Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Birth:

June 28, 1712

Death:

July 2, 1778

Place of Birth:

Geneva, Switzerland

Place of Death:

Ermenonville (in current-day France)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a prominent French philosopher whose ideas inspired the leaders of
the French Revolution. He was born in Switzerland but traveled throughout Europe before
settling in Paris at age 30. It was in Paris that he helped form the Philosophes, a group of
intellectuals comprised of several other notable philosophers who would play crucial roles in the
Englightenment. Rousseau wrote about many topics in several different genres, or types of
literature, including essays and novels.
One of the central ideas in Rousseaus work was that humans were good by nature but that
society and its inequalities had corrupted them. Rousseau elaborated on this idea in his book The
Social Contract, which proposed that people were born free and that government and society
restricted them too much. He wrote that the only kind of government that should be able to limit
people was a government elected by its citizens. In his novel Emile, Rousseau extended this idea,
applying it to raising children. He believed children should be given more freedom and that
parents should not put so many restrictions on them. Rousseau strongly supported the value of
liberty both for children and for adults in society.
Many people objected to Rousseaus philosophies at the time, but during the 1770s and 1780s,
his ideas became very influential in France. People agreed with his idea that society was unequal
and corrupt. Many leaders of the French Revolution were inspired by his ideas of freedom and
equality. As a result, they overthrew their existing government and replaced it with one they
believed was more just.