CFP: Rousseau's Legacies

Sixteenth Biennial Colloquium of the Rousseau Association Seizième Colloque Bisannuel de l’Association Rousseau

Rousseau's Legacies/ Fortunes de Rousseau
Los Angeles, California
25-28 June, 2009

Call for Papers

In association with the University of California, Los Angeles
(Program Director: Byron Wells)

Rousseau's legacies are multiple and contested. In philosophy, he was
described as the Newton of the moral sciences by Kant, and yet
alongside those who champion an ethic of rights and duties, are
others, equally influenced by Rousseau who take forward his concerns
with virtue, community or moral psychology. In social anthropology,
Rousseau was hailed as precursor, by none other than Levi-Strauss.
Rousseau's concern with the natural world and the environment has
echoes both in the romantic movement and in the environmental politics
of our own day. Rousseau's autobiographical writings prefigure a
concern with subjectivity that finds later expression in Freud and the
psychoanalytic movement. His writing on education has been
rediscovered, championed or excoriated by successive generations of
advocates or opponents of "child centred education". His political
legacy has been bitterly contested between advocates of deliberative
democracy, liberals, nationalists of various stripes, and those who
see him as the harbinger of totalitarianism. We invite papers
reflecting critically on any aspect of Rousseau's various legacies in
philosophy, literature, political theory, theatre, music, biography
etc.

Proposals on the above topic (title and short summary), in English or
French, for papers of 20 minutes duration should be sent to the
President of the Rousseau Association, Christopher Bertram, by
electronic mail at C.Bertram@bristol.ac.uk or by ordinary mail at the
following address :
Department of Philosophy
University of Bristol
9 Woodland Road
Bristol
United Kingdom

If using ordinary mail, please also give if possible an electronic
address for acknowledgement.

The deadline for receipt of proposals is December 31st, 2008.
Proposals will be reviewed by the Scientific Committee (Professors
Christopher Bertram, Patrick Coleman, Ourida Mostefai) and a decision
communicated by January 31st 2009. A preliminary program for the
conference will be available in February 2009.