Jean Jacques Rousseau Accomplishments

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a Swiss-born philosopher, writer, and political theorist, was born to Isaac Rousseau and Suzanne Bernard in Geneva on June 28, 1712. Rousseau’s mother died in childbirth, and he was raised by his father. His father fled Geneva to avoid a legal conflict for hunting on private lands, and he was left with his Uncle. At age 13, Rousseau was apprenticed first to a notary and then to an engraver who beat him. At 15, he ran away from Geneva (on 14 March 1728) after returning to the city and finding the city gates locked due to the curfew. He moved to Italy and France and held various jobs throughout. In Annecy, France, he met Françoise-Louise de Warens and lived on and off with her. He became her lover, and she supported him
Rousseau argued that the progression of the sciences and arts has caused the corruption of virtue and morality. Rousseau claimed that the arts and sciences are born from our vices: he states, “Astronomy was born from superstition; eloquence from ambition, hate, flattery, and falsehood; geometry from avarice, physics from vain curiosity; all, even moral philosophy, from human pride.” Rousseau expressed that society had become more harmful than sophisticated, and society began to emphasize specialized talents rather than virtues such as courage, generosity, and temperance. Unlike Hobbes and many Catholic writers, he did not believe that society was inherently corrupt or bad. His initial ideas in “A Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts” are believed to be inspired by Françoise-Louise de Warens. His “A Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts” allowed Rousseau to gain fame and recognition, while laying the foundation for his next writing, “The Discourse on the Origin of Inequality”, which was written in response to this prompt: “What is the origin of the inequality among men and is it justified by natural
In this primitive state, people were happy and there were no awas, no judges; all people were equal. Rousseau suggested that the earliest humans possessed a basic drive for self-preservation, and compassion and pity. Unlike animals, Rousseau illustrated that humans had free will and the potential for perfectibility. People came together, formed families, and this led to developments in agriculture, metallurgy, private property, and the division of labor, which created inequality. Neighbours began to compare their abilities and achievements with one another, and this furthered a divide. Ultimately, the work proclaims that by nature, humans are essentially peaceful, content, and equal, and that they had lost their liberty due to the