Camus and Rousseau: freedom, justice and 'the despotism of the general will'. Issue 5 (4th July 2022)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Camus and Rousseau: freedom, justice and 'the despotism of the general will'. Issue 5 (4th July 2022)
- Main Title:
- Camus and Rousseau: freedom, justice and 'the despotism of the general will'
- Authors:
- Foley, John
- Abstract:
- ABSTRACT: Despite being generally recognised as Camus' most important philosophical essay, L'Homme révolté (1951;trans. The Rebel, 1953/1954, rev.1956) is rather neglected in the scholarship and enjoys a limited readership, especially among Anglophone critics and readers – a fact brightly reflected in the questionable quality of the only English translation, by Anthony Bower, and in the decision of Hamish Hamilton and Penguin, Camus' publishers in the UK, to cut about thirty pages of text from their edition, 'in the interests of economy.' (This startling admission, hidden in a footnote to Herbert Read's Introduction in 1953, disappeared from the Penguin edition in 2000, though the textual excisions remain). This essay examines one brief but crucially important section of L'Homme révolté concerned with Rousseau's Du contrat social (1762). It explores the centrality of Camus' analysis of Rousseau's essay and its influence on the French Revolution to the arguments of L'Homme révolté, especially as these pertain to political or revolutionary violence. It also examines in close detail some striking parallels between Camus' analysis of Rousseau and that found in essays by Isaiah Berlin (1952) and Philip Pettit (2016).
- Is Part Of:
- History of European ideas. Volume 48:Issue 5(2022)
- Journal:
- History of European ideas
- Issue:
- Volume 48:Issue 5(2022)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 48, Issue 5 (2022)
- Year:
- 2022
- Volume:
- 48
- Issue:
- 5
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2022-0048-0005-0000
- Page Start:
- 614
- Page End:
- 633
- Publication Date:
- 2022-07-04
- Subjects:
- Albert Camus -- Jean-Jacques Rousseau -- The Social Contract -- French Revolution -- the general will -- Isaiah Berlin -- Philip Pettit
Europe -- Intellectual life -- Periodicals
Europe -- History -- Periodicals
190.5 - Journal URLs:
- http://www.tandfonline.com/ ↗
http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rhei20/current ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1080/01916599.2021.1971545 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 0191-6599
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - 4318.138000
British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 22074.xml