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"Free will is a key but contested concept in the work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau: while the famed philosopher is known to have asserted that free will distinguishes human beings from animals, several interpreters have argued that he merely pretends to have this belief for the sake of healthy politics and to avoid persecution by religious authorities. Through careful readings of key texts and letters, The Free Animal offers a new and original exploration of Rousseau's views on free will, just in time for the 200th anniversary of his birth

Rousseau as Author: Consecrating One's Life to the Truth,
Christopher Kelly, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003, pp. 182Christopher Kelly's latest book makes an important contribution
to the study of Rousseau. Kelly investigates Rousseau's attitude
towards authorship in the light of his motto, "consecrating
one's life to the truth." He maintains that for Rousseau this
motto implies the need for two kinds of authorial responsibility:
"it meant both publicly taking responsibility for what one publishes
and only publishing those things that would be of public benefit"
(1). Kelly then uses this two-pronged conception of responsible authorship
to investigate Rousseau's understanding of the practices of
citizenship and of philosophy.