7 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
American political philosopher at Boston College who is a leading interpreter of Rousseau — and whose translations and studies of Rousseau's political works make him one of the most important Rousseau scholars in the Anglophone world.
Rousseau's 1750 prize-winning essay arguing that the arts and sciences have corrupted morals rather than improved them — his first major work and the beginning of his systematic argument that civilization corrupts natural human goodness.
Rousseau's 1762 treatise on education — following the fictional Emile from birth to adulthood under the guidance of a tutor — arguing that natural education (developing the child's innate faculties before introducing social conventions) produces a virtuous and free adult.
American philosopher at Barnard/Columbia who is a leading interpreter of Hegel and Rousseau — and whose Rousseau's Theodicy of Self-Love and Freedom's Right are major works in the Hegelian social philosophy tradition — making him the academic philosopher most directly relevant to Jonathan Bi's Rousseau/Hegel interests.
Rousseau's 1761 epistolary novel (Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse) — the best-selling novel of the 18th century — following the love between Julie and her tutor Saint-Preux, exploring the conflict between authentic feeling and social duty.
Rousseau's 1758 essay responding to d'Alembert's suggestion that Geneva should establish a theatre — arguing that theatre corrupts republican virtue because it teaches spectators to enjoy other people's passions vicariously rather than engaging in civic life, and specifically that comedy corrupts by making vice entertaining.
Rousseau's unfinished final work — ten 'walks' that constitute a meditation on solitude, nature, memory, and happiness — written in the last years of his life when he had withdrawn from society and felt persecuted by his former Enlightenment colleagues.