Abstract

We are used to see Rousseau as the first modern thinker of freedom. However, Arendt's version of Rousseau, that we will try to trace here, is far from this image. Let's say that, if Arendt could agree that Rousseau conceived the modern idea of freedom, this does not make him a thinker of political freedom. Rousseau if for Arendt, the political thinker that contributed the most to the modern theory of sovereignty, that "leads to a denial of human freedom." But Arendt excuses us from a scholarly reading of Rousseau's theory to show us the consequences that some readings of his ideas had on the political experiences of modernity. Through this review we can trace how Arendt’s view of Rousseau defines its own concept of politics in modernity