A Discourse on Inequality

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques; Cranston, Maurice (Translator); Cranston, Maurice (Introduction by)

ISBN 10: 0140444394 / ISBN 13: 9780140444391

Published by Penguin Classics, 1985

About this Item

Seller Inventory # U:9780140444391:ONHAND

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Discourse on Inequality
• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication Date: 1985
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0140444394
• ISBN 13: 9780140444391
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

In A Discourse on Inequality, Rousseau sets out to demonstrate how the growth of civilization corrupts man’s natural happiness and freedom by creating artificial inequalities of wealth, power and social privilege. Contending that primitive man was equal to his fellows, Rousseau believed that as societies become more sophisticated, the strongest and most intelligent members of the community gain an unnatural advantage over their weaker brethren, and that constitutions set up to rectify these imbalances through peace and justice in fact do nothing but perpetuate them. Rousseau’s political and social arguments in the Discourse were a hugely influential denunciation of the social conditions of his time and one of the most revolutionary documents of the eighteenth-century.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

About the Author

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) is the author of numerous political and philosophical texts as well as entries on music for Diderot's Encyclopédie and the novels La nouvelle Héloïse and Émile.