN: 1611682851
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
Published between 1762 and 1765, these writings are the last works Rousseau wrote for publication during his lifetime. Responding in each to the censorship and burning of Emile and Social Contract, Rousseau airs his views on censorship, religion, and the relation between theory and practice in politics. The Letter to Beaumont is a response to a Pastoral Letter by Christophe de Beaumont, Archbishop of Paris (also included in this volume), which attacks the religious teaching in Emile. Rousseau's response concerns the general theme of the relation between reason and revelation and contains his most explicit and boldest discussions of the Christian doctrines of creation, miracles, and original sin. In Letters Written from the Mountain, a response to the political crisis in Rousseau's homeland of Geneva caused by a dispute over the burning of his works, Rousseau extends his discussion of Christianity and shows how the political principles of the Social Contract can be applied to a concrete constitutional crisis. One of his most important statements on the relation between political philosophy and political practice, it is accompanied by a fragmentary "History of the Government of Geneva." Finally, "Vision of Peter of the Mountain, Called the Seer" is a humorous response to a resident of Motiers who had been inciting attacks on Rousseau during his exile there. Taking the form of a scriptural account of a vision, it is one of the rare examples of satire from Rousseau's pen and the only work he published anonymously after his decision in the early 1750s to put his name on all his published works. Within its satirical form, the "Vision" contains Rousseau's last public reflections on religious issues. Neither the Letter to Beaumont nor the Letters Written from the Mountain has been translated into English since defective translations that appeared shortly after their appearance in French. These are the first translations of both the "History" and the "Vision."

The Collected Writings of Rousseau: Letter to Beaumont, letters written from the mountain, and related writings

The Collected Writings of Rousseau: Letter to Beaumont, letters written from the mountain, and related writings PDF Author: Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 378

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Book Description


The General Will

The General Will PDF Author: James Farr
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316240339
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 537

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Book Description
Although it originated in theological debates, the general will ultimately became one of the most celebrated and denigrated concepts emerging from early modern political thought. Jean-Jacques Rousseau made it the central element of his political theory, and it took on a life of its own during the French Revolution, before being subjected to generations of embrace or opprobrium. James Farr and David Lay Williams have collected for the first time a set of essays that track the evolving history of the general will from its origins to recent times. The General Will: The Evolution of a Concept discusses the general will's theological, political, formal, and substantive dimensions with a careful eye toward the concept's virtues and limitations as understood by its expositors and critics, among them Arnauld, Pascal, Malebranche, Leibniz, Locke, Spinoza, Montesquieu, Kant, Constant, Tocqueville, Adam Smith and John Rawls.

Rousseau's Social Contract

Rousseau's Social Contract PDF Author: David Lay Williams
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107511607
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
If the greatness of a philosophical work can be measured by the volume and vehemence of the public response, there is little question that Rousseau's Social Contract stands out as a masterpiece. Within a week of its publication in 1762 it was banished from France. Soon thereafter, Rousseau fled to Geneva, where he saw the book burned in public. At the same time, many of his contemporaries, such as Kant, considered Rousseau to be 'the Newton of the moral world', as he was the first philosopher to draw attention to the basic dignity of human nature. The Social Contract has never ceased to be read and debated in the 250 years since its publication. Rousseau's Social Contract: An Introduction offers a thorough and systematic tour of this notoriously paradoxical and challenging text. David Lay Williams offers readers a chapter-by-chapter reading of the Social Contract, squarely confronting these interpretive obstacles. The book also features a special extended appendix dedicated to outlining Rousseau's famous conception of the general will, which has been the object of controversy since the Social Contract's publication in 1762.

Rousseau's Platonic Enlightenment

Rousseau's Platonic Enlightenment PDF Author: David Lay Williams
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 9780271045511
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
"In this sterling, deeply researched study, Williams explores how thinkers ranging from Hobbes to d'Holbach highlight various sets of ideas that Rousseau combated in developing his philosophical teaching. The account of Rousseau's predecessors who might be called Platonists is especially interesting, as is the account of those who qualify as materialists. Moreover, Williams provides a good overview of Rousseau's teaching, demonstrates a commendable grasp of the relevant secondary literature, and argues ably for the superiority of his own interpretations ... Clearly written and superbly organized, this book contributes much to Rousseau studies. An indispensable book for Rousseau scholars, this volume also will appeal to general readers and students at all levels."--C.E. Butterworth, CHOICE.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Fundamental Political Writings

Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Fundamental Political Writings PDF Author: Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Publisher: Broadview Press
ISBN: 1770486860
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
This classroom edition includes On the Social Contract, the Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts, the Discourse on the Origins of Inequality, and the Preface to Narcissus. Each text has been newly translated and includes a full complement of explanatory notes. The editors’ introduction offers students diverse points of entry into some of the distinctive possibilities and challenges of each of these fundamental texts, as well as an introduction to Rousseau’s life and historical situation. The volume also includes annotated appendices that help students to explore the origins and influences of Rousseau’s work, including excerpts from Hobbes, Pascal, Descartes, Mandeville, Diderot, Voltaire, Madame de Staël, Benjamin Constant, Joseph de Maistre, Kant, Hegel, and Engels.

Rousseau, Nietzsche, and the Image of the Human

Rousseau, Nietzsche, and the Image of the Human PDF Author: Paul Franco
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022680044X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 183

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Book Description
Rousseau and Nietzsche presented two of the most influential critiques of modern life and much can still be learned from their respective analyses of problems we still face. In Rousseau, Nietzsche, and the Image of the Human, Paul Franco examines the relationship between Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Friedrich Nietzsche, arguably the two most influential shapers and explorers of the moral and cultural imagination of late modernity. Both thinkers leveled radical critiques of modern life, but those critiques differed in important respects. Whereas Rousseau focused on the growing inequality of modern society and the hypocrisy, self-division, and loss of civic virtue it spawned, Nietzsche decried the democratic equality he identified with Rousseau and the loss of individual and cultural greatness it entailed. Franco argues, however, that Rousseau and Nietzsche are more than mere critics; they both put forward powerful alternative visions of how we ought to live. Franco focuses specifically on their views of the self and its realization, their understandings of women and the relation between the sexes, and their speculative conceptions of politics. While there are many similarities in their positive visions, Franco argues that it is the differences between them from which we have most to learn.

Modern Democracy and the Theological-Political Problem in Spinoza, Rousseau, and Jefferson

Modern Democracy and the Theological-Political Problem in Spinoza, Rousseau, and Jefferson PDF Author: L. Ward
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137475056
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
The book examines the intersection of two philosophical developments which define define contemporary life in the liberal democratic west, considering how democracy has become the only legitimate and publicly defensible regime, while also considering how modern democracy attempts to solve what Leo Strauss called the "theologico-political problem."

The Challenge of Rousseau

The Challenge of Rousseau PDF Author: Eve Grace
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107018285
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 343

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Book Description
The essays in this volume focus on Rousseau's genuine yet undervalued stature as a philosopher.

Toleration in Conflict

Toleration in Conflict PDF Author: Rainer Forst
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521885779
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 662

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Book Description
This book represents the most comprehensive historical and systematic study of the theory and practice of toleration ever written.