A collection of critical essays by two different authors but with one common purpose: to consider the response of Jean-Jacques Rousseau to the challenges posed in the political philosophy of Thomas Hobbes. Specifically, we discuss the origin and development of Rousseau’s response to Hobbes, the importance of that response for some of Rousseau’s key concepts, and at least two directions in which further consideration of that response would be especially fruitful. Given this purpose, our collection of essays is addressed to those interested in the history of modern political philosophy.