Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1712–1778)

French social philosopher and writer. His book Du Contrat social/Social Contract (1762), emphasizing the rights of the people over those of the government, was a significant influence on the French Revolution. In the novel Emile (1762), he outlined a new theory of education.

Rousseau was born in Geneva, Switzerland. Discourses on the Origins of Inequality (1754) made his name: he denounced civilized society and postulated the paradox of the superiority of the ‘noble savage’. In Social Contract he argued that government is justified only if sovereignty stays with the people. He thereby rejected representative democracy in favour of direct democracy, modelled on the Greek polis and the Swiss canton, and stated that a government could be legitimately overthrown if it failed to express the general will of the people. Emile was written as an example of how to elicit the unspoiled nature and abilities of children, based on natural development and the power of example.

Rousseau's ideas were condemned by philosophers, the clergy, and the public, and he lived in exile in England for a year, being helped by Scottish philosopher David Hume until they fell out. He was a contributor to the Encyclopédie and also wrote operas. Confessions, published posthumously in 1782, was a frank account of his occasionally immoral life and was a founding work of autobiography.

Works operas Iphis et Anaxerète (1740), La découverte du nouveau monde (1741), Le devin du village (1752), Daphnis et Chloé (unfinished); opera-ballet Les muses galantes (1745); monodrama Pygmalion (1770); about 100 songs, and other pieces, published as Consolations des misères de ma vie.