sabbatical_jaer's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

Waanzinnig interessante uiteenzetting waarom ‘beschaving’ de mensheid heeft verdorven. Het lijkt me interessant om enkele van zijn argumenten te toetsen aan hedendaags wetenschappelijk onderzoek, maar voor de verdere rest blijft het vertoog fascineren.
Een opmerkelijke passage vond ik tegen het einde van het boek, wanneer Rousseau zich even aan de zijde van Hobbes lijkt te schaart in het debat over de menselijke natuur, dit terwijl hij ‘m in de rest van het boek loopt af te zeiken.

Anyway: zeker een aanrader voor iedereen die benieuwd is naar het OG tegengeluid tegen de verafgoderij van de vooruitgang.

bolognio108's review against another edition

Go to review page

informative reflective slow-paced

3.5

chanelngsl's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

3.5

monologyu's review against another edition

Go to review page

informative

4.0

aitngg's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

ensonada's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

Audiobook: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NOO9PjECBs

mrewers's review against another edition

Go to review page

reflective slow-paced

3.0

mljohnson2698's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

Okay this is pretty boring but occasionally laugh out loud funny. What a ride.

lutherancoffeehour's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

2.5

emma_klein's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

Damn, Rousseau. Too relevant for me to handle...wonder what he would have to say about the Trump presidency/administration.

"We could see the multitude oppressed from within as a consequence of the very precautions taken against external threats; we could see a constant increase in oppression without the oppressed ever being in a position to know where it would end, or what legitimate means they had for halting it. We could see the rights of citizens and the freedom of nations gradually extinguished, and the protests of the weak treated as the mutterings of sedition. We could see politics restrict the honour of defending the common cause to a venal segment of the populace; we could consequently see the necessity of taxation arise and the disheartened farmer quitting his fields even in peace time, and forsaking his plough to gird on the sword. We would see bizarre and deadly codes of honor arise."

"...we would see leaders stirring up everything that might weaken assemblies of men by disuniting them, everything that might give society an air of seeming concord and sow in the seeds of real disunity, everything that might inspire distrust and mutual hatred in different social orders through conflict between their rights and their interests, and by these means, strengthen the power that curbs them all."