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THERE IS A REASONABLE LEVEL OF AGREEMENT ABOUT THE MEANING OF ROUSSEAU'S THEORY OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT. WITH HIS POLITICAL THEORY, HOWEVER, THE OPPOSITE IS TRUE. THE DEBATE THAT HAS RAGED SINCE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION - - HIS POLITICAL THOUGHT BEING SEEN AS EITHER ARISTOCRATIC OR REVOLUTIONARY, ANCIENT OR MODERN, COLLECTIVIST OR INDIVIDUALIST, TOTALITARIAN OR LIBERAL -- SHOWS NO SIGN OF ENDING. THE AUTHOR ARGUES THAT MUCH OF THE ARGUEMENT IS MISCONCEIVED. THE FOCUS SHOULD BE ON WHY ROUSSEAU'S WRITINGS CONTAIN IDEAS OR STATEMENTS WHICH SEEM TO BE CONTRADICTORY, RATHER THAN WHETHER ROUSSEAU WAS EITHER ONE OR THE OTHER. THE AUTHOR SEEKS TO EXPLAIN THE APPARENT CONTRADICTIONS BY VIEWING HOW ROUSSEAU'S SOCIAL THEORY WAS INCORPORATED INTO HIS POLITICAL THOUGHT.

Denis Diderot (1713-1784) was one of the most significant figures of the French enlightenment. His political writings cover the period from the first volume of the Encyclopedie (1751), of which he was principal editor, to the third edition of Raynal's Histoire des Deux Indes (1780), one of the most widely read books of the pre-revolutionary period. This volume contains the most important of Diderot's articles for the Encyclopedie, a substantial number of his contributions to the Histoire, the complete texts of his Supplement au Voyage de Bougainville, one of his most visionary works, and his Observations sur le Nakaz, a precise and detailed political work translated here into English for the first time. The editors' introduction sets these works in their context and shows the underlying coherence of Diderot's thought. A chronology of events and a bibliography are included as further aids to the reader