The Autocritique of Enlightenment: Rousseau and the Philosophes

Hulliung (politics and history, Brandeis U.) restores Rousseau to his historical context, the world of philosophes, and shows how he employed the arsenal of writers such as Voltaire and Diderot to launch a powerful attack on their version of the Enlightenment. He discusses subjects including cultural versus political history, the psychology of Locke, and materialist modes of thought. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.