Freedom, Slavery, History: Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was perhaps the greatest author of the eighteenth century. He was, he said, “like no one in the whole world.” His works cannot fail to impress us as dispatches from a unique mind. As unusual as he was, Rousseau gathered into himself many of the ideas that were current during the pivotal period in which he lived. He wrote in an array of genres—history, political theory, education, constitutional design, romance, and autobiography. In this course we aim to understand Rousseau and, in so doing, to ask what Rousseau might mean to us. (Political Theory) 3 hrs. sem.