Surveys the full range of Rousseau's activities in politics and education, psychology, anthropology, religion, music, and theater. New readers will find this the most accessible guide to Rousseau currently available, while advanced students and specialists will find a conspectus of recent developments in the interpretation of the French thinker.



Universally regarded as the greatest French political theorist and philosopher of education of the Enlightenment, and probably the greatest French social theorist tout court, Rousseau was an important forerunner of the French Revolution, though his thought was too nuanced and subtle ever to serve as mere ideology. This 2001 volume systematically surveys the full range of Rousseau's activities in politics and education, psychology, anthropology, religion, music and theater.