Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality Among Men (1754) “Let us unite,” said the rich man, “to protect the weak from oppression, to restrain the ambitious, and to guarantee to each person the possession of what belongs to him.” Equality among men, the second of the three great demands of the French Revolution at the height of the Enlightenment, was a state that—with few exceptions—civilization had never truly managed to approach.

Almost half a century earlier, in 1754, Jean-Jacques Rousseau had responded to the challenge of delving into the heart of the social problem, presenting the causes of the establishment of inequality as a fundamental (and unsurpassable?) characteristic of social systems, as they had evolved over time; and in many ways, reading his fiery treatise On the Origin of Inequality remains today just as enlightening as it was then, a monument of modern political and social thought.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1774), philosopher, botanist, composer, and figure of the French Enlightenment, remains a prominent figure in the history of philosophy both for his contribution to the shaping of political philosophy and for the influence his pioneering thought had on later thinkers.

Although Rousseau believed from the mid-18th century that the coexistence of people on terms of freedom and equality was not impossible and advocated for the creation of political institutions that allow coexistence in a society of self-sufficient members, he nonetheless consistently appeared pessimistic about whether humanity would ever succeed in freeing itself from oppression, alienation, and unfreedom.