When it was first published in 1781, The Confessions scandalisedEurope with its emotional honesty and frank treatment of theauthor's sexual and intellectual development. Since then, it hashad a more profound impact on European thought. Rousseau leftposterity a model of the reflective life - the solitary,uncompromising individual, the enemy of servitude and habit and theselfish egoist who dedicates his life to a particular ideal. TheConfessions recreates the world in which he progressed fromincompetent engraver to grand success; his enthusiasm forexperience, his love of nature, and his uncompromising charactermake him an ideal guide to eighteenth-century Europe, and he wasthe author of some of the most profound work ever written on therelation between the individual and the state.

From ancient Greece to nineteenth-century America, thiscollection traces the history of our civilization through theseminal works of its most influential thinkers. Perfect for anyoneinterested in understanding the progression of Western thought,this volume includes: Plato: Apology, Crito, and Death of Socrates from Phaedo Aristotle: Poetics St. Anselm: The Ontological Proof of St. Anselm, fromProslogium St. Thomas Aquinas: St. Thomas' Proofs of God's Existence, from TheSumma Theologica René Descartes: Meditations on the First Philosophy David Hume: An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding Immanuel Kant: Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism William James: The Will to Believe