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book1755

Discourse on Inequality

Disciplines:
political philosophy
social criticism
philosophy/human nature
economics/inequality

Summary

Rousseau's 1755 Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men — arguing that natural humans are innocent and equal, that the invention of private property created inequality, and that civilization is the history of compounding injustice built on this original theft.

Core Contribution

Provides the foundational argument that inequality is not natural but historical — the 'first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying This is mine, and found people simple enough to believe him' — making capitalism's foundational act an act of theft.

Historical Influences

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Intellectual Lineage

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Research Enlightenment critique tradition

Allied Works

The Social Contract Communist Manifesto

Contemporaries & Peers

Social Contract Second Treatise

Minds Influenced

Marx Romanticism Jonathan Bi

Intellectual Posterity

Discourse on Inequality Noble savage Critique of private property

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Discourse on Inequality

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