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Informationen zum Autor HELENA ROSENBLATT (Ph.D., Columbia) is a professor of history at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. A specialist in European intellectual history, she is the author of Liberal Values: Benjamin Constant and the Politics of Religion (2008) and Rousseau and Geneva: From the First Discourse to the Social Contract, 1749-1762 (1997), and she is the editor of The Cambridge Companion to Constant (2009). Klappentext A provocative essay that challenged the superiority of civilized society and modern government, Jean-Jacques Rousseaus Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality made him an outcast among fellow Enlightenment thinkers but stands today as one of the most important political texts in Western history. Helena Rosenblatts new translation, introduction, and selection of related documents help students comprehend why Rousseaus criticisms of human nature, political hierarchy, and private property were so controversial in his time yet later were hailed as a foundation of democracy. The introduction explores life experiences that shaped Rousseaus philosophy, explains contemporary ideas about political authority and social order, and guides students through Rousseaus thought, including explanations of how his work anticipated theories about evolution and inspired leaders of the French Revolution. Related primary documents -- including a selection from Rousseaus Social Contract -- situate Rousseaus ideas in contemporary political and social thought. Questions for consideration, a chronology of Rousseaus life and work, and a selected bibliography enrich students understanding of the man and his times. Zusammenfassung A provocative essay that challenged the superiority of civilized society and modern government, Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality made him an outcast among fellow Enlightenment thinkers but stands today as one of the most important political texts in Western history. Inhaltsverzeichnis ForewordPreface PART ONE. INTRODUCTION: The Life and Thought of Jean-Jacques RousseauRousseaus Beginnings: The Road to the Second DiscourseThe Origins of Political Authority Before RousseauRousseaus Bombshell: The Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality The State of Nature The Steps to Society The Invention of Property Anthropology, Psychology, and Evolutionary Biology Rousseau and Gender Reception of the Second Discourse "Citizen of Geneva": The DedicationRousseaus Later Life and Legacy Rousseau and the French Revolution The Social Contract and Its Paradoxes PART TWO: Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality Among Men by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Citizen of GenevaDedicationPrefaceNotice about the NotesFirst PartSecond PartRousseaus Notes PART THREE. RELATED DOCUMENTS1. Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, Politics Drawn from Holy Scripture, 17092. Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, 16513. Samuel Pufendorf, On the Duty of Man and Citizen, 16734. John Locke, Two Treatises of Government, 16905. George-Louis Leclerc Buffon, Discourse on the Nature of Animals, 17536. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Of the Social Contract, 17627. Maximilien Robespierre, Eulogies to Rousseau, 1790s8. Benjamin Constant, Principles of Politics, 1810 Appendixes A Jean-Jacques Rousseau Chronology (1712-1794) Questions for Consideration Selected Bibliography Index...
