Read more
This book demonstrates that Rousseau offers a distinctive critical voice which is worthy of listening to. Rousseau is shown to target not merely social 'injustices', but the very dynamics central to the 'form of life' itself. As such we are able to contemplate, and engage in, a more foundational form of social critique. We contend that by returning to Rousseau, both as a theorist in his own right, and as an interlocutor with the contemporary literature within radical political and social philosophy, we can see both the circumscribed nature of contemporary discussion, and the true importance of Rousseau's thought. In summary, Rousseau remains a figure of vital importance across disciplines and it is high time for an edited volume which connects insights centring his thought and impact today.
List of contents
Chapter 1: Introduction.- Part I: Rereading Rousseau, Reclaiming History.- Chapter 2: From fashioned to Fashioner: Rousseau and the Reclaiming of History.- Part II: 'Marxism and Critical Theory'.- Chapter 3: The Most Absolute Authority': Rousseau and the Tensions of Mass Sovereignty.- Chapter 4: Althusser, Rousseau and the Politics of the Encounter.- Chapter 5: The ambivalence of human sociality: Rousseau and recognition.- Part III: 'Transgression and Resistance'.- Chapter 6: Olympe de Gouges: Gendering Rousseau.- Chapter 7: Toward a Queer and Feminist Ecology in The Reveries of the Solitary Walker.- Part IV: Sovereignty and Economic Democracy.- Chapter 8: Sovereignty as Responsibility: Rousseau and the Dialectic of Practical Reason.- Chapter 9: Economic Democracy and Rousseau's Political Thought.- Part V: 'Rousseau and Intellectual History'.- Chapter 10: Rousseau in Thai Constitutionalism.- Chapter 11: Rousseau in Meiji Japan: the impact of French Republicanism and Nakae Chômin.- Conclusion co-authored by Denis C. Bosseau, Neal Harris, and Ployjai Pintobtang (NB Owen Brown is no longer co-authoring this chapter).
About the author
Denis Bosseau is a doctoral candidate at the University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.
Owen Brown is an independent scholar based in Oxford, UK.
Neal Harris is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Oxford Brookes University, UK.
Ployjai Pintobtang is a Lecturer in the department of Government, University of Chiang Mai, Thailand.
