Rousseau's Rejuvenation of Political Philosophy: A New Introduction

Abstract

This post includes the table of contents and introductory chapter of a new book on the political philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The book reads Rousseau with a view toward deepening our understanding of many political issues alive today, including the place of women in society, the viability of traditional family structures, the role of religion and religious freedom in nations that are becoming ever more secular, and the proper conduct of American constitutional government.

Rousseau has been among the most influential modern philosophers, and among the most misunderstood. The first great philosophic critic of the Enlightenment, he sought to revive political philosophy as it was practiced by Plato, and to make it useful in the modern world. His understanding of politics rests on deep and often prescient reflections about the nature of the human soul and the relationship between our animal origins and the achievements of civilization. This book demonstrates that the implications Rousseau drew from those reflections continue to deserve serious attention.

Keywords: anthropology, education, the Enlightenment, philosophy, Plato, political science, political thought, Rousseau, Socrates, U.S. Constitutional law

JEL Classification: K10, K30, N33