Rousseau and the Great Thinkers

What is Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Place in the Western Political Tradition? This conference will commemorate the tercentenary of  Rousseau’s birth and the 250th anniversary of two of his most important writings on politics and morals: On the Social Contract and Emile, both originally published in 1762. Internationally renowned scholars from the US and Europe will discuss his enduring stature and legacy through a comparison with other great thinkers including Machiavelli, Montaigne, Moses Mendelssohn, Mary Wollstonecraft, Edmund Burke and Karl Marx.

November 2nd
9th Floor Skylight Room

What is Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Place in the Western Political Tradition? This conference will commemorate the tercentenary of Rousseau’s birth and the 250th anniversary of two of his most important writings on politics and morals: On the Social Contract and Emile, both originally published in 1762. Internationally renowned scholars from the US and Europe will discuss his enduring stature and legacy through a comparison with other great thinkers including Machiavelli, Montaigne, Moses Mendelssohn, Mary Wollstonecraft, Edmund Burke and Karl Marx. Join us for a series of public talks on the great thinkers.

9:15 Opening Remarks:

President William Kelly of the Graduate Center and Ambassador François Barras of the Swiss Consulate General

9:30-11:00

Maurizio Viroli (Princeton), Rousseau and Machiavelli

James Miller (New School), Rousseau and Montaigne

Mira Morgenstern (The Graduate Center, CUNY), Alienation and Freedom: Rousseau and Transcending the Nature/Culture Dualism

11:15-12:30

Bryan Garsten (Yale), Rousseau and Rameau

David Sorkin (The Graduate Center, CUNY), Rousseau and Mendelssohn

12:30-2:00: lunch break

2:00-3:15

Anthony LaVopa (North Carolina State University), Rousseau and A.L. Thomas

Barbara Taylor (University of East London), Rousseau and Wollstonecraft

3:30-4:45

Jonathan Israel (Institute for Advanced Study), Rousseau and the philosophes

Benjamin Barber (The Graduate Center), Rousseau and Burke

5:00-6:15

Jerrold Seigel (NYU), Rousseau and Marx

David Bates (Berkeley), Rousseau and Schmitt

Conference organized by Helena Rosenblatt (The Graduate Center, CUNY)

November 3rd
Room 5114

Morning (9:15 – 1)
Introduction – Anne Deneys-Tunney and Yves Charles Zarka, Opening Remarks

Man in Relation to Himself

Lucien Nouis (NYU), “Livre de la nature et livres des hommes”

Guillemette Johnston (De Paul), “Amour-propre and amour de soi: Instinctive and Introverted Languages of Culture and Integration in the Educational Philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau”

Christophe Martin, (Université Paris IV, La Sorbonne), ” ‘La nature a tout fait mais sous ma direction’: Nature and Supplement in La Nouvelle Héloïse”

Afternoon (2:30)
Man in Relation to Others
Robert Stam (NYU), “Rousseau and the Brazilian Indian: From Jean de Léry to Lévi-Strauss”

Paul Audi (Paris), “Rousseau’s Ethical Freedom”

Anne Deneys-Tunney (NYU), “La technologie et la nature”

Man in Relation to Power
Simon Critchley (The New School for Social Research), “Politics and Religion in ‘The Social Contract’ ”

Pasquale Pasquino (NYU), “Rousseau’s Dictatorship – Between Machiavelli and Carl Schmitt”

Yves Charles Zarka (Sorbonne, Université Paris Descartes), “La Revolution J.J. Rousseau L’invention du Concept de Souverainete Actuelle du Peuple”

download the Rousseau Tricentennial poster (PDF)

Co-sponsored by the Consulate General of Switzerland, Vacheron Constantin, and PhD Program in History