Self-Direction and Political Legitimacy: Rousseau and Herder

by Frederick M. Barnard

Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803) has been called the German Rousseau. Yet while Rousseau is recognized as a political thinker, Herder is not. This book explores each thinker's ideas--on nature and culture, selfhood and mutuality, paternalism, freedom, and autonomy--and compares their conceptions of legitimate statehood. Arguing that the crux of political legitimacy for both men was the possibility of "extended selfhood," Barnard shows that Herder,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0198273274
• ISBN13: 9780198273271
• Release Date: February 1989
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 344 Pages
• Weight: 1.41 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.7" x 8.8"