Discourse on the Origin of Inequality

Name: Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
Rating: 3.576923076923077 (26 reviews)
Author: Jean-Jacques Rousseau
ISBN: 9780486434148

by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

3.6

(26 ratings)

64 pages29 editions2004Dover PublicationsISBN 9780486434148

Political science & theoryWestern philosophy, c 1600 to c 1800PoliticalLiterary CollectionsPolitics / Current EventsLiterature: ClassicsPolitical scienceHistory & Theory - GeneralLiterary Collections / GeneralGeneralEqualityNatural law

About this book

Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men (French: Discours sur l'origine et les fondements de l'inégalité parmi les hommes), also commonly known as the "Second Discourse", is a 1755 treatise by philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, on the topic of social inequality and its origins. The work was written in 1754 as Rousseau's entry in a competition by the Academy of Dijon, and was published in 1755. Rousseau first exposes in this work his conception of a human state of nature (broadly believed to be a hypothetical thought exercise) and of human perfectibility, an early idea of progress. He then explains the way in which, in his view, people may have established civil society, and this leads him to conclude that private property is the original source and basis of all inequality.

Publication Details

Publisher: Dover Publications
Published: 2004
Pages: 64
ISBN: 9780486434148
Language: en
Editions: 29

About Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a major Genevois philosopher, writer, and composer of 18th-century Romanticism. His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution and the development of modern political, sociological and educational thought. His novel, *Emile: or, On Education*, which he considered his most important work, is a seminal treatise on the education of the whole person for citizenship. His sentimental novel, Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse, was of great importance to the development of pre-Romanticism and romanticism in fiction. Rousseau's autobiographical writings: his *Confessions*, which initiated the modern autobiography, and his *Reveries of a Solitary Walker* were among the pre-eminent examples of the late 18th-century movement known as the "Age of Sensibility", featuring an increasing focus on subjectivity and introspection that has characterized the modern age. Rousseau also made important contributions to music as a theorist. During the period of the French Revolution, Rousseau was the most popular of the philosophers among members of the Jacobin Club. He was interred as a national hero in the Panthéon in Paris, in 1794, 16 years after his death.<sup>[1][1]</sup> [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Jacques_Rousseau