‘Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains’

These are the famous opening words of a treatise that has not ceased to stir vigorous debate 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.

In his introduction, Maurice Cranston examines the historical and political ideas that influenced Rousseau and places The Social Contract against a backdrop of Rousseau’s remarkable personality and life.

‘How can we know the source of inequality among men if we do not first have knowledge of men themselves?’

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.

In his introduction Maurice Cranston examines Rousseau’s social and political background, his career and influences, and elucidates the central ideas of his philosophy.

In this second volume of the unparalleled exposition of Rousseau's life and works, Cranston completes and corrects the story told in Rousseau's "Confessions," and offers a vivid, entirely new history of his most eventful and productive years.
"Luckily for us, Maurice Cranston's "The Noble Savage: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1754-1762" has managed to craft a highly detailed account of eight key years of Rousseau's life in such a way that we can both understand and even, on occasion, sympathize."--Olivier Bernier, "Wall Street Journal"
Maurice Cranston (1920-1993), a distinguished scholar and recipient of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his biography of John Locke, was professor of political science at the London School of Economics. His numerous books include "The Romantic Movement" and "Philosophers and Pamphleteers," and translations of Rousseau's "The Social Contract" and "Discourse on the Origins of Inequality."

A monumental achievement, Maurice Cranston's trilogy provides the definitive account of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's turbulent life. Now available in paperback, this final volume completes a masterful biography of one of the most important philosophers of all time. "The Solitary Self "traces the last tempestuous years of Rousseau's life.
""The Solitary Self" is a fitting coda to a magisterial work. Cranston . . . is a compelling stylist who narrates Rousseau's tribulations with a mixture of compassion and dry humor."--Thomas Pavel, "Wall Street Journal"
"Cranston not only recreates for his readers a rounded view of Rousseau himself, he sets it firmly in the social and political context of Europe's "ancien regime," . . . An engrossing work of history."--John Gray, "New Statesman"
"Cranston's painstaking archival research and lucid style yield the most detailed and thoroughly documented biography of Rousseau written in English. His epilogue masterfully sums up Rousseau's importance as political philosopher and initiator of romantic sensibilities."--"Choice"
"Anyone curious about the paradoxes of a most paradoxical man will not go wrong by starting with this invaluable biography."--James Miller, "Washington Post Book World"
"As absorbing as a picaresque novel."--Naomi Bliven, "New Yorker"
"A monument of scholarship. . . . This amazing biography, like Boswell's account of Johnson, recreates the daily life of Rousseau: what he did, who he saw, what he said, what he wrote. . . . We may be quite confident that we hold in our hands the authoritative account of this life. The definitive Rousseau."--Isaac Kramnick, "New Republic"
Maurice Cranston (1920-1993), adistinguished scholar and recipient of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his biography of John Locke, was professor of political science at the London School of Economics. His numerous books include "The Romantic Movement" and "Philosophers and Pamphleteers," and translations of Rousseau's "The Social Contract" and "Discourse on the Origins of Inequality,"

First published in 2005. Twentieth-century philosophy, more than that of any other period, has become deeply and sharply conscious of the connection between philosophical problems and language. We now seem to have entered what might well be called the Wittgensteinian 'moment' in philosophy. This volume seeks to provide a general survey of Wittgenstein's thought, considering both the Tractatus LogicoPhilosophicus (1922) and the Philosophical Investigations (1953), and also to give some account of the influence which these two very different books have exercised.

In the first volume of his trilogy, noted political philosopher Maurice Cranston draws from original manuscript sources to trace Rousseau's life from his birth in provincial obscurity in Geneva, through his youthful wanderings, to his return to Geneva in 1754 as a celebrated writer and composer.
"[An] admirable biography which is as meticulous, calm, reasonable, and judicious as its subject is passionate and tumultuous."2;Keith Michael Baker, "Washington Post Book World"
"The definitive biography, as scholarly as it is entertaining."2;"The Economist"
"Exceptionally fresh . . . . [Cranston] seems to know exactly what his readers need to know, and thoughtfully enriches the background2;both physical and intellectual2;of Rousseau's youthful peregrinations . . . . He makes the first part of Rousseau's life as absorbing as a picaresque novel. His fidelity to Rousseau's ideas and to his life as it was lived is a triumph of poise."2;Naomi Bliven, "The New Yorker"
"The most outstanding achievement of Professor Cranston's own distinguished career."2;Robert Wokler, "Times Literary Supplement"
Maurice Cranston (1920-1993), a distinguished scholar and recipient of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his biography of John Locke, was professor of political science at the London School of Economics. His numerous books include "The Romantic Movement" and "Philosophers and Pamphleteers," and translations of Rousseau's "The Social Contract" and "Discourse on the Origins of Inequality,"