Overview

A surprising look at how Rousseau defended the philosophic life as the most natural and best of lives.   Dreaming of Justice, Waking to Wisdom reveals what could be thought of as the capstone of Rousseau’s thought, even if that capstone has been nearly invisible to readers. Despite criticizing philosophy for its corrosive effects on both natural goodness and civic virtue, Rousseau, argues Laurence D. Cooper, held the philosophic life as an ideal. Cooper expertly unpacks Rousseau’s vivid depiction of the philosophic life and the case for that life as the most natural, the freest, or, in short, the best or most choice-worthy of lives. Cooper focuses especially on a single feature, arguably the defining feature of the philosophic life: the overcoming of the ordinary moral consciousness in favor of the cognitivist view of morality. Cooper shows that Rousseau, with his particular understanding and embrace of the philosophic life, proves to be a kind of latter-day Socratic. Thorough and thought-provoking, Dreaming of Justice, Waking to Wisdom provides vital insight into Rousseau.

Full Product Details

9780226825014

Table of Contents

Reviews

Written with a combination of true insight, grace, and humility, this book is the first of which I'm aware that undertakes to read Rousseau's Reveries-his most beautiful but mysterious work-as a single, consistent but unfolding story: the tale of Rousseau's journey into and then within the philosophic life. -- Arthur M. Melzer, author of The Natural Goodness of Man

Author Information

Laurence D. Cooper is professor of political science at Carleton College. He is the author of Eros in Plato, Rousseau, and Nietzsche: The Politics of Infinity and Rousseau, Nature, and the Problem of the Good Life.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available