Rethinking the Western Tradition

Home , David Bromwich, Madame Roland

Rethinking the Western Tradition The volumes in this series seek to address the present debate over the Western tradition by reprinting key works of that tradition along with essays that evaluate each text from di√erent perspectives. EDITORIAL

COMMITTEE FOR Rethinking the Western Tradition

David Bromwich Yale University Gerald Graff University of Illinois at Chicago Geoffrey Hartman Yale University Samuel Lipman (deceased) The New Criterion Gary Saul Morson Northwestern University Jaroslav Pelikan Yale University Marjorie Perloff Stanford University Richard Rorty Stanford University Alan Ryan New College, Oxford Ian Shapiro Yale University Frank M. Turner Yale University Allen W. Wood Stanford University The Social Contract and The First and Second Discourses JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Edited and with an Introduction by Susan Dunn with essays by Gita May Robert N. Bellah David Bromwich Conor Cruise O’Brien

Yale University Press New Haven and London Copyright ∫ 2002 by Yale University. Translations of The Discourse on the Sciences and Arts and The Social Contract copyright ∫ 2002 by Susan Dunn. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers.

Printed in the United States of America by Vail-Ballou Press, Binghamton, New York.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 1712–1778. [Selections. English. 2002] The social contract ; and, The ﬁrst and second discourses / Jean-Jacques Rousseau ; edited and with an introduction by Susan Dunn ; with essays by Gita May...[et al.]. p. cm. — (Rethinking the Western tradition) Includes bibliographical references. isbn 0-300-09140-0 (cloth : alk. paper) — isbn 0-300-09141-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Political science—Early works to 1800. 2. Social contract—Early works to 1800. 3. Civilization—Early works to 1800. I. Dunn, Susan. II. May, Gita. III. Title. IV. Series. jc179 .r7 2002 320%.01—dc21 2001046557

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contributors

Robert N. Bellah is Elliott Professor of Sociology Emeritus at the Univer- sity of California at Berkeley. He is the author of numerous books, including Beyond Belief and The Broken Covenant, and is co-author of Habits of the Heart and The Good Society. David Bromwich is Housum Professor of English at Yale University. He is the author of several books, including Politics by Other Means: Higher Education and Group Thinking, Skeptical Music: Essays on Modern Po- etry, and A Choice of Inheritance: Self and Community from Edmund Burke to Robert Frost. Susan Dunn is professor of French literature and the history of ideas at Williams College. She is the author of The Deaths of Louis XVI: Regicide and the French Political Imagination and Sister Revolutions: French Light- ning, American Light, and is co-author with James MacGregor Burns of The Three Roosevelts. Gita May is professor of French literature at Columbia University. She is the author of De Jean-Jacques Rousseau à Madame Roland: Essai sur la sensibilité préromantique et révolutionnaire, Diderot et Baudelaire, cri- tiques d’art, Madame Roland and the Age of Revolution, and Stendhal and the Age of Napoleon. Conor Cruise O’Brien is a statesman, diplomat, and political commentator who lives in Dublin, Ireland. He is the author of many books including God Land: Reﬂections on Religion and Nationalism, The Great Melody: A The- matic Biography and Commented Anthology of Edmund Burke, and The Long Affair: Thomas Jefferson and the French Revolution, 1785–1800.