Being after Rousseau: Philosophy and Culture in Question

by Richard Velkley

In Being after Rousseau, Richard L. Velkley presents Jean-Jacques Rousseau as the founder of a modern European tradition of reflection on the relation of philosophy to culture—a reflection that calls both into question. Tracing this tradition from Rousseau to Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Schelling, and Martin Heidegger, Velkley shows late modern philosophy as a series of ultimately unsuccessful attempts to resolve the dichotomies between nature and society, culture and civilization, and philosophy and society that Rousseau brought to the fore.

The Rousseauian tradition begins, for Velkley, with Rousseau's criticism of modern political philosophy. Although the German Idealists such as Schelling accepted much of Rousseau's critique, they believed, unlike Rousseau, that human wholeness could be attained at the level of society and history. Heidegger and Nietzsche questioned this claim, but followed both Rousseau and the Idealists in their vision of the philosopher-poet striving to recover an original wholeness that the history of reason has distorted.

Genres: Philosophy

202 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Will Spohn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very penetrating series of essays that have, I believe, left a permanent mark on my thinking. I would recommend this essay to anyone who wants to understand our modern situation. Velkley is an insightful thinker of the likes I have not often encountered.