Gendered community : Rousseau, sex, and politics / Penny A. Weiss.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Weiss, Penny A., Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 1712-1778--Views on sex role.

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques.

Sex role.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (210 p.)

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : New York University Press, [1993]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Rousseau's writings reflect paradoxes and apparent inconsistencies with his principled commitments to freedom and equality. In this engrossing work, Penny Weiss wrestles with issues of gender in the works of Rousseau. Weiss attempts to resolve apparent inconsistencies by placing them within the context of Rousseau's political philosophy, while avoiding the impulse to attribute his remarks on the sexes to the sexist times in which he wrote, or to his personal idiosyncrasies. A significant contribution to feminist theory, this book addresses the debates concerning Rousseau's understandings of gender, justice, freedom, community, and equality. She also examines how Rousseau's political strategies give rise to a range of important contemporary questions regarding families, citizens, and communities. This new, more complete picture of Rousseau's work will challenge scholars and students of philosophy, politics, and women's studies to look at, and understand, Rousseau in a whole new way. Penny A. Weiss addresses the apparent male/female contradictions that run through the work of the eighteenth-century philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. She argues that Rousseau's defense of sexual differentiation is based on the contribution he perceives it can make to the establishment of community, not on an appeal to some version of natural sex differences. Weiss convincingly demonstrates that Rousseau's political strategy is ultimately unworkable, undermining the very community it was meant to establish.

Contents:

Front matter

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

1. Introduction: Gender, Rousseau, and Politics

2. Producing Gender: Sex, Freedom, and Equality in Rousseau's Emile

3. Anatomy and Destiny: Rousseau, Antifeminism, and Woman's Nature

4. Families and Politics: Sex Roles and Community

5. The Justice of Sex Roles: "Rousseau, Judge of Jean-Jacques"

6. Rousseau and Feminist Revolution: The Impossibility of Gendered Community

7. Feminism and Communitarianism: Exploring the Relationship

8. Gender Bias in Political Theory: (Un)Seeing and (Un)Doing

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 177-184) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Jun 2020)

ISBN:

0-8147-8493-3

0-585-18373-2

OCLC:

782878076