Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1712–78), Swiss-born French writer, philosopher, and political theorist. Greatly influenced by Denis Diderot, Rousseau first gained fame from his essay Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts (1750), an attack on the arts as a source for the increased wealth of the rich and an instrument of propaganda. In his Discourse on Inequality (1755), he professed the equality and goodness of “natural man” and asserted that the golden age of humanity occurred before the formation of society, which bred competition and the corrupting influences of property, commerce, science, and agriculture. The Social Contract (1762), influential during the French Revolution, claimed that when human beings formed a social contract to live in society, they delegated authority to a government; however, they retained sovereignty and the power to withdraw that authority when necessary. On education, Rousseau suggested, in his didactic novel Emile (1762), that rather than imparting knowledge, education should build on a child's natural interests and sympathies, gradually developing his or her potential. For the last 10–15 years of his life, Rousseau fought mental illness (persecution mania) and lived in seclusion. Confessions (1782), written shortly before his death, describes Rousseau's romantic feelings of affinity with nature. He was an influential figure of the French Enlightenment and of 19th century romanticism.

See also: Age of Reason.