Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2004. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 176-194). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

No description available.

Thesis (M.A.)--Florida State University, 2003. / Advisor: Dr. Elizabeth Stuckey-French, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of English. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed May 18, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.C.S.)--Regent College, Vancouver, B.C., 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 111).

Thesis (M.A.)--Northern Michigan University, 2008. / "14-52844." Bibliography: leaves 59-60.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2009.

English Studies / M.A. (English)

Were it necessary to choose two words that could capture the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, these two words would have to be truth and nature for, in his works, this philosopher does more than assert that he, and he alone, possesses truth in its entirety. He equally maintains that his sole desire lies in sharing this truth with human kind, that we might rediscover our true nature, one that we have long ago forgotten. In fact, these very words adorn his tomb in the Pantheon where he was finally brought to rest: "Ici repose l'homme de la nature et de la verite." However, upon closer examination of two of his major works, Emile or on Education and The Social Contract, both published in 1762, a surprising contradiction is brought to light. In these treatises, he makes the child and the people believe that they are free when he is merely using rhetoric to manipulate them. For example, in Emile he gives the following advice to tutors: "Take the opposite course with your pupil; let him always think he is master while you are really master. There is no subjection so complete as that which preserves the forms of freedom; it is thus that the will itself is taken captive." While in The Social Contract he recommends using divine intervention to assure that the people "obey freely, and bear with docility the yoke of public happiness." Is Rousseau simply a gifted sophist who, by hiding the rhetoric he uses, can present himself as a man of truth in order to better form the child and the people to do his bidding? Or, is there a justification for his duplicity? Could it be possible that in some instances duplicity must be used if truth is ever to be attained by all human beings? By examining the rhetoric Rousseau uses in Emile and The Social Contract, this thesis attempts to shed some light on this somewhat troubling contradiction.

Thesis (M.A.) (English)) -- University of Pretoria, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

English Studies / M.A. (English)