A couple of weeks ago, I gave a public lecture in Bristol on the subject of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and his continued relevance to modern society and political philosophy. Undoubtedly mileages will vary on that question, but anyone who wants to hear my take on it can “listen to a podcast”:http://www.bris.ac.uk/philosophy/podcasts_html/WhyRousseauMatters.mp3 . (The lecture is included as part of the “Philosophy at Bristol” series which you can access “via its blog”:http://eis.bris.ac.uk/~plajb/blog/ or at “iTunes”:itpc://eis.bris.ac.uk/~plajb/blog/atom.xml .)
{ 4 comments }
bert 07.03.09 at 1:29 pm
Freedom and its Betrayal – Isaiah Berlin on Rousseau, a BBC broadcast from 1952.
This shores up many of the received opinions you’re trying to get reassessed.
But its a pleasure to hear the man himself.
Just as it is to hear you.
Ain’t the internet grand.
andthenyoufall 07.03.09 at 4:35 pm
Congratulations!
juju 07.04.09 at 10:24 am
A few nights ago on “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart talked to Oliver Sacks about the origins of language in music. It was eerily Rousseauian!
kurt 07.07.09 at 6:00 pm
Interesting. I’m writing a paper on Rousseau and Kant right now, suggesting that Rousseau’s influence goes well beyond the moral philosophy, a view not widely shared by anyone I’ve read (except one dead guy). So I think Rousseau is profoundly relevant, and not just to social and political philosophy.
A shame he is taught so little.
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