Rousseau's Ethics of Truth: A Sublime Science of Simple Souls

Neidleman, Jason

ISBN 10: 1138654787 / ISBN 13: 9781138654785

Published by Routledge, 2016

About this Item

250 pages. 9.50x6.50x0.50 inches. In Stock.

Seller Inventory # x-1138654787

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Rousseau's Ethics of Truth: A Sublime Science of Simple Souls
• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication Date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1138654787
• ISBN 13: 9781138654785
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Brand New

About this title

Synopsis

In 1758, Rousseau announced that he had adopted "vitam impendere vero" (dedicate life to truth) as a personal pledge. Despite the dramatic nature of this declaration, no scholar has yet approached Rousseau’s work through the lens of truth or truthseeking. What did it mean for Rousseau to lead a life dedicated to truth?

This book presents Rousseau’s normative account of truthseeking, his account of what human beings must do if they hope to discover the truths essential to human happiness. Rousseau’s writings constitute a practical guide to these truths; they describe how he arrived at them and how others might as well. In reading Rousseau through the lens of truth, Neidleman traverses the entirety of Rousseau's corpus, and, in the process, reveals a series of symmetries among the disparate themes treated in those texts. The first section of the book lays out Rousseau’s general philosophy of truth and truthseeking. The second section follows Rousseau down four distinct pathways to truth: reverie, republicanism, religion, and reason. With a strong grounding in both the Anglophone and Francophone scholarship on Rousseau, this book will appeal to scholars across a broad range of disciplines.

About the Author

Jason Neidleman is Professor of Political Science and Chair of the Department of History and Political Science at the University of La Verne, USA