Interpretation A JOURNAL J.OF POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY Fall 1999 Volume 27 Number 1 Clark A. Merrill Spelunking in the Unnatural Cave: Leo Strauss's Ambiguous Tribute to Max Weber William Walker Stanley Fish's Miltonic Interpretation of Martin Luther King Discussion Thomas L. Krannawitter Constitutional Government and Judicial Power: The Political Science of The Federalist Book Reviews Charles E. Butterworth A Cornucopia of Rousseau Translations: The Collected Writings of Rousseau, Edited by Roger D. Masters and Christopher Kelly Rousseau, the Discourses and other early Political Writings, and Rousseau the Social Contract and other later Political Writings, edited and translated by Victor Gourevitch Peter Augustine Lawler Nature, History, and the Human Individual Modern Liberty and Its Discontents, by Pierre Manent Ronald J. Pestritto The Supreme Court and American Constitutionalism, edited by Bradford P. Wilson and Ken Masugi Interpretation Editor-in-Chief Hilail Gildin, Dept. of Philosophy, Queens College Executive Editor Leonard Grey General Editors Seth G. Benardete Charles E. Butterworth Hilail Gildin Robert Horwitz (d. 1987) Howard B. White (d. 1974) Consulting Editors Christopher Bruell Joseph Cropsey Ernest L. Fortin John Hallowell (d. 1992) Harry V. Jaffa David Lowenthal Muhsin Mahdi Harvey C. Mansfield Arnaldo Momigliano (d. 1987) Michael Oakeshott (d. 1990) Ellis Sandoz Leo Strauss (d. 1973) Kenneth W. Thompson International Editors Terence E. Marshall Heinrich Meier Editors Wayne Ambler Maurice Auerbach Fred Baumann Amy Bonnette Patrick Coby Elizabeth C de Baca Eastman Thomas S. Engeman Edward J. Erler Maureen Feder-Marcus Pamela K. Jensen Ken Masugi Will Morrisey Susan Orr Charles T. Rubin Leslie G. Rubin Susan Meld Shell Bradford P. Wilson Martin D. Yaffee Michael P. Zuckert Catherine H. Zuckert Manuscript Editor Lucia B. Prochnow Subscriptions Subscription rates per volume (3 issues): individuals $29 libraries and all other institutions $48 students (four-year limit) $18 Single copies available. Postage outside U.S.: Canada $4.50 extra; elsewhere $5.40 extra by surface mail (8 weeks or longer) or $11.00 by air. Payments: in U.S. dollars and payable by a financial institution located within the U.S.A. (or the U.S. Postal Service). The Journal Welcomes Manuscripts in Political Philosophy as Well as Those in Theology, Literature, and Jurisprudence. contributors should follow The Chicago Manual of Style, 13th ed. or manuals based on double-space their it; manuscripts, including notes; place references in the in endnotes or text, follow current journal style in printing references. Words from not languages rooted in Latin should be transliterated to English. To ensure impartial judgment of their manuscripts, contributors should omit mention of their other on the title page work; put, only, their name, any affiliation desired, address with code in E-Mail and postal/zip full, telephone. Please send four clear copies, which will not be returned. Composition by Eastern Composition A Division of Bytheway Publishing Services Binghamton, N.Y. 13901 U.S.A. Printed by The Sheridan Press, Hanover PA 17331 U.S.A. Inquiries: (Ms.) Joan Walsh, Assistant to the Editor interpretation, Queens College, Flushing N Y 1 1367-1597, U.S.A. (718)997-5542 Fax (718) 997-5565 E Mail: [email protected] Book Reviews A Cornucopia of Rousseau Translations Charles E. Butterworth University of Maryland 1. The Collected Writings of Rousseau, ed. Roger D. Masters and Christopher Kelly: Jean- Volume 1, Rousseau, Judge of Jacques: Dialogues, ed. Roger D. Masters and Christopher Kelly; trans. Judith R. Bush, Christopher Kelly, and Roger D. Masters (Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 1990), xxxi + 277 pp., $45.00. Volume 2, Discourse on the Sciences and Arts (First Discourse) and Polemics, ed. Roger D. Masters and Christopher Kelly; trans. Judith R. Bush, Christopher Kelly, and Roger D. Masters (Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 1992), xxvi + 233 pp., $50.00. Volume 3, Discourse on the Origins of Inequality (Second Discourse), Polemics, and Political Economy, ed. Roger D. Masters and Christo pher Kelly; trans. Judith R. Bush, Roger D. Masters, Christopher Kelly, and Terence Marshall (Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 1992), xxviii + 212 pp., $50.00. Volume 4, Social Contract, Discourse on the Virtue most necessary for a Hero, Political Fragments, and Geneva Manuscript, ed. Roger D. Masters and Christopher Kelly; trans. Judith R. Bush, Roger D. Mas ters, and Christopher Kelly (Hanover and London: The University Press of New England, 1994), xxvii + 276 pp., $45.00. Volume 5, The Confessions and Correspondence, including the Letters to Malesherbes, ed. Christopher Kelly, Roger D. Masters, and Peter Stillman; trans. Christopher Kelly (Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 1995), xxxvi + 700 pp., $75.00. Volume 6, Julie or the New Heloise, Letters of Two Lovers who live in a small Town at the Foot of the Alps, trans. Philip Stewart and Jean Vache (Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 1997), xxxi + 728 pp., $75.00 cloth, $25.00 paper. 2. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought: Rousseau, The Discourses and other early Political Writings, ed. and trans. Victor Gourevitch (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), liii + 437 pp., $14.95 Paper. interpretation, Fall 1999, Vol. 27, No. 1 72 Interpretation Rousseau, The Social Contract and other later Political Writings, ed. and trans. Victor Gourevitch (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), liv + 341 pp., $12.95 Paper. Never before have English readers had access to so many excellent transla Jean- tions of the provocative, all too tantalizing writings of Jacques Rousseau, that elusive, at times even reclusive, citizen of Geneva who so confounded the world of letters of his day and continues to stimulate discussion among thought ful students of politics even today. In addition to the eight volumes listed above and the three additional volumes of the Collected Writings in various stages of preparation, there are Allan Bloom's excellent translations of the Letter to M. d'Alembert published under the title Politics and the Arts, Letter to M. d'Alembert on the Theatre (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1960) and Emile or on Education (New York: Basic Books, 1979), as well as Alice W. Harvey's translation of the sequel to Emile, namely, Emile et Sophie ou les Solitaires, published as "Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Emile and Sophie, or Solitary Beings," in the volume edited by Pamela Grande Jensen, Finding a New Femi nism: Rethinking the Woman Question for Liberal Democracy (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1996), pp. 193-235. Still, as proof that the gifts we receive here below are never free of some adulteration, it happens that an overlap or a duplication of effort occurs with respect to the texts published in three of the volumes of the Collected Writings and Gourevitch's two volumes. That overlap or duplication seems destined to continue, for the announced sev enth volume of the Collected Writings contains a new translation of the Essay on the Origin of Languages first published by Gourevitch in 1986 and repub lished here in the volumes entitled The Discourses and other early Political Writings. Why such duplication of effort has occurred is difficult to fathom, since neither of the parties has chosen to contrast either set of translations with the other or vaunt the merits of the one by pointing to defects in the other. And that is just as well, for links between the translators in shared premises about the principles and goals of translation and even about the significance of Rousseau's teaching are so numerous that such juxtapositions would be difficult to draw. Both sets of translations strive for and achieve fidelity to Rousseau's original text, adhere to the principle of translating key terms uniformly, and seek to capture in English the eloquence for which Rousseau was famed. They differ as to words from time to time and more frequently with respect to sentence struc but in no case can one ture, translation be judged so incoherent or wrong as to have left a void the other was obliged to fill. None of the Masters and Kelly translations redone by Gourevitch and none of the Gourevitch translations re done Masters and is in manner by Kelly any comparable to the simply in adequate Barbara Foxley translation of the Emile that Allan Bloom's version replaces or the equally faulty William Kenrick translation of the Julie that has Book Reviews 73 now been replaced by the new Philip Stewart and Jean Vache translation. (Nor, let it be noted, does the new electronic revision of the Foxley translation save that work from its deserved reputation.) Leaving aside, then, a question that can most likely not be answered, let us focus instead on the general characteristics of each set of translations in order to highlight their shared features as well as their distinct qualities. At the rate of almost one volume a year, Roger Masters and Christopher Kelly have been publishing excellent translations of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's extensive writings. Volume 7, which contains Rousseau's Essay on the Origin of Languages, as noted above, as well as his writings related to music along with some by Grimm, Raynal, and Rameau in the same vein, is about to appear; and volume 8, with the writings on botany, the Reveries of the Solitary Walker, and the Letter to M. de Franquieres is in preparation. A ninth volume will contain Rousseau's Letters from the Mountain plus his plays and diverse writings about the theater. Clearly, these volumes do not present Rousseau's writings in a chronological order; rather, the plan followed by the editors in publishing these translations is that of grouping Rousseau's writings according to common subjects and themes. In addition to its overall quality, the Masters-Kelly undertaking is set apart, above all, by its extent and uniform thoroughness, despite being a group effort both in the editing and the translation of texts.