Week Eleven: Rousseau
PrintBy Lee Trepanier, March 21, 2012 in Pedagogy and Teaching
This week we looked at Rousseau’s Discourse on the Origins of Inequality and Social Contract. I present Rousseau as an advocate of the liberal tradition but also a critic of it. What I find most interesting is how students respond to Rousseau’s critique of liberalism more so than Marx’s. I am not sure what accounts for this, but I’m always surprised by it.
Image credit: Plaque of Jean-Jacques Rousseau issued by Geneva in 1912. From Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rousseauplaque.jpg
