Jean-Jacques Rousseau: The Politics of the OrdinaryRowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002 M04 8 - 232 pages Rousseau is most often read either as a theorist of individual authenticity or as a communitarian. In this book, he is neither. Instead, Rousseau is understood as a theorist of the common person. In Strong's understanding, Rousseau's use of 'common' always refers both to that which is common and to that which is ordinary, vulgar, everyday. For Strong, Rousseau resonates with Kant, Hegel, and Marx, but he is more modern like Emerson, Nietzsche, Eittegenstein, and Heidegger. Rousseau's democratic individual is an ordinary self, paradoxically multiple and not singular. In the course of exploring this contention, Strong examines Rousseau's fear of authorship (though not of authority), his understanding of the human, his attempt to overcome the scandal that relativism posed for politics, and the political importance of sexuality. |
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amour appears argued become Cambridge chapter child citizen claim common commonalty Confessions David Hume Dialogues Diderot discussion Edmund Burke Emile 1 OC Emile's encounter Encyclopédie ESOL essay existence experience fact Friedrich Nietzsche Geneva give Hannah Arendt Heloise Hobbes Hume Ibid idea identity important individual inequality institutions Jean Starobinski Jean-Jacques Rousseau Judith Shklar Kant language legislator Letter live matter means moral Narcisse nature Nietzsche's OC iii OC iv one's oneself ordinary Origin of Languages Paris person philosophy pity political society Political Theory Political Thought portrait possible precisely preface OC present question Rawls reader realm reason relation religion requires Rêveries Rousseau indicates Rousseau writes says Rousseau Second Discourse sense sexuality Social Contract sovereign sovereignty speak Stanley Cavell Starobinski Strong theater things Thomas Hobbes tion tutor University Press virtue women words