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hudikatz's review
4.0
Read 2 discourses and social contract. Guy is crazy. Need to read it again. And his other stuff that isnt philosophy. Hes on to something with this inequality business.
enklein7's review
4.0
Not an “endorsement” of Rousseau’s ideas since he seems to only intend for his ideas to apply to white men, but it’s pretty fascinating to read his works written at different points in his life.
-Had some bold ideas about evolution, and in one note to the Discourse on Inequality he criticizes the prejudices of other European writers and travelers and how they always apply their “European standards” to others.
-Frequently notes his admiration about indigenous communities, unlike most other writers, but it feels like more of a fetish because his ideas about indigenous peoples still exist with the “European imaginary” and he’s still “othering” and separating them, that they’re at an earlier/primitive stage in development, which is problematic -For all he does to trace inequality and the decay of European societies, he only cares about inequality of wealth and status for white men, so his Social Contract theory, which seeks to remedy all the issues he lays out in the Discourses, is about white men.
-Reveries of a Solitary Walker have a transcendentalist vibe, which is interesting, and give more insight as to where Rousseau was at later in life.
-Definitely someone who has to be read several times because he is a man and writer of many contradictions.
-Had some bold ideas about evolution, and in one note to the Discourse on Inequality he criticizes the prejudices of other European writers and travelers and how they always apply their “European standards” to others.
-Frequently notes his admiration about indigenous communities, unlike most other writers, but it feels like more of a fetish because his ideas about indigenous peoples still exist with the “European imaginary” and he’s still “othering” and separating them, that they’re at an earlier/primitive stage in development, which is problematic -For all he does to trace inequality and the decay of European societies, he only cares about inequality of wealth and status for white men, so his Social Contract theory, which seeks to remedy all the issues he lays out in the Discourses, is about white men.
-Reveries of a Solitary Walker have a transcendentalist vibe, which is interesting, and give more insight as to where Rousseau was at later in life.
-Definitely someone who has to be read several times because he is a man and writer of many contradictions.
sjfurger's review
5.0
Rousseau is a genius, and key to understanding the French Revolution, the 18th century intellectual movement, and Enlightenment thought. He also provides the basis for several other political systems, including the American 'democracy'.
I believe one of the most significant quotes is as follows: "...for it is obviously contrary to the law of nature, however it may be defined, for a child to command an old man, for an imbecile to lead a wise man, and for a handful of people to gorge themselves on superfluities while the starving multitude lacks necessities" (81).
I believe one of the most significant quotes is as follows: "...for it is obviously contrary to the law of nature, however it may be defined, for a child to command an old man, for an imbecile to lead a wise man, and for a handful of people to gorge themselves on superfluities while the starving multitude lacks necessities" (81).
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