Rousseau's 1750 prize-winning essay arguing that the arts and sciences have corrupted morals rather than improved them — his first major work and the beginning of his systematic argument that civilization corrupts natural human goodness.
Launches the Rousseauian critique of civilization — the arts and sciences do not improve morality but teach people to value appearances over substance, luxury over virtue, and social status over authentic feeling — establishing the argument that Jonathan Bi uses in discussions of amour propre.
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