Rousseau, Nature, and the Problem of the Good Life

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Publisher : Penn State Press
ISBN 13 : 0271029889
Total Pages : 241 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis Rousseau, Nature, and the Problem of the Good Life by : Laurence D. Cooper

Download or read book Rousseau, Nature, and the Problem of the Good Life written by Laurence D. Cooper and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2021-12 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The rise of modern science created a crisis for Western moral and political philosophy, which had theretofore relied either on Christian theology or Aristotelian natural teleology as guarantors of an objective standard for &"the good life.&" This book examines Rousseau's effort to show how and why, despite this challenge from science (which he himself intensified by equating our subhuman origins with our natural state), nature can remain a standard for human behavior. While recognizing an original goodness in human being in the state of nature, Rousseau knew this to be too low a standard and promoted the idea of &"the natural man living in the state of society,&" notably in Emile. Laurence Cooper shows how, for Rousseau, conscience&—understood as the &"love of order&"&—functions as the agent whereby simple savage sentiment is sublimated into a more refined &"civilized naturalness&" to which all people can aspire.

Rousseau and Hobbes

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Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191038024
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Rousseau and Hobbes by : Robin Douglass

Download or read book Rousseau and Hobbes written by Robin Douglass and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2015-02-12 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Robin Douglass presents the first comprehensive study of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's engagement with Thomas Hobbes. He reconstructs the intellectual context of this engagement to reveal the deeply polemical character of Rousseau's critique of Hobbes and to show how Rousseau sought to expose that much modern natural law and doux commerce theory was, despite its protestations to the contrary, indebted to a Hobbesian account of human nature and the origins of society. Throughout the book Douglass explores the reasons why Rousseau both followed and departed from Hobbes in different places, while resisting the temptation to present him as either a straightforwardly Hobbesian or anti-Hobbesian thinker. On the one hand, Douglass reveals the extent to which Rousseau was occupied with problems of a fundamentally Hobbesian nature and the importance, to both thinkers, of appealing to the citizens' passions in order to secure political unity. On the other hand, Douglass argues that certain ideas at the heart of Rousseau's philosophy—free will and the natural goodness of man—were set out to distance him from positions associated with Hobbes. Douglass advances an original interpretation of Rousseau's political philosophy, emerging from this encounter with Hobbesian ideas, which focuses on the interrelated themes of nature, free will, and the passions. Douglass distances his interpretation from those who have read Rousseau as a proto-Kantian and instead argues that his vision of a well-ordered republic was based on cultivating man's naturally good passions to render the life of the virtuous citizen in accordance with nature.

Rousseau on Education, Freedom, and Judgment

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Publisher : Penn State Press
ISBN 13 : 0271064463
Total Pages : 242 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis Rousseau on Education, Freedom, and Judgment by : Denise Schaeffer

Download or read book Rousseau on Education, Freedom, and Judgment written by Denise Schaeffer and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2015-06-13 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Rousseau on Education, Freedom, and Judgment, Denise Schaeffer challenges the common view of Rousseau as primarily concerned with conditioning citizens’ passions in order to promote republican virtue and unreflective patriotism. Schaeffer argues that, to the contrary, Rousseau’s central concern is the problem of judgment and how to foster it on both the individual and political level in order to create the conditions for genuine self-rule. Offering a detailed commentary on Rousseau’s major work on education, Emile, and a wide-ranging analysis of the relationship between Emile and several of Rousseau’s other works, Schaeffer explores Rousseau’s understanding of what good judgment is, how it is learned, and why it is central to the achievement and preservation of human freedom. The model of Rousseauian citizenship that emerges from Schaeffer’s analysis is more dynamic and self-critical than is often recognized. This book demonstrates the importance of Rousseau’s contribution to our understanding of the faculty of judgment, and, more broadly, invites a critical reevaluation of Rousseau’s understanding of education, citizenship, and both individual and collective freedom.

Rousseau and the Problem of Human Relations

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Publisher : Penn State Press
ISBN 13 : 0271077239
Total Pages : 260 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis Rousseau and the Problem of Human Relations by : John M. Warner

Download or read book Rousseau and the Problem of Human Relations written by John M. Warner and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2016-03-23 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Dreaming of Justice, Waking to Wisdom

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226825000
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (268 download)

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Book Synopsis Dreaming of Justice, Waking to Wisdom by : Laurence D. Cooper

Download or read book Dreaming of Justice, Waking to Wisdom written by Laurence D. Cooper and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2023-03-14 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A surprising look at how Rousseau defended the philosophic life as the most natural and best of lives. Dreaming of Justice, Waking to Wisdom reveals what could be thought of as the capstone of Rousseau’s thought, even if that capstone has been nearly invisible to readers. Despite criticizing philosophy for its corrosive effects on both natural goodness and civic virtue, Rousseau, argues Laurence D. Cooper, held the philosophic life as an ideal. Cooper expertly unpacks Rousseau’s vivid depiction of the philosophic life and the case for that life as the most natural, the freest, or, in short, the best or most choice-worthy of lives. Cooper focuses especially on a single feature, arguably the defining feature of the philosophic life: the overcoming of the ordinary moral consciousness in favor of the cognitivist view of morality. Cooper shows that Rousseau, with his particular understanding and embrace of the philosophic life, proves to be a kind of latter-day Socratic. Thorough and thought-provoking, Dreaming of Justice, Waking to Wisdom provides vital insight into Rousseau.

The Problems and Promise of Commercial Society

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Publisher : Penn State Press
ISBN 13 : 0271076046
Total Pages : 188 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis The Problems and Promise of Commercial Society by : Dennis C. Rasmussen

Download or read book The Problems and Promise of Commercial Society written by Dennis C. Rasmussen and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2015-11-04 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Adam Smith is popularly regarded as the ideological forefather of laissez-faire capitalism, while Rousseau is seen as the passionate advocate of the life of virtue in small, harmonious communities and as a sharp critic of the ills of commercial society. But, in fact, Smith had many of the same worries about commercial society that Rousseau did and was strongly influenced by his critique. In this first book-length comparative study of these leading eighteenth-century thinkers, Dennis Rasmussen highlights Smith’s sympathy with Rousseau’s concerns and analyzes in depth the ways in which Smith crafted his arguments to defend commercial society against these charges. These arguments, Rasmussen emphasizes, were pragmatic in nature, not ideological: it was Smith’s view that, all things considered, commercial society offered more benefits than the alternatives. Just because of this pragmatic orientation, Smith’s approach can be useful to us in assessing the pros and cons of commercial society today and thus contributes to a debate that is too much dominated by both dogmatic critics and doctrinaire champions of our modern commercial society.

Rousseau's Theory of Freedom

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Publisher : A&C Black
ISBN 13 : 1847143199
Total Pages : 138 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (471 download)

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Book Synopsis Rousseau's Theory of Freedom by : Matthew Simpson

Download or read book Rousseau's Theory of Freedom written by Matthew Simpson and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2006-03-08 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jean-Jacques Rousseau has a claim to be ranked above even Karl Marx as the political philosopher who has most influenced everyday life. His much-read philosophy of education alone would qualify him for a high place, but his political theory is even more important: decisions affecting millions of people were made based on the reading of certain lines of the Social Contract. Yet while politicians and scholars have studied this book for 250 years, almost no agreement exists on how to interpret its central concept: freedom. Rousseau's theory of freedom has led him to be called everything from the greatest prophet of individual liberty to the designer of the first totalitarian state. This book offers a new, unifying interpretation of the theory of freedom in the Social Contract. Simpson gives a careful analysis of Rousseau's theory of the social pact, and then examines the kinds of freedom that it brings about, showing how Rousseau's individualist and collectivist aspects fit into a larger and logically coherent theory of human liberty. Simpson's book not only helps us to understand one of the pre-eminent political minds of the 18th century, but also brings us into closer conversation with those he influenced, who have done so much to shape our world. And in light of the interest in contemporary contractualist philosophers like Rawls, Scanlon, and Gauthier, readers will find it worthwhile to return to the thinker who offers one of the most radical, profound, and insightful theories of the social contract ever devised.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 1501729659
Total Pages : 228 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (17 download)

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Book Synopsis Jean-Jacques Rousseau by : Joseph Reisert

Download or read book Jean-Jacques Rousseau written by Joseph Reisert and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-05 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Engaging Nature

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Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262526565
Total Pages : 317 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (625 download)

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Book Synopsis Engaging Nature by : Peter F. Cannavò

Download or read book Engaging Nature written by Peter F. Cannavò and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2014-12-19 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contemporary environmental political theory considers the implications of the environmental crisis for such political concepts as rights, citizenship, justice, democracy, the state, race, class, and gender. As the field has matured, scholars have begun to explore connections between Green Theory and such canonical political thinkers as Plato, Machiavelli, Locke, and Marx. The essays in this volume put important figures from the political theory canon in dialogue with current environmental political theory. It is the first comprehensive volume to bring the insights of Green Theory to bear in reinterpreting these canonical theorists. Individual essays cover such classical figures in Western thought as Aristotle, Hume, Rousseau, Mill, and Burke, but they also depart from the traditional canon to consider Mary Wollstonecraft, W. E. B. Du Bois, Hannah Arendt, and Confucius. Engaging and accessible, the essays also offer original and innovative interpretations that often challenge standard readings of these thinkers. In examining and explicating how these great thinkers of the past viewed the natural world and our relationship with nature, the essays also illuminate our current environmental predicament. -- Publisher.

A Discourse on Inequality

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Publisher : Open Road Media
ISBN 13 : 150403547X
Total Pages : 89 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (4 download)

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Book Synopsis A Discourse on Inequality by : Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Download or read book A Discourse on Inequality written by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2016-04-26 with total page 89 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature

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Publisher : A&C Black
ISBN 13 : 1441122788
Total Pages : 1927 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (411 download)

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Book Synopsis Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature by : Bron Taylor

Download or read book Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature written by Bron Taylor and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2008-06-10 with total page 1927 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature, originally published in 2005, is a landmark work in the burgeoning field of religion and nature. It covers a vast and interdisciplinary range of material, from thinkers to religious traditions and beyond, with clarity and style. Widely praised by reviewers and the recipient of two reference work awards since its publication (see www.religionandnature.com/ern), this new, more affordable version is a must-have book for anyone interested in the manifold and fascinating links between religion and nature, in all their many senses.

Rousseau and Hobbes

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Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0198724969
Total Pages : 241 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (987 download)

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Book Synopsis Rousseau and Hobbes by : Robin Douglass

Download or read book Rousseau and Hobbes written by Robin Douglass and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2015 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Robin Douglass examines the relationship between Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, two of the most important figures in the history of modern political thought. He explores and evaluates the differences between them, and advances an original interpretation of Rousseau's political philosophy.

Perfection and Disharmony in the Thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521850698
Total Pages : 212 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (56 download)

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Book Synopsis Perfection and Disharmony in the Thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau by : Jonathan Marks

Download or read book Perfection and Disharmony in the Thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau written by Jonathan Marks and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-10-06 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Publisher description

The Essential Rousseau

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Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0452010314
Total Pages : 321 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (52 download)

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Book Synopsis The Essential Rousseau by : Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Download or read book The Essential Rousseau written by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1974-04-01 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With splendid new translations, these four major works offer a superlative introduction to a great social philosopher whose ideas helped spark a revolution that has still not ended. Can individual freedom and social stability be reconciled? What is the function of government? What are the benefits and liabilities of civilization? What is the original nature of man, and how can he most fully realize his potential? These were the questions that Jean-Jacques Rousseau investigated in works that helped set the stage for the French Revolution and have since stood as eloquent expressions of revolutionary views, not only in politics but also in such areas as personal lifestyles and educational practices. Rousseau’s concepts of the natural goodness of man, the corrupting influence of social institutions, and the right and the power of the people to overthrow their oppressors and create new and more responsive forms of government and society are as richly relevant today as they were in eighteenth-century France. Includes: The Social Contract Discourse on Inequality Discourse on the Arts and Sciences “The Creed of a Savoyard Priest” (from Emile)

Discourse on the Origin of Inequality

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Author :
Publisher : Good Press
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 76 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (596 download)

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Book Synopsis Discourse on the Origin of Inequality by : Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Download or read book Discourse on the Origin of Inequality written by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2023-11-16 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rousseau first exposes in Discourse on the Origin of Inequality his conception of a human state of nature, presented as a philosophical fiction and of human perfectibility, an early idea of progress. He then explains the way, according to him, people may have established civil society, which leads him to present private property as the original source and basis of all inequality. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 – 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of the 18th century, mainly active in France. His political philosophy influenced the Enlightenment across Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolution and the overall development of modern political and educational thought.

The Social Contract, and Discourses

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Publisher : J M Dent & Sons Limited
ISBN 13 : 9780525026600
Total Pages : 330 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (266 download)

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Book Synopsis The Social Contract, and Discourses by : Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Download or read book The Social Contract, and Discourses written by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and published by J M Dent & Sons Limited. This book was released on 1950 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After an old university friend and fellow archeologist's murdered, forensic archeologist Ruth Galloway travels to Lancashire to examine the bones he found, which reveal a shocking fact about King Arthur, and discovers a campus living in fear of a sinister right-wing group called the White Hand.

A Liberal Theory of Practical Morality

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Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1786612259
Total Pages : 307 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (866 download)

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Book Synopsis A Liberal Theory of Practical Morality by : Earl Spurgin

Download or read book A Liberal Theory of Practical Morality written by Earl Spurgin and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-05-25 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Moral issues and questions abound in daily life. Media outlets frequently raise awareness of many, such as those concerning individuals’ right to privacy. The same venues seldom, if ever, raise awareness of others, such as moral issues and questions concerning our fantasies. Regardless of the level of publicity various venues afford particular moral matters, most people who become aware of those matters find many interesting and important. A problem most encounter, however, is determining the criteria through which they should approach the moral matters they wish to engage. Ethicists have long sought a moral theory that would provide the desired criteria, but most will grant readily that those efforts have not produced a generally-accepted theory. This book presents the author’s case that a kind of moral liberalism is the theory we should use to engage daily life’s moral matters. The author presents a conception of moral liberalism, argues that it is the best approach to practical morality in a plural society, and applies it to several of morality’s practical matters.