Rousseau's Theory of Human Association

Rousseau's Theory of Human Association PDF Author: G. Hill
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1403983046
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
The book explores the characteristic features and political consequences of social interaction when the parties' intentions are transparent, and when they are opaque. The author develops a theory of association and uses it to elucidate, assess and extend Rousseau's views of human nature, civil society, the market economy and the republican state.

Rousseau and the Problem of Human Relations

Rousseau and the Problem of Human Relations PDF Author: John M. Warner
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271077239
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
In this volume, John Warner grapples with one of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s chief preoccupations: the problem of self-interest implicit in all social relationships. Not only did Rousseau never solve this problem, Warner argues, but he also believed it was fundamentally unsolvable—that social relationships could never restore wholeness to a self-interested human being. This engaging study is founded on two basic but important questions: what do we want out of human relationships, and are we able to achieve what we are after? Warner traces his answers through the contours of Rousseau’s thought on three distinct types of relationships—sexual love, friendship, and civil or political association—as well as alternate interpretations of Rousseau, such as that of the neo-Kantian Rawlsian school. The result is an insightful exploration of the way Rousseau inspires readers to imbue social relations with purpose and meaning, only to show the impossibility of reaching wholeness through such relationships. While Rousseau may raise our hopes only to dash them, Rousseau and the Problem of Human Relations demonstrates that his ambitious failure offers unexpected insight into the human condition and into the limits of Rousseau’s critical act.

The Social Contract

The Social Contract PDF Author: Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780852291634
Category : Political right
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description


A Discourse on Inequality

A Discourse on Inequality PDF Author: Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 150403547X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 91

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Book Description
A fascinating examination of the relationship between civilization and inequality from one of history’s greatest minds The first man to erect a fence around a piece of land and declare it his own founded civil society—and doomed mankind to millennia of war and famine. The dawn of modern civilization, argues Jean-Jacques Rousseau in this essential treatise on human nature, was also the beginning of inequality. One of the great thinkers of the Enlightenment, Rousseau based his work in compassion for his fellow man. The great crime of despotism, he believed, was the raising of the cruel above the weak. In this landmark text, he spells out the antidote for man’s ills: a compassionate revolution to pull up the fences and restore the balance of mankind. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

Rousseau's Theodicy of Self-Love

Rousseau's Theodicy of Self-Love PDF Author: Frederick Neuhouser
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199542678
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
Jean-Jacques Rousseau revolutionized our understanding of ourselves with his brilliant investigation of amour propre: the passion that drives humans to seek the esteem, approval, admiration, or love - the recognition - of their fellow beings. Frederick Neuhouser traces the development of this key idea in modern thought.

The Legacy of Rousseau

The Legacy of Rousseau PDF Author: Clifford Orwin
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226638561
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
Few thinkers have enjoyed so pervasive an influence as Rousseau, who originated dissatisfaction with modernity. By exploring polarities articulated by Rousseau—nature versus society, self versus other, community versus individual, and compassion versus competitiveness—these fourteen original essays show how his thought continues to shape our ways of talking, feeling, thinking, and complaining. The volume begins by taking up a central theme noted by the late Allan Bloom—Rousseau's critique of the bourgeois as the dominant modern human type and as a being fundamentally in contradiction, caught between the sentiments of nature and the demands of society. It then turns to Rousseau's crucial polarity of nature and society and to the later conceptions of history and culture it gave rise to. The third part surveys Rousseau's legacy in both domestic and international politics. Finally, the book examines Rousseau's contributions to the virtues that have become central to the current sensibility: community, sincerity, and compassion. Contributors include Allan Bloom, François Furet, Pierre Hassner, Christopher Kelly, Roger Masters, and Arthur Melzer.

Rousseau's Critique of Inequality

Rousseau's Critique of Inequality PDF Author: Frederick Neuhouser
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107064740
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
This book evaluates Rousseau's arguments concerning why inequality exists in society and why it poses dangers to human well-being.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau PDF Author: Joseph Reisert
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501729659
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
Scholars have long debated the contribution Rousseau has made to political thought. Is he a theorist of radical individualism, a reactionary advocate for authoritarianism, or just a brilliantly paradoxical but ultimately incoherent controversialist? In the first book devoted to discussion of Rousseau's conception of virtue, Joseph R. Reisert argues that Rousseau's work offers a coherent political theory that both complements and challenges key elements of contemporary liberalism.Drawing on his deep familiarity with Rousseau's work, Reisert maintains that Rousseau's primary concern was to discover the psychological foundations of virtue, which he understood as the strength of will needed to respect the rights of others. Reisert reconstructs the model of the human soul that underpins Rousseau's account of virtue, a model he considers superior to the alternatives conceived by Aristotle, Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu, Kant, and Rawls. Rousseau, the author explains, believed that life in modern societies undermines virtue, but that for individuals to thrive, and for free societies to endure, all would require moral education. Rousseau, who styled himself "a friend of virtue," sought to impart virtue to his readers through the examples of his literary characters Emile and Julie.Reisert finds that Rousseau's thought poses a dilemma for modern politics: democratic governments can do little to cultivate virtue directly, yet liberal society continues to need it. The requisite moral teaching, Reisert concludes, should be provided instead by families, religious organizations, and other civil associations.

Thinking with Rousseau

Thinking with Rousseau PDF Author: Helena Rosenblatt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107105765
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 339

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Book Description
Rousseau's relation to the Western intellectual tradition is re-examined through a series of 'conversations' between Rousseau and other 'great thinkers'.

Social Contract

Social Contract PDF Author: Jean Jacques Rousseau
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451602227
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
In Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Discourses on the Origin of Inequality, he outlines his own history of the development of human society. He explains in general terms how the differences between social and economic classes arose alongside the formation of modern states. He also explores the means by which these inequalities were actually built into and perpetuated by the foundational notions of modern society and government. Rather than endorse a return to the peaceful ways of pre-modern human beings, Rousseau addresses these inequalities in his seminal work, The Social Contract. Rousseau does not see government as an inherently corrupting influence, and he makes very clear and precise recommendations about how the state can and should protect the equality and character of its citizens.