A Meeting of the Minds

Jean-Jacques Rousseau
AP European History
Eric Karney
Block 7
5 November 2014
I. Personal Background

I was born in Geneva in 1728 to Isaac Rousseau, a clockmaker and Suzanne

Bernard, who died soon after my birth. In my teens, I was apprenticed to an engraver
and I ran away from the city to avoid punishment for previously skipping curfew and
the boring work. Then I moved to Annecy and worked as a teacher and secretary for
several years.
In 1741, I moved to Paris to pursue composing, after realizing that I am neither
good at teaching or enjoy it. Ambitiously, I introduced a new system of numerical
notation, which I presented to the Acadmie des Sciences. Although my idea was
rejected, I continued composing several operas and other musical works.
Soon after I left for Venice from 1743 to 1744 and worked as a secretary to the
French ambassador, M. de Montaigu. My time working with the embassy provided
administrative experience that would help later while writing The Social Contract
(Rousseau Biography, gradesaver.com).While in Italy, I was intrigued by the Italian
operas and wrote my second opera, Le Devin du village in 1752. This work brought
prestige and recognition. However, I soon had a falling out with the French
ambassador and moved back to Paris to further my musical career. I changed
direction, though after meeting Diderot and other philosophes. I also contributed to
his famous Encyclopdie, which detailed the extent of human knowledge and
emphasized rationalization and critical thinking through observation. My contribution
was two articles, one on music and the other on economics (Rousseau,
orgeganstate.edu). Collaborating with Diderot and other philosophes began to shape
my perspective on Enlightenment thought introduced me to several of their ideas.
Shortly thereafter in 1752, I entered my Discourse on the Arts and Sciences, into the
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Dijon Academy essay contest and won. My work argued that art and science
decreased human morals, because they were a frivolous and induced pride and
jealously. This essay brought me recognition and really began my career as a
philosopher and writer.
My background from a bourgeoisie family set me apart from my contemporaries,
who mostly came from aristocratic backgrounds. This different perspective allowed
me to understand the common people more and empathize with them, instead of
ignoring and fearing them like other philosophes.
Although I was a part of the later Enlightenment movement, my ideas remained a
central cornerstone in the Age of Reason. My ideas supported democratic
governments, although not specifically, and the basic equality of all men in society,
which were deemed revolutionary at the time. These shocking concepts would later
impact the Romanticism movement and the French Revolution. My works also, in all
their vagueness, have been used to support disparate forms of governments and
societies, whether for better or worse (Ryan 572).
Works Cited
"Jean-Jacques Rousseau Biography | List of Works, Study Guides & Essays." Study
Guides & Essay Editing. Web. 1 Nov. 2014.
"JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU (1712-1778)." Jean Jacques Rousseau. Web. 1 Nov.
2014.
Ryan, Alan. "Rousseau." On Politics: A History of Political Thought: Hobbes to the
Present. Vol. 2. New York: W. W. Norton, 2012. Print.
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II. Period of Life

My lifetime was included in the Age of Enlightenment, which greatly affected the
environment of my life as a philosophe. While growing up, however, my life as a
member of the working middle class was affected little by the ideas of the
Enlightenment, which were spread mainly among the aristocracy and intellectuals.
Politically, government began to evolve from absolutism to enlightened
absolutism. Monarchs like Catherine the Great and Frederick the Great began to
institute rationalization through administrative reform, which was heavily influenced
by philosophes, especially Voltaire. This change was better than complete
monarchical absolutism, although it still tethered man to the will of one rulers
wishes, rather than the broad consensus of the general will. Although I never
supported one specific form of government, I pushed for enlightened absolutism,
because it granted more rights to the people than traditional absolutism. France,
however, drastically differed from its absolutist contemporaries (Enlightenment,
flowofhistory.com). As it was heavily influenced by the work of the philosophes, the
absolute power of the monarch began to be questioned by the traditionally powerful
nobles. Royal decrees were also questioned by the powerful parlements that
deliberated on whether royal decrees were fit to become laws.
The mercantilist policies of the absolutist age seemed antediluvian and outrageous
compared with the new system of capitalism, introduced by Adam Smith in the
Wealth of Nations toward the end of my life. This ground breaking work detailed the
faults of mercantilism and promoted a new system that was based on human nature
and the history of economics. The Enlightenment proved to be the perfect springboard
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for an economic system that valued free trade and decisions, much like the liberties
and natural rights discussed by the philosophes. However, this new movement took a
substantial amount of time to take hold, excluding Britain and its colonies
(Enlightenment, worldology.com).
Although the Enlightenment influenced many later events and movements, in
reality it only affected a very small amount of the population, primarily the
aristocracy and the urban bourgeois (Sewell Jr. 53). Unlike many of my
contemporaries I wanted the Enlightenment to affect more than just the top echelon of
society, influencing the life of every man, to better it and progress humanity
(Rousseau, egs.edu). Although the natural state was devoid of freedom due to the
challenge of survival, the concepts of our natural existence should not be forgotten.
For this reason I championed the society of Native American tribes, which existed
peacefully among each other, between the natural state of humanity and within the
obligations of a social contract.
While staying in Paris, I met Denis Diderot and other philosophes through him.
We initially had a good connection and I wrote two articles for his radical
Encyclopdie. I also met the famed philosophe Voltaire, who was the very antithesis
to my ideas. While he believed that education and reason provided the means for man
to shed his bestial past, I argued that an Enlightenment education was the very thing
that corrupted humanity. Unsurprisingly, we got into several literary battles.
Famously, Voltaire replied to the publishing of The Social Contract by replying with a
letter that degraded my work. This event epitomized the tense relationship between
me and Voltaire.
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Works Cited
"The Flow of History." FC100: Enlightenment Political & Social Ideas -. Web. 1
Nov. 2014.
"Further Understanding of the Enlightenment." Further Understanding of the
Enlightenment. Web. 1 Nov. 2014.
Sewell, Jr., William H. Work and Revolution in France: The Language of Labor from
the Old Regime to 1848. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1980. Print.
"Jean-Jacques Rousseau - Biography." Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Web. 1 Nov. 2014.

III. Theories and Works

After writing my award-winning Discourse on the Arts and Sciences, I presented
my ideas on the disparity of man through my Discourse on the Origin of Inequality to
the Dijon Academy. In my work I analyzed the relationship between the evolution of
man and the rise of inequality that is so evident in modern political institutions. This
work was ground breaking and provided me with praise and recognition in the
intellectual community, although it did not win the writing competition like my
earlier entry. Instead, it critiqued the political institutions of my time, especially those
that increased inequality among humanity. My work praised my home city of Geneva,
partly due to my expulsion two decade previously. I was driven out by the ruling
plutocratic council of Geneva for my radical ideas of government, I returned later
after renouncing my previous drastic claims.
My work established two separate versions of inequality, the physical differences
created in the natural state and the variations subjected to man by man himself.
Rather than focusing on why inequality itself arises, I instead focused on the
progression in history that instituted the natural state to law and the when the strong
began to dominate the weak (Inequality, marxists.org). This discourse opened the
question of inequality, which I eventually provided a solution to in The Social
Contract.
The Discourse on Inequality remains relevant, because it charts the rise of
disparity between people, which remained pivotal to such events as the French

Revolution and the Romantic Movement, which sought to juxtapose itself to and
reject many ideas and concepts of the Enlightenment.
Another of my critical works was mile. This work was a combination of a novel
and a treatise that followed the upbringing and the life of mile. It showcased his
education as natural, unprecedented at the time, which maintained his inherent
benevolence; a goodness that typically removed as society wears men down until they
no longer resemble themselves. I wrote this work to serve as a model for a new
system of education that would vary at each stage of life. Instead of the traditional
learning of the time, this system would cater lessons to the disparate versions of man
as he matures. For example, children would receive a natural education, while
teenagers would begin their formal education with a tutor.
During the French Revolution, the teachings of mile served as the new model for
French education (mile, oll.liberyfund.org). This work was also one of the first
philosophical writings on education, in a sense separating itself from other works
with its novelty. mile continued to be discussed late into the nineteenth century for
its strictly subordinate view of womens education, properly overseen by a husband or
male relative (Rousseau, feminism.eserver.org). My ideas on education have
remained influential, especially as Western education began to evolve into a system
that resembles modern learning.
My arguably most influential work was The Social Contract. This work
elaborated on the theory of the social contract, previously developed by Thomas
Hobbes and John Locke, in their respective interpretations of the concept. However, I
believed once man has left his natural state he trades his rights and individual liberty
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for the demands of the general will and the constraints of society that make man
civilized. Therefore, man is inherently both benevolent and all are equal (Rousseau
89), although society has traditionally challenged this notion and corrupted us for its
own purpose. Rather than the sovereign being one tyrannical monarch who
commands the rest of society, all people should be recognized politically, although the
sovereign should be seen as an individual with absolute power who represents the
general will of the society. Government should be an affair of the many, not the few.
The Social Contract was one of my most revolutionary works, because it
emphasized the equality of men and redefined the social contract. My work was
banned and burned in the streets of Paris the year it was published. Similar to my
other works, it inspired many revolutionaries, especially those of the French
Revolution. This work has continued to be analyzed and interpreted, because of its
radically redefined relationship of the individual and society.

I Am Poem
I am a paradox
I wonder whether trying just to survive is being free
I hear the cackling of flames as my books are burned
I see the arts and sciences that have corrupted man
I am not a traditional philosophe
I pretend that the love of Madame de Warens is genuine
I feel like an outsider
I touch paper as I compose
I worry for my life as I flee Geneva
I cry for my five children that I abandoned at the Foundling Hospital
I am a visionary
I understand that man is inherently good
I say that men are equal
I dream that society will free man of his chains
I try to inspire a corrupt world
I hope that others will understand
I am Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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Works Cited
"A Dissertation On the Origin and Foundation of The Inequality of Mankind and Is It
Authorized by Natural Law?" Rousseau: On the Origin of Inequality: First
Part. Web. 1 Nov. 2014.
"Online Library of Liberty." Emile, or Education -. Web. 1 Nov. 2014.
Feminism and Women's Studies (: Woman's Education According to Rousseau and
Wollstonecraft)
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Social Contract. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

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IV. Annotated Bibliography

Primary Sources
"A Dissertation On the Origin and Foundation of The Inequality of Mankind and Is It
Authorized by Natural Law?" Rousseau: On the Origin of Inequality: First
Part. Accessed November 1, 2014.
The first major work of Rousseau analyzed the rise of inequalities as man
transitioned from the natural state to a governmental organization, and the
effects of such a change. This original work supplements the ideas of The
Social Contract by establishing a similar concept that leads to his later social
concept theory and outlying the beginning of his career as a philosophe.
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. "Emile, or Education." Online Library of Liberty. Accessed
November 1, 2014.
The philosophy of education was rarely discussed until Rousseau published
mile, which followed the education of a man from birth and into later in his
life, serving as an example for a more ideal educational system. This work
demonstrated Rousseaus emphasis on the importance of education and his
point of view of women as subordinate to men.
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Social Contract. New York: Penguin Books, 2006. 55,
132
Rousseaus concept of the social contract between the individual and the
governed, or more accurately, between individual to individual, radically

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redefined and critiqued modern political institutions during the

Enlightenment. His original writings provided more context and clarified
many of the vague statements made by those who summarized his works.
Ryan, Alan. "Rousseau." In On Politics: A History of Political Thought: Hobbes to
the Present, 533-573. Vol. 2. New York: W. W. Norton and, 2012.
The author focuses on the background of, political, and philosophical aspects
of Rousseau that have affected his lifes work and developed his many unique
theses. This work elaborated on his background extensively and Rousseaus
political concepts.
Sewell, Jr., William H. Work and Revolution in France: The Language of Labor from
the Old Regime to 1848. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980. 53,
70.
This work argues that the several French revolutions occurred not in dark,
foreboding workshops of artisans, but the streets of Paris with people in
search of liberty, equality, and fraternity. The story of the revolutions is told
through the perspective of artisans, rather than the traditional points of view of
the rich and poor, adding more context to the influence of Rousseau not just
one single social class.
Secondary Sources
"Feminism and Women's Studies." : Woman's Education According to Rousseau and
Wollstonecraft. Accessed November 1, 2014.

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The authors of this article synthesized the works of Rousseau and

Wollstonecraft and analyzed their disparate interpretations on the education of
women. This source was helpful to understand Rousseaus ideas from a
different perspective and to express his impact on education, specifically that
of women.
"Further Understanding of the Enlightenment." Further Understanding of the
Enlightenment. Accessed November 1, 2014.
This article provided more information about the Enlightenment in general,
giving an overview of each major development of this time period. It provided
a chance to see where Rousseau fit specifically within the Age of Reason.
"JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU (1712-1778)." Jean Jacques Rousseau. Accessed
November 1, 2014.
This website organized the Rousseaus life chronologically into main events
and went into detail about each specific event. It was useful for understanding
the order of events in Rousseaus life and how they affected his intellectual
concepts.
"Jean-Jacques Rousseau - Biography." Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Accessed November
1, 2014.
The European Graduate School created this article to provide insight into the
life and philosophical work of Rousseau to their graduate and post graduate
students. This particular article provided many details that were unique and a
new perspective on Rousseaus many literary works.
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"Jean-Jacques Rousseau Biography | List of Works, Study Guides & Essays." Study
Guides & Essay Editing. Accessed November 1, 2014.
The author primarily focused on the upbringing and early life of Rousseau,
which affected his later philosophical works. The article provided a detailed
basis of the biographical information for the background and his intellectual
writings.
"The Flow of History." FC100: Enlightenment Political & Social Ideas -. Accessed
November 1, 2014.
The author gave an overview of the political and social changes during the
Enlightenment and briefly explain the background of each development. This
article was extremely useful, because it provided context for the Age of
Reason, along with a graphic that summarized the information with graphic
data.

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