Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Second of six weekly lectures by Isaiah Berlin
Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford
In these lectures Isaiah Berlin discusses the ideas of some social and political thinkers before and after the French Revolution which, in his view, have had a greater influence both for good and evil in the twentieth century than in their own time and are now more important than ever.
In this lecture Mr. Berlin speaks about
Rousseau's central doctrine and shows how, in Dostoevsky's words, 'Beginning with unlimited freedom one concludes with unlimited despotism. There is no other solution.'