Rousseau, Nature, and the Problem of the Good Life

Introduction: Rousseau And The Question Of The Good Life -- Roussau, Nature, And History -- The Goodness Of All Good Lives -- Beyond Happiness, Or What Makes The Good Life Good -- The Two Components Of The Good Life -- Nature And Human Nature, Part I: What Is Natural? -- The Fixedness Of Man's Present Nature -- Charting The Human Landscape: Two Chasms--one Bridgeable, The Other Not -- Charting The Human Landscape: Five Human Types, Three Natural Men, One Civilized Savage -- What Is Natural In The Savage State And What Is Natural In The Civil State -- Nature And Human Nature, Part Ii: Emile, Or The Naturalization Of Second Nature -- Between Aristotle And Hobbes, Between Plato And Freud: A Word On Rousseau's Distinctiveness -- Sublimation In Rousseau: Conscience As Alchemist -- What Else Is Natural, And Why -- The Problem Of Self-love -- The Stakes -- Amour-propre's Inevitability -- Amour-propre's Ambiguity -- Amour-propre's Influence On Character And Behavior -- What Amour-propre Is And How It Arises -- Answers And Rebuttals: An Attempt At Dialectic -- The Birth Of Amour-propre -- How Much Amour-propre, And What Kind? Gentleness Versus Cruelty, Pride Versus Vanity -- Beyond Amour-propre? Prospects And Possibilities -- Critical Reflections On Rousseau's Naturalism -- A Return To Wholeness -- The Perils Of Rousseau's Naturalism: Some Concluding Reflections -- Rousseau's Subjectivism And Its Consequences -- The Denial Of Amour-propre's Naturalness And The Consequences For Our Moral Lives. Laurence D. Cooper. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.