"Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains" This is the first line of Rousseau's seminal work of political philosophy, a treatise that would go on trainspire revolutions in America and France and make governments across the world question what legitimacy really meant. The idea of the "social contract" is just as powerful today as when Rousseau first wrote these words more than 250 years earlier.

With an Introduction by Derek Matravers. In The Social Contract Rousseau (1712-1778) argues for the preservation of individual freedom in political society. An individual can only be free under the law, he says, by voluntarily embracing that law as his own. Hence, being free in society requires each of us to subjugate our desires to the interests of all, the general will. Some have seen in this the promise of a free and equal relationship between society and the individual, while others have seen it as nothing less than a blueprint for totalitarianism. The Social Contract is not only one of the great defences of civil society, it is also unflinching in its study of the darker side of political systems.

'Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains' is the dramatic opening line of The Social Contract, published in 1762. Quoted by politicians and philosophers alike, the power of this sentence continues to resonate. It laid the groundwork for both the American and French Revolutions, and is considered a foundational text in the development of the modern principles of human rights. Rousseau was an extraordinary visionary and a revolutionary thinker. The Essential Writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau collects his best and most indispensable work. The book includes: Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality Among Men and The Social Contract in full, plus selections from Emile, a treatise on education, the autobiographical Reveries of the Solitary Walker and Julie, or the New Heloise,an epistolary novel.

'Man was born free, and everywhere he is in chains.' These are the famous opening words of a treatise that has stirred vigorous debate ever since its first publication in 1762. Rejecting the view that anyone has a natural right to wield authority over others, Rousseau argues instead for a pact, or 'social contract', that should exist between all the citizens of a state and that should be the source of sovereign power. From this fundamental premise, he goes on to consider issues of liberty and law, freedom and justice, arriving at a view of society that has seemed to some a blueprint for totalitarianism, to others a declaration of democratic principles.

Pour nous aussi, la doctrine de Rousseau ne saurait etre un simple objet de curiosite erudite ou d'interet purement philologico-historique. Elle apparait au contraire, pour peu qu'on ne se contentat point d'en considerer les resultats et qu'on se plongeat dans ses tout premiers presupposes, comme une problematique vivante et tres contemporaine. Les questions soulevees par Rousseau, qui les brandit face a son siecle, ne sont en rien obsoletes aujourd'hui, pour nous non plus elles ne sauraient etre purement et simplement « reglees ». Ernst Cassirer Aux fondements de la pensee moderne, sur laquelle il aura exerce une in?uence decisive, le Contrat social reste l'un des ouvrages les plus importants de Rousseau. Publie en 1762, il dessine les grandes lignes d'un modele de structuration sociale capable de combiner harmonieusement les valeurs propres a l'« etat de nature » avec celles imposees par la vie collective. De la l'idee de « contrat » entre les individus qui, parce qu'ils ne sont soumis qu'a des conventions auxquelles ils ont librement souscrit, « n'obeissent a personne, mais seulement a leur propre volonte ». Commentaires et notes par Gerard Mairet.

Widely regarded as the first modern autobiography, The Confessions is an astonishing work of acute psychological insight. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78) argued passionately against the inequality he believed to be intrinsic to civilized society. In his Confessions he relives the first fifty-three years of his radical life with vivid immediacy - from his earliest years, where we can see the source of his belief in the innocence of childhood, through the development of his philosophical and political ideas, his struggle against the French authorities and exile from France following the publication of Emile. Depicting a life of adventure, persecution, paranoia, and brilliant achievement, The Confessions is a landmark work by one of the greatest thinkers of the Enlightenment, which was a direct influence upon the work of Proust, Goethe and Tolstoy among others.

In A Discourse on Inequality Rousseau sets out to demonstrate how the growth of civilization corrupts man’s natural happiness and freedom by creating artificial inequalities of wealth, power and social privilege. Contending that primitive man was equal to his fellows, Rousseau believed that as societies become more sophisticated, the strongest and most intelligent members of the community gain an unnatural advantage over their weaker brethren, and that constitutions set up to rectify these imbalances through peace and justice in fact do nothing but perpetuate them. Rousseau’s political and social arguments in the Discourse were a hugely influential denunciation of the social conditions of his time and one of the most revolutionary documents of the eighteenth-century.

Lorsqu’il commence a ecrire les Reveries a l’automne 1776, Rousseau est un vieil homme proche de la mort, presque pauvre, celebre dans toute l’Europe et pourtant assure que l’espece humaine le rejette. Il continue cependant d’ecrire et les Reveries sont a ses yeux la suite des Confessions. Mais il ne s’agit plus desormais de raconter sa vie ni de s’expliquer aux autres pour devoiler sa vraie nature. Dans une solitude propice a l’introspection, si des souvenirs epars remontent maintenant a sa memoire, c’est pour lui-meme qu’il les consigne en meme temps qu’il cherche a se mieux connaitre et reflechir plus largement sur les ressorts de notre esprit humain. Mais ces meditations sont aussi des promenades ou la reverie devient expansion de l’etre, ou le contact avec la nature est source de bonheur dans la pure conscience d’exister. Une nouvelle maniere d’ecrire s’inaugure donc, un libre parcours sans effort que la ligne melodieuse d’une prose souvent poetique rend admirablement sensible. Ces Reveries que Rousseau nous laisse lorsqu’il meurt a Ermenonville en juillet 1778, il se peut ainsi qu’elles ne nous soient pas adressees : elles nous sont en tout cas destinees. Edition de Michele Crogiez.

Ces six premiers livres sont le recit de formation du jeune Jean-Jacques, orphelin de mere et fils d’un modeste horloger genevois. Nous retrouvons ici les scenes fameuses que Rousseau a choisies pour nous donner a lire sa nature veritable : la fessee de Mlle Lambercier, le ruban vole, la rencontre avec Mme de Warens, mere et maitresse tout ensemble… D’aveu en aveu, de decouverte en decouverte, l’ecrivain se peint comme il se voit et comme il veut que nous le voyions. Dans Les Confessions, qui paraissent en 1782, quatre ans apres la mort de leur auteur, un territoire tout personnel s’invente ou, a l’ecriture de l’aveu, viennent se meler la fantaisie du romancier, le souvenir des vieux memoires d’aristocrates, sans oublier le gout du siecle pour les romans-memoires : « Je forme une entreprise qui n’eut jamais d’exemple », ecrit Rousseau, et ce qu’il inaugure en effet, c’est un genre litteraire nouveau, celui de l’autobiographie, dont le mot meme n’apparaitra que cinquante ans plus tard. Nouvelle edition 2012. Collection Classiques dirigee par Michel Zink et Michel Jarrety. Edition de Francois Raviez.

Solitaire desormais detache du monde, le Rousseau de ces six derniers livres est toujours en quete de son Moi, mais un autre combat le mobilise aussi : comme les editions pirates de ses livres ont forge a ses yeux une fausse idee de sa personne, c’est a se rehabiliter qu’il vise ici, dans une tentative desesperee pour dessiner et imposer sa vraie figure. Face a ses ennemis tapis dans l’ombre, il se met a nu pour ne pas jouer leur jeu, et, pour leur echapper, se montre tel qu’il est. Alors que, dans la premiere partie des Confessions, il s’attachait a mieux se comprendre et se donner a comprendre par une serie de scenes emblematiques, ce qui se decouvre ici, c’est l’ecrivain qui se croit persecute, l’homme traque qui ne trouve la paix que parmi les fleurs des champs, l’eternel expulse qui s’ouvre a la legende. Et s’il va vers la mort, c’est dans la recherche de l’harmonie qui se puisse etablir entre une image de soi constamment haute et les miseres de son destin. Nouvelle edition 2012. Collection Classiques dirigee par Michel Zink et Michel Jarrety. Edition de Francois Raviez.

En 1749, l’Academie de Dijon met au concours la question suivante : Si le retablissement des sciences et des arts a contribue a epurer les m?urs. Alors qu’il va rendre visite a Diderot prisonnier a Vincennes, Rousseau feuillette le Mercure de France qui publie la question : « Si jamais quelque chose a ressemble a une inspiration subite, ecrira-t-il plus tard, c’est le mouvement qui se fit en moi a cette lecture ; tout a coup, je me sens l’esprit ebloui de mille lumieres ; des foules d’idees vives s’y presenterent a la fois avec une force et une confusion qui me jeta dans un trouble inexprimable. » A la question posee, il repond par la negative et l’Academie couronne son Discours qui connait un succes foudroyant. Voila Rousseau celebre – et aussi attaque. Mais Voltaire a beau dire que « Jean-Jacques n’est qu’un malheureux charlatan qui, ayant vole une petite bouteille d’elixir, l’a repandu dans un tonneau de vinaigre », une force insoupconnee et sincerement rebelle apparait dans ce Premier Discours, une pensee novatrice qui sonne juste et resiste aux sarcasmes. Et la lumiere que Rousseau jette sur l’homme et sur le lien social va contribuer a remettre en cause une certaine idee du progres.

1 Pour Que Tu M"Aimes Encore 4:152 Le Ballet 4:253 Regarde-Moi 3:574 Je Sais Pas 4:335 La Memoire D"Abraham 3:506 Cherche Encore 3:247 Destin 4:158 Les Derniers Seront Les Premiers 3:329 J"Irai Ou Tu Iras 3:2710 J"Attendais 4:2611 Priere Paienne 4:1112 Vole 2:55Участники записи альбома Arranged By – Jean-Jacques GoldmanArranged By, Producer – Jean-Jacques GoldmanBacking Vocals – Beckie BellBacking Vocals – Carole FredericksBacking Vocals – Yvonne JonesBass – Neil JasonBass – Yannick HardouinExecutive-Producer – Vito LupranoGuitar – Basile LerouxGuitar – Patrice TisonLyrics By – Jean-Jacques GoldmanMusic By – J. KaplerMusic By – Jean-Jacques GoldmanPercussion – Christophe DeschampsPhotography By – Claude GassianPhotography By – Monic RichardPhotography By – Monic RichardPiano – Arnaud Dunoyer de SegonzacProducer – Jean-Jacques GoldmanRemix – The Hit Factory N. Y.Saxophone – Christophe NegreSaxophone – Sylvain BeufTrombone – Denis LeloupTrumpet – Antoine RussoTrumpet – Christian MartinezWritten-By – Erick Benzi

A director makes only one movie in his life. Then he breaks it into pieces and makes it again. -Jean Renoir. Jean Renoir (1894-1979) was, like his father Auguste, a virtuoso in his field. From early films such as La Fille de l`Eau and La Chienne through later masterpieces like Rules of the Game and The Grand Illusion (widely considered to be two of the greatest films ever made), Renoir forged a reputation as France`s most important filmmaker. Highly prolific (he directed over 40 films), Renoir worked in a multitude of genres, though social realism was his most powerful mode of expression. About the editor: Paul Duncan has edited 50 film books for TASCHEN, including the award-winning The Ingmar Bergman Archives, and authored Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick in the Film Series. About the author: Christopher Faulkner is professor of film studies and director of the Institute for Comparative Studies in Literature, Art and Culture at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. He is the author of The Social Cinema of Jean Renoir and, with Olivier Curchod, of La Regle du jeu: scenario original de Jean Renoir, as well as numerous articles on Renoir and on French cinema. Издание на английском языке.

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Armed with the insights of the scientific revolution, the men of the Enlightenment set out to free mankind from its age-old cocoon of pessimism and superstition and establish a more reasonable world of experiment and progress. Yet by the 1760s, this optimism about man and society had almost evaporated. In the works of Rousseau, Kant and Goethe, there was discernible a new inner voice, and an awareness of individual uniqueness which had eluded their more self-confident predecessors. The stage was set for the revolutionary crisis and the rise of Romanticism. In this book, Norman Hampson follows through certain dominant themes in the Enlightenment, and describes the contemporary social and political climate, in which ideas could travel from the salons of Paris to the court of Catherine the Great - but less easily from a master to his servant. On such vexed issues as the role of ideas in the "rise of the middle class" he provides a new and realistic approach linking intellectual and social history.

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