To view prices and purchase online, please login or create an account now.



Rousseau, the Age of Enlightenment, and Their Legacies

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title Rousseau, the Age of Enlightenment, and Their Legacies
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Robert Wokler
Edited by Bryan Garsten
Introduction by Christopher Brooke
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:416
Dimensions(mm): Height 235,Width 152
Category/GenreWestern philosophy - c 1600 to c 1900
Social and political philosophy
ISBN/Barcode 9780691147895
ClassificationsDewey:320.01
Audience
Tertiary Education (US: College)
Professional & Vocational
Illustrations 6 line illus.

Publishing Details

Publisher Princeton University Press
Imprint Princeton University Press
Publication Date 8 April 2012
Publication Country United States

Description

Robert Wokler was one of the world's leading experts on Rousseau and the Enlightenment, but some of his best work was published in the form of widely scattered and difficult-to-find essays. This book collects for the first time a representative selection of his most important essays on Rousseau and the legacy of Enlightenment political thought. These essays concern many of the great themes of the age, including liberty, equality and the origins of revolution. But they also address a number of less prominent debates, including those over cosmopolitanism, the nature and social role of music and the origins of the human sciences in the Enlightenment controversy over the relationship between humans and the great apes. These essays also explore Rousseau's relationships to Rameau, Pufendorf, Voltaire and Marx; reflect on the work of important earlier scholars of the Enlightenment, including Ernst Cassirer and Isaiah Berlin; and examine the influence of the Enlightenment on the twentieth century. One of the central themes of the book is a defense of the Enlightenment against the common charge that it bears responsibility for the Terror of the French Revolution, the totalitarian regimes of the twentieth-century and the Holocaust.

Author Biography

Robert Wokler (1942-2006) was at the time of his death Senior Lecturer in Political Science and in the Directed Studies program at Yale University. He was formerly Reader in the History of Political Thought at the University of Manchester. He was the author of "Rousseau on Society, Politics, Music and Language" and "Rousseau: A Very Short Introduction." He was also the editor or coeditor of many books, including "The Cambridge History of Eighteenth-Century Political Thought," "Diderot: Political Writings," "The Enlightenment and Modernity" and "Inventing Human Science."

Reviews

"[A] volume, introduced by Christopher Brooke, that all Rousseau students need."--Christopher Bertram, Times Literary Supplement "[T]his collection of essays is a valuable contribution not only to Rousseau studies and Enlightenment studies alike, but also (and perhaps more importantly) to the ongoing debate on how to do intellectual history and how to address the normative or political use of history by present thinkers."--Brian Kj?r Olesen, European Review of History "[T]his is a welcome collection for those interested in Rousseau and his impact."--Michael Lynn, Historian