Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Man is born good; society corrupts him.
Discourse on the Sciences and Arts essential
Prize of the Dijon Academy. A provocative thesis: progress in the sciences and arts has not made people better. He became famous overnight.
Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality among Men essential
Natural man, pity, property: a hypothetical history of inequality. Diderot may have written a few lines (disputed).
Letter to Voltaire on Providence
A private letter on the Lisbon disaster, printed without his consent in 1759, then acknowledged by him.
Julie, or the New Heloise
An epistolary novel, one of the century's greatest successes. Not yet in our corpus.
The Social Contract essential
How can a society be legitimate? The social pact, the general will, the sovereignty of the people. Condemned in Geneva.
Emile, or On Education essential
A treatise on education in the form of a novel. Book IV contains the Creed of a Savoyard Priest: a character's speech, which Rousseau says he transcribed as an example. Burned in Paris and Geneva.
Confessions
His autobiography, written c. 1765-1770, published after his death (1782 and 1789). Not yet in our corpus.
Reveries of the Solitary Walker
Ten walks written at the end of his life, unfinished. Not yet in our corpus.