Jean-Jacques+Rousseau



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Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born 28 June 1712 and died 2 July 1778. He was a major Genevois philosopher, writer, and composer of 18th century Romanticism. He greatly influenced both the American and French Revolution with his political philosophy, along with the overall devolopment of modern political, socialogical, and educational thought.

//The first man who, having fenced in a piece of land, said "This is mine," and found people naïve enough to believe him, that man was the true founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows: Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody.// ( Jean-Jacques Rousseau, //[|Discourse on Inequality]//, 1754 ) Like the other philosophers of his time, Rousseau looked at the hypothetical State of Nature as a guide.

//State of nature is a term in political philosophy used in social contract theories to describe the hypothetical condition of humanity before the state's foundation. In a broader sense, the state of nature is the condition before the rule of positive law comes into being, thus being a synonym of anarchy. The idea of the state of nature was a part of a classical republicanism theory as a hypothetical reason of entering a state of society by establishing a government.//