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Audiobooks by Jean Jacques Rousseau
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"'Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains'
These are the famous opening words of a treatise that has not ceased to stir vigorous debate since its first publication in 1762. Rejecting the view that anyone has a natural right to wield authority over others, Rousseau argues instead for a pact, or 'social contract', that should exist between all the citizens of a state and that should be the source of sovereign power. From this fundamental premise, he goes on to consider issues of liberty and law, freedom and justice, arriving at a view of society that has seemed to some a blueprint for totalitarianism, to others a declaration of democratic principles.It's publication in 1762 lead to great discussion about 'what is government' on both sides of the Atlantic, and is still essential reading today.
How much government is too much? What rights should be given up for government? It is the Social Contract which is the foundational discussion on these topics."
"“Thus I have acted; these were my thoughts; such was I.”
Rousseau’s lengthy and sometimes anguished dossier on the Self is one of the most remarkable and courageous works of introspection ever undertaken. Some readers may be repelled by his tendency to revel in embarrassing accounts of humiliation and fiasco, as if he were striving too hard to achieve an ultimate nakedness, a nakedness of the soul perhaps. Others may recall the compulsive self-searching of the narrator of Proust’s A la recherche du temps perdu, who also rather dwelt on the co-existence in the individual of the vile and the virtuous.
The two opening volumes of the Confessions, presented in this inevitably censored edition of 1903, deal with the author’s childhood and callow adolescence.
Here he is... (Summary by Martin Geeson)"
"This work presents Rousseau's belief in the profoundly transformational effects of the development of civilization on human nature, which Rousseau claims other political philosophers had failed to grasp. Specifically, before the onset of civilization, according to Rousseau, natural man lived a contented, solitary life, naturally good and happy. It is only with the onset of civilization, Rousseau claims, that humans become social beings, and, concomitant with their civilization, natural man becomes corrupted with the social vices of pride, vanity, greed and servility. (summary by ej)"
""She was more to me than a sister, a mother, a friend, or even than a mistress, and for this very reason she was not a mistress; in a word, I loved her too much to desire her..."
More of the amours of the twentysomething Jean-Jacques: here initiated into a strangely compromised manhood by his "maman" and perennial comforter -
"Was I happy? No: I felt I know-not-what invincible sadness which empoisoned my happiness, it seemed that I had committed an incest, and two or three times, pressing her eagerly in my arms, I deluged her bosom with my tears. On her part, as she had never sought pleasure, she had not the stings of remorse..."
(Introduction by Martin Geeson)"
""The smallest, the most trifling pleasure that is conveniently within my reach, tempts me more than all the joys of paradise."
Here again is the youthful, hero-worshipping Jean-Jacques - displaying an emotional immaturity that leads him into picaresque escapades in the company of transients and misfits, always ending in reunion with mother-surrogate Madame de Warens.
In a literally unprecedented gesture of self-revelation, Rousseau opens Volume 3 exposing himself indecently in dark alleyways. This 1903 edition fails to appreciate the humorous strangeness of the passage and removes it to protect the reader. (Summary by Martin Geeson)"
"The Social Contract outlines Rousseau's views on political justice, explaining how a just and legitimate state is to be founded, organized and administered. Rousseau sets forth, in his characteristically brazen and iconoclastic manner, the case for direct democracy, while simultaneously casting every other form of government as illegitimate and tantamount to slavery. Often hailed as a revolutionary document which sparked the French Revolution, The Social Contract serves both to inculcate dissatisfaction with actually-existing governments and to allow its readers to envision and desire a radically different form of political and social organization. (Summary by Eric Jonas)"
"Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. In The Social Contract, Rousseau explores the concept of freedom and the political structures that may enable people to acquire it. He argues that the sovereign power of a state lies not in any one ruler, but in the will of the general population. Rousseau argues that the ideal state would be a direct democracy where executive decision-making is carried out by citizens who meet in assembly, as they would in the ancient city-state of Athens. The thoughts contained in the work were instrumental to the advent of the American Revolution and became sacred to those leading the French Revolution. With traces of Aristotle and echoes of Plato's Republic, The Social Contract is an exhilarating look at society and the definition of democracy. New translation by Ian Johnston."
"De l’inégalité parmi les hommes est un essai philosophique d’une centaine de pages environ, richement annoté par l’auteur, introduit par une lettre de louanges à la République de Genève ainsi que par une préface de l’auteur datée du 12 Juin 1754."
"Le Discours sur les sciences et les arts est un texte de Jean-Jacques Rousseau écrit dans le cadre du concours de l’Académe de Dijon de 1750.
Lauréat du concours, Rousseau voit son essai fort commenté et lui doit sa célébrité, bien avant son opus magnum Du contrat social.
Comme le veut le concours, le discours répond à une question : il s’agissait alors de déterminer « Si le rétablissement des sciences et des arts a contribué à épurer les mœurs ». Farouche critique des pratiques de son temps, l’auteur présente en deux parties une diatribe contre les sciences et les arts, qui bien loin d’épurer les mœurs éloignent les hommes de la vertu.
(Résumé par Wikipedia)"
![[French] - Discours sur l’origine et les fondements de l’inégalité parmi les hommes Audiobook](https://covers.audiobooks.com/images/covers/large/SABLIBX978234.jpg)
![[French] - Discours sur les sciences et les arts Audiobook](https://covers.audiobooks.com/images/covers/large/SABLIBX978245.jpg)