Discours Origine Fondements Inegalite

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A devastating critique of the social conditions of the French monarchy is anchored in a broader context of reflections on the individual, their mission, and direction. Rousseau is highly skeptical of progress as a one-sided movement towards the improvement of technical skills and the increase of material wealth. He also criticizes the main tool of progress, science. By studying humanity more closely, we become incapable of recognizing it, he argues, thus challenging the prevailing focus of European civilization at the time. In contrast to reason, he emphasizes the role of passion, seeing the origin of inequality in private property. Inequality grows and solidifies alongside the progress of humanity. Rousseau's statement that "moral inequality is justified only by normative law, which is the opposite of natural law" was one of the intellectual detonators of the French Revolution. This stylistically refined work is among the most influential and frequently cited philosophical texts of all time and belongs to the golden treasury of world literature.