Description

About the Book

Essay on the Origin of Languages is a collection of a short essay, On Theatrical Imitation, which summarises and paraphrases Plato’s discussions of imitation in the Republic. Rousseau’s approach to language is romantic in many respects, but it cannot be aligned with any simplistic opposition in intellectual history. He stresses the expressive power of language in his version of the Genie Des Langues, and in his account of the connection between language and the passions and the importance of metaphor. But, he does not reject the thesis of the arbitrariness of the linguistic sign or the central denotatory function of language.

About the Author

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of the 18th century. His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution as well as the overall development of modern political, sociological, and educational thought. His novel Émile is a treatise on the education of the whole person for citizenship. His sentimental novel Julie was of importance to the development of pre-romanticism and romanticism in fiction. His autobiographical writings exemplified the late 18th-century movement known as the Age of Sensibility, and featured an increased focus on subjectivity and introspection that later characterized modern writing. His Discourse on the Origin of Inequality and On the Social Contract are cornerstones in modern political and social thought. Rousseau was a successful composer of music, who wrote seven operas as well as music in other forms, and made contributions to music as a theorist.