Although Jean-Jacques Rousseau is a significant figure in the Western tradition, there is no standard edition of his major writings available in English. Unlike those of other thinkers of comparable stature, moreover, many of Rousseau’s important works either have never been translated or have become unavailable. The present edition of the Collected Writings of Rousseau is intended to meet this need.
Our goal is to produce a series that can provide a standard reference for scholarship that is accessible to all those wishing to read broadly in the corpus of Rousseau’s work. To this end, the translations seek to combine care and faithfulness to the original French text with readability in English. Although, as every translator knows, there are often passages where it is impossible to meet this criterion, readers of a thinker and writer of Rousseau’s stature deserve texts that have not been deformed by the interpretive bias of the translators or editors.
Wherever possible, existing translations of high quality have been used, although in some cases the editors have felt minor revisions were necessary to maintain the accuracy and consistency of the English versions. Where there was no English translation (or none of sufficient quality), a new translation has been prepared.
Each text is supplemented by editorial notes that clarify Rousseau’s references and citations or passages otherwise not intelligible. Although these notes do not provide as much detail as is found in the critical apparatus of Pléiade edition of the Oeuvres complètes (which has become the standard for the original French texts), the English-speaking reader should nevertheless have in hand the basis for a more careful and comprehensive understanding of Rousseau than has hitherto been possible.
Each volume is preceded by an introduction situating its contents in the broader context of the thought and career of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Given the number of Rosseau’s works and variety of topics they cover, volumes will be organized by theme and subject rather than in chronological order.
August, 1989