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On Imposture
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Literary Lies, and Political Fiction
Serge Margel (Author), Eva Yampolsky (Translated by)
9780253065292
Hardback, published 7 March 2023
88 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.304 kg
Imposture is an abuse of power. It is the act of lying for one's own benefit, of disguising the truth in order to mislead. For Jean-Jacques Rousseau, however, imposture is first and foremost power itself. In On Imposture, French philosopher Serge Margel explores imposture within Rousseau's Discourses, Confessions, and Emile. For Rousseau, taking power, using it, or abusing it are ultimately one and the same act. Once there's power, and someone grants themselves the means, the right, and the authority to force another's beliefs or actions, there is imposture. According to Rousseau, imposture can be found through human history, society, and culture. Using a deconstructionist method in the classic manner of Derrida, On Imposture explores Rousseau's thought concerning imposture and offers a unique analysis of its implications for politics, civil society, literature, and existentialist thought.
Foreword
Preface: The Staging of an Imposture
Mendacium est fabula or the Right to Lie by Admission of Innocence: From the Fourth Reverie to the Epigraph of the Confessions
Introduction
I. Lying in the Confessions: Between Innocene and Injustice
II. An Innocent Liar, a Truthful Man, and a Confessing Witness
Fictions of the Cultural: Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Body Politic of Democracy
Introduction
I. Nature, Culture, and the Economy of History
II. The Body Politic and the Discourse of Fiction
Bibliography