This volume includes a step-by-step textual commentary on Jean-Jacques Rousseau's first and second critical discourses on civilization. Rousseau's thesis is that man has become progressively alienated from his own nature and thus perverted by technological and scientific progress. The example of Rousseau shows that critical reflection on modern civilization had already begun during the Enlightenment.

Autorentext

Johannes Rohbeck, Technische Universität Dresden; Lieselotte Steinbrügge, Ruhr-Universität Bochum.