Rousseau

Modern philosophy

Rousseau was an eighteenth-century philosopher from Geneva (1712-1778). He left Geneva for Savoy and then Paris, seeking to make a living as a musician. He is particularly celebrated for The Social Contract, but also for The Confessions, the first autobiography in French literature. His works were condemned by the Parliament of Paris. With a difficult temperament, he fell out with Voltaire, among others — and yet, by a twist of fate, the two men lie buried opposite one another in the Panthéon.

On this page dedicated to Rousseau, discover summaries of his works, a bibliography, videos, a detailed biography, and a list of his major works.

Rousseau's Works Summarised on This Site

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Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men

In this work Rousseau develops an original conception of man in the state of nature, which poses in a new way the problem of inequality between men.

coming soon

The Social Contract

In this work, Rousseau introduces his famous notion of the general will, which represents the foundation of popular sovereignty.

Bibliography

Here are the essential books if you wish to better understand this author's thought:

Virioli, Maurizio (2003), Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the "Well-Ordered Society", Cambridge University Press
Simpson, Matthew (2006). Rousseau's Theory of Freedom. London: Continuum Books
Riley, Patrick (ed.) (2001). The Cambridge Companion to Rousseau. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Melzer, Arthur (1990). The Natural Goodness of Man: On the System of Rousseau's Thought. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Gauthier, David (2006). Rousseau: The Sentiment of Existence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Biography: Life of Rousseau

Youth

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born in 1712 in Geneva. His family, originally from France — from Montlhéry, near Paris — had settled in Switzerland to escape the persecution of Protestants.

They were a family of watchmakers, passing the craft from father to son.

His mother died nine days after he was born. Ten years later, his father fled Geneva to escape justice following a dispute with an influential local figure. The young Jean-Jacques was then brought up by his brother-in-law, a Protestant pastor, and the pastor's wife.

He was soon placed as a boarder with Pastor Lambercier in Bossey, near Geneva, where he remained for two years.

He was subsequently apprenticed as a clerk, then as an engraver — but being badly treated, he ran away at the age of sixteen.

His wanderings brought him to a parish priest in Confignon, who directed him to the Baroness Mme de Warens, who was responsible for overseeing conversions to Catholicism. He fell in love with her and converted.

A few years later she became his mistress, and the two settled at Les Charmettes, near Chambéry. Rousseau was twenty-two at the time.

He worked his way through the estate's library. Largely self-taught, he had never received any intellectual formation worth speaking of beyond what he had gleaned from his own reading.

He loved walking in the surrounding countryside, his head full of thoughts and reveries.

He gave music lessons to young women from the local bourgeoisie. His health was fragile, and he was sent to Montpellier to consult a doctor.

After making a few contacts in Lyon's society, he decided to try his luck in Paris.

In Paris

Rousseau arrived in Paris at thirty, convinced he would make his name as a composer. He had devised a new system of musical notation, replacing the traditional stave with a cipher-based system, and presented it to the Académie des Sciences — only to have it rejected as already known and of limited practical use.

He met Diderot, then as obscure as himself, frequented the Parisian salons, and worked as a tutor and secretary to noble families he encountered there.

He lived in a common-law relationship with Thérèse Levasseur, a young laundress who bore him five children, all of whom were placed in the care of the Assistance publique.

He met Condillac, d'Alembert and Voltaire — with whom he would later fall out — and wrote articles on music for the Encyclopédie at Diderot's request.

In 1750, at thirty-eight, he found fame. The Académie de Dijon had organised a writing competition around the question: "Has the progress of science and the arts contributed to corrupting or purifying morals?"

On Diderot's encouragement, Rousseau entered and wrote his Discourse on the Arts and Sciences, arguing that progress is a source of moral corruption. He won first prize. The essay provoked widespread reaction — including from Frederick II — and brought its author real notoriety.

He gave up his posts as tutor and secretary and devoted himself to writing, while keeping a modest income as a copyist of musical scores.

He composed an opera performed before the King, which was warmly received — but he did not present himself to Louis XV, and as a result forfeited the pension to which he would otherwise have been entitled.

In 1754, the Dijon Academy launched a second competition. Rousseau wrote the Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men, which made as great an impact as the first and drew responses from Voltaire, among others.

Rousseau was now famous.

Fame, Exile and Solitude

He returned to Geneva for a few months, reconverted to Protestantism and was reunited with Mme de Warens.

He then moved to l'Ermitage, in the forest of Montmorency.

He grew apart from the Encyclopaedists — partly over a fundamental disagreement: they believed in the virtues of progress, while he held the opposite view; partly over remarks he took (probably wrongly) as personal affronts; and partly over complicated romantic entanglements.

Increasingly misanthropic in his retreat, he nevertheless began work on a new book: Julie, or the New Heloise, an epistolary novel that became a runaway bestseller on its publication in 1761.

The year 1762 was momentous: The Social Contract and Émile, or On Education appeared in quick succession. That same year, his works were condemned by the Parliament of Paris, and he was forced into exile in Switzerland. Finding himself unwelcome even in Geneva, he took refuge at the court of Frederick II of Prussia.

He was attacked from all sides — by the devout (the Catholic Church swiftly placed Émile on the Index) and by the philosophers alike (Voltaire and the Encyclopaedists). Wounded in his pride, he spent the years 1765 to 1770 writing The Confessions in his own defence.

In 1766, at Hume's invitation, he went to England — but the two philosophers fell out, following intrigues by the Encyclopaedists, and the English exile lasted only a year.

He returned to France and, still threatened with condemnation by the Parliament of Paris, lived for a time under an assumed name. Convinced that a general conspiracy was being mounted against him, Rousseau grew acutely suspicious, tipping towards a persecution complex — going so far as to distrust the loyal friends who came to visit him.

Later Life

His wandering life continued: he lived successively in the Oise, near Grenoble, in Bourgoin-Jallieu in the Isère, in Lyon, before returning to Paris in 1770. He earned his living by copying music.

Passionate about botany, which he pursued during his many walks, he published a work presenting his botanical observations.

In 1776, he began his final work, Reveries of the Solitary Walker, which did not appear until after his death, in 1782 — as did The Confessions.

In 1778, while staying at the Château d'Ermenonville in the Oise, he suffered a stroke and died at the age of sixty-six.

His remains were transferred to the Panthéon sixteen years later, during the French Revolution. His coffin was placed opposite that of Voltaire — his most illustrious adversary.

Main Works

Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men
Emile or On Education
The Social Contract
The Confessions
Rousseau Judge of Jean-Jacques