Self-Direction and Political Legitimacy: Rousseau and Herder

Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803) has been called the German Rousseau. Yet while Rousseau is recognized as a political thinker, Herder is not. This book explores each thinker's ideas--on nature and culture, selfhood and mutuality, paternalism, freedom, and autonomy--and compares their conceptions of legitimate statehood. Arguing that the crux of political legitimacy for both men was the possibility of "extended selfhood," Barnard shows that Herder, like Rousseau, profoundly altered human self-understandings, thus influencing modes of justifying political allegiance.Barnard, F. M. is the author of 'Self-Direction and Political Legitimacy: Rousseau and Herder', published 1989 under ISBN 9780198273271 and ISBN 0198273274.