The Challenge of Rousseau

Written by prominent scholars of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's philosophy, this collection celebrates the 300th anniversary of Rousseau's birth and the 250th anniversary of the publication of Emile. The depth and systematic character of Rousseau's thought was recognized almost immediately by thinkers such as Kant and Hegel, yet debate continues over the degree to which Rousseau's legacy is the result of poetic, literary, or rhetorical genius, rather than of philosophic rigor or profundity. The authors focus on Rousseau's genuine yet undervalued stature as a philosopher. This collection includes essays that develop some of the complex problems Rousseau treated so radically and profoundly, as well as essays on the vigorous debates he engaged in with thoughtful contemporaries and predecessors.

Eve Grace is A. E. and Ethel Irene Carleton Professor of Social Sciences in the Political Science Department at Colorado College. With Christopher Kelly, she co-edited Rousseau on Women, Love, and Family (2009) and Letter to Beaumont, Letters Written from the Mountain, and Related Writings (2001). She has contributed essays to several volumes, including The Pious Sex: Essays on Women and Religion in the History of Political Thought (2010), Autobiography as Philosophy: A Collection of Essays on the Uses of Self-Presentations by Philosophers (2006) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Critical Assessments (2005).

Christopher Kelly is Professor of Political Science at Boston College. He is co-editor of the series The Collected Writings of Rousseau (1990–2009) and the author of Rousseau as Author: Consecrating One's Life to the Truth (2003) and Rousseau's Exemplary Life: 'The Confessions' as Political Philosophy (1987). With Eve Grace, he co-edited Rousseau on Women, Love, and Family (2009) and Letter to Beaumont, Letters Written from the Mountain, and Related Writings (2001). He has contributed essays to The Cambridge Companion to Rousseau (2001) and The Legacy of Rousseau (1997).