Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Discourse on Inequality (also known as the Second Discourse) tells the story of all human history to answer one simple question: how did we end up in such an unequal world? David explores the steps Rousseau traces in the fall of humankind and asks whether this is a radical alternative to the vision offered by Hobbes or just a variant on it. Is Rousseau really such a nice philosopher?
Recommended version to purchase
Going deeper…
- Leo Damrosch, Jean Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius (2005)
- David Edmonds and John Eidinow, Rousseau’s Dog (2007)
- Pankaj Mishra, ‘How Rousseau predicted Trump’, The New Yorker (2016)
- (Audio) In Our Time, The Social Contract
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