Thinking with Rousseau
From Machiavelli to Schmitt

Rousseau's relation to the Western intellectual tradition is re-examined through a series of 'conversations' between Rousseau and other 'great thinkers'.

Helena Rosenblatt (Edited by), Paul Schweigert (Edited by)

9781107513594, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 18 June 2020

338 pages, 8 b/w illus. 1 table
22.8 x 15.1 x 1.9 cm, 0.5 kg

Although indisputably one of the most important thinkers in the Western intellectual tradition, Rousseau's actual place within that tradition, and the legacy of his thought, remains hotly disputed. Thinking with Rousseau reconsiders his contribution to this tradition through a series of essays exploring the relationship between Rousseau and other 'great thinkers'. Ranging from 'Rousseau and Machiavelli' to 'Rousseau and Schmitt', this volume focuses on the kind of intricate work that intellectuals do when they read each other and grapple with one another's ideas. This approach is very helpful in explaining how old ideas are transformed and/or transmitted and new ones are generated. Rousseau himself was a master at appropriating the ideas of others, while simultaneously subverting them, and as the essays in this volume vividly demonstrate, the resulting ambivalences and paradoxes in his thought were creatively mined by others.

Introduction Helena Rosenblatt and Paul Schweigert
1. Rousseau and Machiavelli: two interpretations of Republicanism Maurizio Viroli
2. Rousseau and Montaigne: from enthusiasm to equanimity James Miller
3. Rousseau and Hobbes: the Hobbesianism of Rousseau Richard Tuck
4. Rousseau and Montesquieu J. Kent Wright
5. Rousseau and Mendelssohn: 'enraptured reason': Rousseau's presence in Moses Mendelssohn's thought David Sorkin
6. Rousseau and Smith on sympathy as a first principle Pierre Force
7. Rousseau and A. L. Thomas Anthony La Vopa
8. Rousseau and d'Holbach: the revolutionary implications of la philosophie anti-Thérésienne Jonathan Israel
9. Rousseau and Diderot Joanna Stalnaker
10. Rousseau and Kant: Rousseau's Kantian legacy Susan Shell and Richard Velkley
11. Rousseau and Wollstonecraft, solitary walkers Barbara Taylor
12. Rousseau and Madame de Staël: a surprising dialogue Aurelian Craiutu
13. Rousseau and Proudhon: human nature, property, and the social contract K. Steven Vincent
14. Rousseau, Marx and human fulfillment Jerrold Siegel
15. Rousseau and Schmitt: sovereigns and dictators David Bates.

Subject Areas: Social & political philosophy [HPS], Western philosophy: Enlightenment [HPCD1], History of Western philosophy [HPC]