Rousseau and the Paradox of Alienation

In the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Sally Howard Campbell finds the bridge between the now-dominant psycho-social conception of alienation and the legal-political conception that prevailed prior to Rousseau. She discusses Rousseau’s transformation of the concept of alienation and how it laid much of the groundwork for Marx’s later, more explicit discussions of man’s alienation. Using Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality, Campbell shows how Rousseau depicts the develop...