Rousseau and the French Revolution 1762-1791

Rousseau and the French Revolution 1762-1791
Author: Joan McDonald
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2013-11-07
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1472505905

From 1789 onwards there sprang up a fervent revolutionary cult of Rousseau, and at each stage in the subsequent unfolding of the drama of the Revolution historians have seen Rousseau's influence at work. Mrs McDonald seeks in this study to trace the development of the cult and to define the nature of the influence by means of a detailed survey of the appeals made to the authority of Rousseau in books, pamphlets and accounts of speeches put forth by revolutionary and counter-revolutionary writers between 1762 and 1791, and she reaches conclusions more complex than those which have been commonly accepted. She is able to show that most of the writers on the revolutionary side who invoked Rousseau's name did so in order to put forward their own views and used arguments that were often in direct contradiction with those which he had formulated; the Social Contract was not widely read in these years, and those revolutionaries who did actually study it were often critical of what they found there. By contrast, the most careful analysis of Rousseau's political theory is to be found in the pamphlets written by aristocratic critics of the Revolution in protest against the misuse to which his name had been put.

Rousseau and Revolution

Rousseau and Revolution
Author: Holger Ross Lauritsen
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2011-07-14
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1441164138

The political philosophy of the 18th century philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau has long been associated with the dramatic events of the French Revolution. In this book, an international team of scholars has been brought together to examine the connection between Rousseau's thought and the revolutionary traditions of modern Europe. The book explores Rousseau's own conceptions of violence and revolution in contrast to those of other thinkers such as Hegel and Fanon and in connection with his ideas on democracy. Historical analyses also consider Rousseau's thinking in light of the French Revolution in particular and the European revolutions that have followed it. Across the eleven chapters the book also touches on such issues as citizenship, activism, terrorism and the State. In doing so, the book reveals Rousseau to be an important source of insight into contemporary political problems.

Against Rousseau

Against Rousseau
Author: Joseph Marie comte de Maistre
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 256
Release: 1996
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780773514157

A translation of Joseph De Maistre's critique of Rousseau providing a historical forum for understanding the intellectual qualities of the counter-revolution from 1792 to 1797. Obviously, De Maistre's arguments were not successful, but they are valuable in terms of exploring Rousseau's ideologies, in particular his belief in the natural goodness of man and popular sovereignty. Although the two men are usually seen as polar opposites, De Maistre's critique reveals ambiguities that make him seem surprisingly more similar than he would have admitted. Lebrun (history, U. of Manitoba) provides a qualitative introduction. Canadian card order number C95-900-929-9. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Rousseau's Counter-Enlightenment

Rousseau's Counter-Enlightenment
Author: Graeme Garrard
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2012-02-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0791487431

Arguing that the question of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's relationship to the Enlightenment has been eclipsed and seriously distorted by his association with the French Revolution, Graeme Garrard presents the first book-length case that shows Rousseau as the pivotal figure in the emergence of Counter-Enlightenment thought. Viewed in the context in which he actually lived and wrote—from the middle of the eighteenth century to his death in 1778—it is apparent that Rousseau categorically rejected the Enlightenment "republic of letters" in favor of his own "republic of virtue." The philosophes, placing faith in reason and natural human sociability and subjecting religion to systematic criticism and doubt, naively minimized the deep tensions and complexities of collective life and the power disintegrative forces posed to social order. Rousseau believed that the ever precarious social order could only be achieved artificially, by manufacturing "sentiments of sociability," reshaping individuals to identify with common interests instead of their own selfish interests.

Discourse on the Sciences and Arts

Discourse on the Sciences and Arts
Author: Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Publisher: Dartmouth College Press
Total Pages: 272
Release: 1992
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN:

Rousseau attacks the social and political effects of the dominant forms of scientific knowledge. Contains the entire First Discourse, contemporary attacks on it, Rousseau's replies to his critics, and his summary of the debate in his preface to Narcissus. A number of these texts have never before been available in English. The First Discourse and Polemics demonstrate the continued relevance of Rousseau's thought. Whereas his critics argue for correction of the excesses and corruptions of knowledge and the sciences as sufficient, Rousseau attacks the social and political effects of the dominant forms of scientific knowledge.

Sovereignty, International Law, and the French Revolution

Sovereignty, International Law, and the French Revolution
Author: Edward James Kolla
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2017-10-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107179548

This book argues that the introduction of popular sovereignty as the basis for government in France facilitated a dramatic transformation in international law in the eighteenth century.

Historical Dictionary of the French Revolution

Historical Dictionary of the French Revolution
Author: Paul R. Hanson
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 449
Release: 2015-01-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 0810878925

The French Revolution remains the most examined event, or period, in world history. It was, most historians would argue, the first “modern” revolution, an event so momentous that it changed the very meaning of the word revolution, from “restoration,” as in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 in England, to its modern sense of connoting a political and/or social upheaval that marks a decisive break with the past, one that moves a society in a forward, or progressive, direction. No revolution has occurred since 1789 without making reference to this first revolution, and most have been measured against it. One cannot utter the date 1789 without thinking of revolution, and so significant were the changes unleashed in that year that it has come to mark the dividing line between early modern and late modern European history Kings This second edition of Historical Dictionary of the French Revolution covers its history through a chronology, an introductory essay, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 400 cross-referenced entries on the causes and origins; the roles of significant persons; crucial events and turning points; important institutions and organizations; and the economic, social, and intellectual factors involved in the event that gave birth to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about this period.

The Enlightenment in Practice

The Enlightenment in Practice
Author: Jeremy L. Caradonna
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 531
Release: 2012-03-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 0801464374

Public academic prize contests—the concours académique—played a significant role in the intellectual life of Enlightenment France, with aspirants formulating positions on such matters as slavery, poverty, the education of women, tax reform, and urban renewal and submitting the resulting essays for scrutiny by panels of judges. In The Enlightenment in Practice, Jeremy L. Caradonna draws on archives both in Paris and the provinces to show that thousands of individuals—ranging from elite men and women of letters artisans, and peasants—participated in these intellectual competitions, a far broader range of people than has been previously assumed. Caradonna contends that the Enlightenment in France can no longer be seen as a cultural movement restricted to a small coterie of philosophers or a limited number of printed texts. Moreover, Caradonna demonstrates that the French monarchy took academic competitions quite seriously, sponsoring numerous contests on such practical matters as deforestation, the quality of drinking water, and the nighttime illumination of cities. In some cases, the contests served as an early mechanism for technology transfer: the state used submissions to identify technical experts to whom it could turn for advice. Finally, the author shows how this unique intellectual exercise declined during the upheavals of the French Revolution, when voicing moderate public criticism became a rather dangerous act.