在卢梭丰富多彩的著述中，《论人类不平等的起源和基础》最富争议、最难识读，也最具影响力。《卢梭的自然状态》是美国的卢梭研究专家布鲁姆的学生普拉特纳的一篇博士论文，他并不是全面梳解卢梭的《论人类不平等的起源和基础》，而是聚焦于该著作的一个方面——卢梭的“自然状态”概念。作者认为，卢梭的自然状态学说是其全部理论事业的核心，详细解释这个学说，对理解卢梭思想中看去最为矛盾的诸因素，是必不可少的第一步。全文也正是从这个角度去阐释的。 为了有助于学界识读《论人类不平等的起源和基础》，主编将古热维奇的《卢梭纯粹的自然状态》和麦克亚当的《〈社会契约论〉与〈论人类不平等〉的关系》两文与之合刊出版。

Donald Cress's highly regarded translation, based on the critical Pleiade edition of 1964, is here issued with a lively introduction by James Miller, who brings into sharp focus the cultural and intellectual milieu in which Rousseau operated. This new edition includes a select bibliography, a note on the text, a translator's note, and Rousseau's own Notes on the Discourse.

《忏悔录》既是一本有重大意义的著作又相当私人化。……如果不联系他那些不那么私人化的哲学著作来考虑，就不可能理解这种意义。……《忏悔录》的意义在于帮助我们澄清卢梭思想中诸多重要问题，而不仅仅是提供一条通道，让我们可以方便地找到隐藏在著作背后的那个人。

Alan Bloom’s new translation of Emile, Rousseau’s masterpiece on the education and training of the young, is the first in more than seventy years. In it, Bloom, whose magnificent translation of Plato’s Republic has been universally hailed as a virtual rediscovery of that timeless text, again brings together the translator’s gift for journeying between two languages and cultures and the philosopher’s perception of the true meaning and significance of the issues being examined in the work. The result is a clear, readable, and highly engrossing text that at the same time offers a wholly new sense of the importance and relevance of Rousseau’s thought to us.In addition to his translation, Bloom provides a brilliant introduction that relates the structure and themes of the book to the vital preoccupation's of our own age, particularly in the field of education, but also more generally to the current concerns about the limits and possibilities of human nature. Thus in this translation Emile, long a classic in the history of Western thought and educational theory, becomes something more: a prescription, fresh and dazzling, for the bringing up of autonomous, responsible—that is, truly democratic—human beings.

Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains' - these are the famous opening words of a treatise that has not ceased to stir vigorous debate since its first publication in 1762. Rejecting the view that anyone has a natural right to wield authority over others, Rousseau argues instead for a pact, or 'social contract', that should exist between all the citizens of a state and that should be the source of sovereign power. From this fundamental premise, he goes on to consider issues of liberty and law, freedom and justice, arriving at a view of society that has seemed to some a blueprint for totalitarianism, to others a declaration of democratic principles. 点击链接进入中文版： 渴望生活:梵高传

Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization, and helped make us who we are.