Rousseau Social and Political Thought

Undergraduate / Graduate

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, self-styled "Citizen of Geneva," was a musical composer, best-selling novelist, paranoic, herborizing botanist, professional solitary, chronic exhibitionist and likely the most intensively studied political philosopher of all time. He left his mark on the Enlightenment through discussions of, among other things: consumerism, inequality, education, aesthetics, democracy, the role of women, and geopolitics. He is blamed for the Terror in the French Revolution-the alleged result of the excesses of Enlightenment rationalism; but he was also, simultaneously, worshipped as an icon of anti-modernist, Romantic revolt. Thinkers such as Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud found inspiration in his writing, while movements as diverse as free love, environmentalism, totalitarianism, and Montessori schooling are attributed to his influence. We will explore this fertile set of contradictions through reading and in-class discussion of several of his works.