Rousseau, First and Second Discourses
Sundays, 10:00-11:20 am ET | April 12-June 28
Has the progress of civilization made us better or worse? In his First Discourse on the Sciences and Arts, Rousseau argues that the arts and sciences corrupt morality rather than improve it. In the Second Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality, he traces how natural human freedom was lost to society, property, and political power. Together these texts form one of the most radical and searching critiques of modern civilization ever written. No background in philosophy is necessary. Beginners are welcome.
Text: Rousseau, The Major Political Writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, translated and edited by John T. Scott (University of Chicago Press)
Reading load: 10-15 pages/week
Seminar Leader: Jess Joseph is a graduate of the University of Chicago and has led great books reading groups on Plato's Theaetetus, George Eliot's Middlemarch, and Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed.