The Essential Rousseau ('The Social Contract'; 'Discourse on Inequality'; 'Discourse on the Arts and Sciences'; 'The Creed of a Savoyard Priest') - Softcover

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0452010314 ISBN 13: 9780452010314

Publisher: Plume/Meridian, 1974

Synopsis

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)

About this edition

• Publisher: Plume/Meridian
• Publication date: 1974
• ISBN 10: 0452010314
• ISBN 13: 9780452010314
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320