Rousseau between nature and culture : philosophy, literature, and politics

Description

Rousseau has been seen as the inventor of the concept of nature; in this collective volume philosophers and literary specialists from France and the United States examine how Rousseau's philosophy can be reinterpreted from the point of view of a constant dialectical debate between nature and culture. In this, Rousseau is our true contemporary.-- Frontmatter -- Table of Contents -- Editions and Abbreviations -- Introduction -- I. Technology: Between Nature and Anti-Nature -- Rousseau, Lévi-Strauss's "Master" -- Rousseau and the Authority of Nature -- Nature as Blind Space -- Rousseau and Technology: The Invention of a New Ecological Paradigm -- Rousseau and "The Mechanical Life" -- II. Politics and Ethics: Beyond the Nature/Culture Polarity -- Rousseau's Ethical Freedom -- Remarks on Rousseau's Dictatorship: Between Machiavelli and Carl Schmitt -- Politics and Religion in the Social Contract -- Alienation and Freedom: Rousseau and Transcending Nature/Culture Dualism -- Rousseau and the Sovereignty of the People -- III. The Philosophical Novel: Culture as Nature's Supplement -- Nature and Supplementation in Julie ou La Nouvelle Héloïse -- Recomposing the Diffracted Text: Rousseau and the Metaphor of the Book of Nature -- Nature, Culture, and the Social Contract: Emile's point of view -- Contributors -- Index.