Cover of Discourse on Inequality by Jean-Jacques Rousseau Ebook Discourse on Inequality
Ebook · Sovereign

Discourse on Inequality

Author
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Series
World Classics
Language
English
Length
74 pages
ISBN
9781911495727
Published
8 August 2016
Imprint
Sovereign
  • Rousseau
  • philosophy
  • inequality
  • ideas
  • classic
  • magnum opus
  • French classic
  • Swiss
  • revolution
  • human nature

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Description

Rousseau first exposes in this work his conception of a human state of nature, presented as a philosophical fiction, and of human perfectibility, an early idea of progress. He then explains the way, according to him, people may have established civil society, which leads him to present private property as the original source and basis of all inequality.

Author

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) made feeling a political fact. Genevan philosopher, novelist, and composer, he wrote the Discourses, The Social Contract, and Emile — books that helped shape the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and modern ideas of education and the self. Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains: the sentence still startles because it is both diagnosis and dare.

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