All Formats & Editions

If humans are benevolent by nature, how do societies become corrupt? And how do governments founded upon the defense of individual rights degenerate into tyranny? These are the questions addressed by Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Discourse on the Origin of Inequality , a strikingly... Read Full Overview

'How can we know the source of inequality among men if we do not first have knowledge of men themselves?' In A Discourse on Inequality Rousseau sets out to demonstrate how the growth of civilization corrupts man's natural happiness and freedom by creating artificial inequalities... Read Full Overview

In A Discourse on Inequality, Rousseau sets out to demonstrate how the growth of civilization corrupts man's natural happiness and freedom by creating artificial inequalities of wealth, power and social privilege. Contending that primitive man was equal to his fellows,... Read Full Overview

The Norton Library edition of Rousseau's Discourse features an inviting and readable translation by Julia Conaway Bondanella that makes the text accessible to the modern English reader while faithfully preserving the power and clarity of Rousseau's voice and style of argumentation... Read Full Overview

If humans are benevolent by nature, how do societies become corrupt? And how do governments founded upon the defense of individual rights degenerate into tyranny? These are the questions addressed by Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, a strikingly... Read Full Overview

In his Discourses (1755), Rousseau argues that inequalities of rank, wealth, and power are the inevitable result of the civilizing process. If inequality is intolerable - and Rousseau shows with unparalledled eloquence how it robs us not only of our material but also of our psychological... Read Full Overview

Discover why Rousseaus criticisms of human nature, political hierarchy, and private property were so controversial in his time yet later hailed as a foundation of democracy in this edition of Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality among Men.

Of all human sciences the most useful and most imperfect appears to me to be that of mankind: and I will venture to say, the single inscription on the Temple of Delphi contained a precept more difficult and more important than is to be found in all the huge volumes that moralists... Read Full Overview

A Discourse On Inequality by Jean Jacques Rousseau is a philosophical treatise that explores the origins and nature of inequality in human society. Rousseau argues that inequality is not a natural state of humanity, but rather a product of social and political systems that have... Read Full Overview

Cet essai philosophique fut commenc en 1753 et publi en 1755, en r ponse un sujet de l'Acad mie de Dijon intitul Quelle est l'origine de l'in galit des conditions parmi les hommes ? Sa participation au concours est dans la continuit du Discours sur les sciences et les... Read Full Overview

Le Discours sur l'origine et les fondements de l'in galit parmi les hommes est un essai du philosophe genevois Jean-Jacques Rousseau publi en 1755. Avec le Contrat Social, il s'agit d'un des ouvrages centraux de la pens e politique de l'auteur. Rousseau y expose sa conception... Read Full Overview

Rousseau argues that inequalities of rank, wealth, and power are the inevitable result of the civilizing process. If inequality is intolerable - and Rousseau shows with unparalleled eloquence how it robs us not only of our material but also of our psychological independence -... Read Full Overview