Tuesday 20th November 7.30pm
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born 300 years ago this year. His thought has both inspired activists interested in participatory democracy and horrified people who see him as a totalitarian. He was also one of the first people to diagnose such pathologies of modern society as alienation and hierarchy (and to explore alternatives) as well as seeing a value in the natural world. This talk aims to make a case for him after 300 years.
Chris Bertram is the author of Rousseau and the Social Contract (Routledge 2004) and editor of Rousseau, Of the Social Contract and other Political Writings (Penguin 2012). He teaches philosophy at the University of Bristol.
