JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU 1712-1778

Abstract

In 1749 Jean-Jacques Rousseau experienced an overwhelming inspiration from which he later claimed all his philosophical speculations were derived. He won a prestigious prize with his Discourse on the Arts and Sciences in 1750, and wrote two operas. In 1754, on a return visit to Geneva, he reconverted to Calvinism and regained his citizen status, of which he was always proud. In the Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, Rousseau carries forward his central theme of the denaturation of human beings, their progressive removal from the sources of their natural being. Rousseau distinguishes between natural inequality, which results from discrepant physical and mental abilities, and moral or political inequality, which depends on social conventions and is authorized by mutual consent. Rousseau is often assimilated into the broad current of the Enlightenment project, but although he concurred with the philosophes in their attempt to eliminate religious prejudices, he was their sharpest critic in rejecting the elitist notion.