Justice and Difference in the Works of Rousseau

According to Rousseau, the best relationship between unequals is one of ‘benificence’, giving, receiving and repaying benefits. This book addresses the problem implicit in his writings of whether it is indeed possible for a just and generous relationship to exist between non-equals. Judith Still draws together issues in Rousseau’s work which are often treated in isolation: the state, just relations between individuals, sexual politics and the constructing of a feminine identity. She analyses his works, his classical sources, and the conceptual underpinnings of his ethics, crossing the boundary between study of Rousseau as a complex and sensitive writer of fiction and autobiography and consideration of his political and ethical theory. Using techniques of reading drawn from literary theory, particularly from the work of Derrida, de Man and Starobinski, she argues that for Rousseau it is sexual difference which disturbs the practice of benificence.

• Discusses an important question for gender and Enlightenment studies • Situates Rousseau within context of eighteenth-century thought and its classical sources • Of relevance to those working in politics, ethics, sociology and philosophy

Acknowledgements; A preliminary note on vocabulary and conventions; Introduction; 1. The problem: the intersection of beneficence and pudicity; 2. The code of beneficence; 3. The practice of beneficence and model benefactors in the major works; 4. The passion of pity in Rousseau\'s theory of man; 5. Gyges\' ring: A reading of Rousseau\'s 6e Promenade; 6. Pudicity in some of Rousseau\'s minor writings: its relationship to beneficence; Conclusion; Appendix: Generosity and pudicity in Gyges und sein Ring and Le Roi Candaule; Notes; Bibliography; Index.