OLL Publications

The Reading Room

The OLL blog explores the fascinating, vital, and often surprising texts and people that fill our library. Come talk in our library!

Rousseau Dissents from the Modern World

“I ask: which of the two, civil or natural life, is more likely to become insufferable to those who live it? We see about us practically no people who do not complain about their existence...[but] has anyone ever heard of a savage man who was living in liberty ever dreaming of complaining about…
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Liberty Matters

The OLL brings people together to debate and discuss important texts and big ideas about liberty.

Contrasting Views of Liberty in Hume and Rousseau (November 2024)

David Hume’s skepticism and rigorous empiricism confront Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s idealism and passionate romanticism in this series about their perspectives on liberty. Hume and Rousseau were two of the most notorious and influential thinkers of their time. They were also very briefly friends.
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Virtual Book Group

Book Group

Join interesting people and have interesting conversations based on readings from the history of liberty.

Biographies

Biography

Meet the players in the history of liberty.

Quotes

Quotes

Explore lively quotations on questions of liberty and power.