The First and Second Discourses : by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Rating:
Summary: Insight into the Enlightenment
Review: "I conceive of two sorts of inequality in the human species: one, which I call natural or physical, because it is established by nature and consists in the difference of ages, health, bodily strengths, and qualities of mind or soul; the other which may be called moral or political inequality, because it depends upon a sort of convention and is established, or at least authorized, by consent of men. The latter consists in the different privileges that some men enjoy to the prejudice of others, such as to be richer, more honored, more powerful than they, or even to make themselves obeyed by them."

In 1750, the Academy of Dijon held an essay contest. The question, 'Has the restoration of the sciences & arts tended to purify morals?' The First Discourse (Discourse on the Sciences and Arts) was the winning essay. Rousseau's powerful critique of the enlightenment in modern Europe spit in the faces of the very people that were judging his work. However, Rousseau's arguments and assessment of the enlightenment were so profound that even the elite scholars of the Academy could not deny Rousseau his just recognition for superior writing and understanding of the nature of the sciences and arts and their effects on modern life.

Rousseau's Second Discourse (Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequity) was a follow up to the first. In it, Rousseau delves deeper into the issue of human origins (i.e. the state of nature) and the cause and effects of human inequality.

No other philosopher has be praised and condemned, celebrated and written-off as much as Rousseau. His countless effects on modern life go relatively unknown. Anyone who has read Marx, must ask themselves, what history book was Marx reading. Upon reading Rousseau's Discourses, it become obvious, Marx read Rousseau. However, "Rousseau can still overpower where Marx falls flat." (Allan Bloom, 'The Closing of The American Mind,' 217.)

Rousseau is a must read for anyone who is a student of, or interested in, philosophy, political philosophy, Marxism, or simply has a longing to return to the state of nature and thinks that life would be best if we would all just "go and work in our garden." (Voltaire, 'Candide,' 144.)