• Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Against Rousseau: On the State of Nature and on the Sovereignty of the People

Against Rousseau: On the State of Nature and on the Sovereignty of the People

Hardcover

PhilosophyGeneral Political Science

Currently unavailable to order

ISBN10: 0773514155
ISBN13: 9780773514157
Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
Published: Jun 1 1996
Pages: 248
Weight: 0.95
Height: 0.80 Width: 6.20 Depth: 9.10
Language: English

A fierce opponent of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Joseph de Maistre was a widely read critic of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. Against Rousseau provides the English-speaking reader with a rare first-hand view of the intellectual world of the early counter-revolution.

On the State of Nature and On the Sovereignty of the People are Maistre's most comprehensive treatment of Rousseau's ideas and his most sustained critique of the ideological foundations of the revolution. On the State of Nature, a detailed critique of Rousseau's Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality, focuses on Rousseau's belief in the natural goodness of man; On the Sovereignty of the People, a critique of Social Contract, explores Rousseau's theory of popular sovereignty. In Maistre's eyes Rousseau encouraged the socially destructive individualism that lay at the heart of the French Revolution. However, the essays reveal some surprising ambiguities in the relationship between two seminal thinkers who are usually thought of as polar opposites, suggesting that Maistre's vision was more akin to Rousseau's than he would have admitted.

Against Rousseau offers valuable insights into the evolution of Maistre's counter-revolutionary ideas during the crucial years of 1792-97 and illustrates his remarkable insights into society and politics. It is vital to any consideration of his thought or the counter-revolutionary movement in eighteenth-century France.

Also in

Philosophy