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- Herausgeber: Passerino
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
Discourse on the Origin of Inequality Among Men
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
What makes human beings unequal? Is it nature, or society?
In this seminal work of political philosophy, Jean-Jacques Rousseau dares to confront one of the most pressing questions of the Enlightenment: how the progress of civilization has shaped, and corrupted, the human condition. First published in 1755, Rousseau’s Discourse presents a sweeping meditation on humanity’s passage from the innocence of the “state of nature” to the complexities of social life. He argues that while natural inequalities—of strength, age, or intellect—exist, it is society itself that multiplies and entrenches divisions through property, power, and privilege.
Provocative, poetic, and radical in its time, Rousseau’s text would go on to influence generations of thinkers and revolutionaries, from the authors of the French Revolution to modern critics of inequality. This edition offers readers the chance to engage directly with a work that remains as urgent and unsettling today as it was over two centuries ago—a profound reminder that the roots of injustice may lie not in human nature, but in the very structures we have built.
A classic of philosophy and political thought—essential reading for anyone concerned with freedom, equality, and the human spirit.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) was a Swiss-born philosopher, writer, and composer whose ideas transformed political and social thought in Europe. A central figure of the Enlightenment, he is best known for works such as Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, The Social Contract, and Émile. Rousseau’s reflections on freedom, equality, education, and the corrupting influence of civilization inspired both the French Revolution and modern democratic theory, leaving an enduring legacy as one of the most influential thinkers of modern times.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025
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Discourse on the Origin of Inequality Among Men
The sky is the limit
Table of contents
Introductory Note
Dedication
Preface
Introduction
First Part
Second Part
landmarks
Title page
Cover
Table of contents
Book start
Introductory Note
Jean Jacques Rousseau was born at Geneva, June 28, 1712, the son of a watchmaker of French origin. His education was irregular, and though he tried many professions—including engraving, music, and teaching—he found it difficult to support himself in any of them. The discovery of his talent as a writer came with the winning of a prize offered by the Academy of Dijon for a discourse on the question, "Whether the progress of the sciences and of letters has tended to corrupt or to elevate morals." He argued so brilliantly that the tendency of civilization was degrading that he became at once famous. The discourse here printed on the causes of inequality among men was written in a similar competition.
He now concentrated his powers upon literature, producing two novels, "La Nouvelle Heloise," the forerunner and parent of endless sentimental and picturesque fictions; and "Emile, ou l'Education," a work which has had enormous influence on the theory and practise of pedagogy down to our own time and in which the Savoyard Vicar appears, who is used as the mouthpiece for Rousseau's own religious ideas. "Le Contrat Social" (1762) elaborated the doctrine of the discourse on inequality. Both historically and philosophically it is unsound; but it was the chief literary source of the enthusiasm for liberty, fraternity, and equality, which inspired the leaders of the French Revolution, and its effects passed far beyond France.
His most famous work, the "Confessions," was published after his death. This book is a mine of information as to his life, but it is far from trustworthy; and the picture it gives of the author's personality and conduct, though painted in such a way as to make it absorbingly interesting, is often unpleasing in the highest degree. But it is one of the great autobiographies of the world.
During Rousseau's later years he was the victim of the delusion of persecution; and although he was protected by a succession of good friends, he came to distrust and quarrel with each in turn. He died at Ermenonville, near Paris, July 2, 1778, the most widely influential French writer of his age.
The Savoyard Vicar and his "Profession of Faith" are introduced into "Emile" not, according to the author, because he wishes to exhibit his principles as those which should be taught, but to give an example of the way in which religious matters should be discussed with the young. Nevertheless, it is universally recognized that these opinions are Rousseau's own, and represent in short form his characteristic attitude toward religious belief. The Vicar himself is believed to combine the traits of two Savoyard priests whom Rousseau knew in his youth. The more important was the Abbe Gaime, whom he had known at Turin; the other, the Abbe Gatier, who had taught him at Annecy.
Dedication
TO THE
Republic of GENEVA.
MAGNIFICENT, MOST HONOURED, AND SOVEREIGN LORDS,
FROM a full Conviction, that a virtuous Man alone can offer to his Country Honours she need not blush to receive, I have laboured these thirty Years past to render myself worthy of doing you homage in a public Manner; and the present happy Opportunity making up, in some measure, for what my Efforts have not been able to attain, I imagined I might consult on the Occasion the Zeal that animates me, more than the Title that should authorize me, to approach you for this Purpose. Having had the Happiness of drawing my first Breath among you, how was it possible I should meditate on the Equality Nature has established among Men, and on the Inequality they themselves have introduced, without thinking the profound Wisdom, with which both one and the other, happily combined together in this State, have been made to concur, in a Manner that deviates least from the Laws of Nature and yet answers best the Ends of Society, to the Maintenance of public Order and the Security of private Happiness? In examining what were the best Maxims good Sense might prescribe for the Constitution of a perfect Government, I was so struck to find them all complied with in yours, that, tho' I had not been born within your Walls, I should have thought myself indispensably obliged to offer this picture of human Society to that People, which of all others, in my Opinion, enjoys the greatest Advantages of it, and has best guarded against its smallest Abuses.
Had I been the Master to chuse a Birth-place for myself, I should have chosen a Society of an Extent proportioned to that of the human Faculties, that is, to the Possibility of being well governed, and in which every Member was so sufficient for his Employments, as to be under no Necessity of devolving upon others the Trust reposed in him: a State, where all the Subjects could be so well known to each other, that neither the dark Machinations of Vice, nor the humble Modesty of Virtue, should be able to escape the Eyes and Judgment of the Public; and where, on Account of the sweet habit of seeing and knowing each other, every Citizen's Love of his Country should be a Love for its Inhabitants rather than for its Soil. I should have desired to be born in a Country, where the Sovereign and the Subjects could have but one and the same Interest, that all the Motions of the Machine might necessarily tend to the Welfare of the whole; and, as this cannot happen unless where the Sovereign and the Subjects are but one and the same Person, I must of course have desired to be born under a democratical Government, wisely tempered.
I should have chose to live and die free, that is to say, subject to the Laws in such a Manner, that neither I, nor any other Member of the same Society, should be able to shake off their honourable Yoke; this wholesome and pleasant Yoke, which the proudest Necks carry with so much the greater Docility, as they are not made for carrying any other.
I should therefore have desired, that no Member of the State should be able to boast of his being superior to its Laws, nor the State have any Reason to fear its being obliged to receive Laws from any other. For, let the Constitution of a Government be what it will, if there is but one Man in it exempt from the Laws, all the other Members must necessarily be at his Discretion (1); And where there are two Heads, one National, and the other Foreign, let them divide the sovereign Authority in the best manner it can be divided, it is impossible that both should be well obeyed and the Government properly administered.
I should not have liked to belong to a Republic lately formed, whatever good Laws it might be blessed with; for, as the Government of it might possibly be otherwise framed than present Exigences required, I could not promise myself that it would not be shaken and destroyed, almost at its Birth, either because the new Administration did not suit the Subjects, or the Subjects the new Administration. It is with Liberty as with those solid and succulent Aliments or generous Wines, which, tho' fit to nourish and strengthen the robust Constitutions that have been accustomed to them, can only serve to oppress, to disorder and destroy such weak and delicate Frames as had never before made use of them. Men, once accustomed to Masters, can never afterwards do without them. The more they bestir themselves to get rid of their fetters, the farther they stray from the Paths of Liberty, in as much as, by mistaking for it an unbounded Licence which is the very reverse of Liberty, they almost always become, in the end, the Slaves of Impostors, who, instead of lightening their Chains, make them a great deal heavier than they before ever were. The Romans themselves, tho' afterwards the Model of all free States, were not capable of governing themselves, when they first shook off the Yoke of the Tarquins. Debased by Slavery and the ignominious Tasks these Tyrants had imposed upon them, they were, in the beginning, no better than a stupid Populace, which it was requisite to indulge and govern with the greatest Wisdom, that, accustoming themselves little by little to breathe the salutary Air of Liberty, these Souls, enervated, or rather degraded to the Rank of Beasts, by the Rod of Oppression, might gradually acquire that Severity of Manners, and that Nobleness of Courage, which at last rendered them the most respectable People on the Face of the Earth. I should therefore have sought out for my Country some happy and peaceable Republic, whose Origin was in some measure lost in the Night of Time; which had experienced no Shocks, but such as were fit to manifest and strengthen in its Members their Patriotism and Courage; and where the Citizens, long accustomed to a prudent Independency, were not only free, but worthy of being so. I should have chosen for my Country one secured against the brutal Rage of Conquest by a happy Impossibility of making any, and, by a still more happy Situation, free from the Apprehensions of becoming itself the Conquest of any other State: A free City, situated among Nations, none of whom should find it their Interest to attack her Liberties, but all, on the contrary, think a Duty to themselves to defend them, when attacked by others. A Republic, in a word, which not only had nothing to tempt the Ambition of its Neighbours, but might reasonably depend upon their Assistance in case of Necessity. Such a Republic as this, a Republic so happily situated, could have nothing to fear but from itself; and therefore, if its Members made Arms their Study, it must be rather with a view of keeping alive that martial Ardour, and that generous Spirit, which become Liberty so well, and serve to maintain a due Relish for it, than thro' any Necessity of providing for their Defence.
I should have sought out for a Country, where the Legislative Power was common to all its Inhabitants; for who can be supposed to know better than the Members of a Society, upon what Terms it is properest for them to live together? But then I should not approve Plebiscita like those of Rome, where the Heads of the Commonwealth, and those most concerned in its Preservation and Welfare, were excluded from Deliberations upon which its Safety often depended; and where, by the most absurd in consequence, the Magistrates were deprived of Privileges which the meanest Citizen enjoyed.
On the contrary, I should have desired, that, in order to put a stop to interested and ill-digested Projects, and dangerous Innovations, which proved in the end the Ruin of the Athenians, no private Citizen had a Right to propose any Laws that came into his Head, but that this Privilege belonged solely to the Magistrates; and that they too made use of it with so much Circumspection, and the People approved the Laws proposed by their Magistrates with so much Reserve, and the Promulgation of these Laws was afterwards attended with so much Solemnity, that, before the Constitution could be any way endangered by them, every Member of the Community might have sufficient Time to be convinced, that nothing contributes so much to render Laws holy and respectable, as their great Antiquity; that the Bulk of the People soon despise those they see altered from Day to Day, and that Governments, by accustoming themselves to neglect ancient Customs under pretence of imaginary Improvements, often introduce Evils greater than those they intended to correct or guard against.
I should, above all things, have avoided, as one that could not but be ill governed, a Republic, where the People pretending to be able to do without Magistrates, or at least without allowing them any more than a precarious Authority, should imprudently reserve themselves the Administration of civil Affairs, and the Execution of their own Laws; such must have been the rude Constitution of the first Governments at their issuing from a State of Nature, and this was another of the Vices that contributed to the Downfall of the Republic of Athens.
