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A review by icecubecat
Discourse on the Origin of Inequality by Patrick Coleman, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Franklin Philip
4.0
This infamous book is as good as its reputation, Rousseau bombastically deconstructs ideas of natural hierarchy and points us to the social origin of many deemed 'natural facets' of life.
The relevance of this is perhaps understated as we return to a society where the powerful and rich are re-given their pre-Enlightenment dignitas of having earned their position through the "nobility" of their supposed "hard-work", a viewpoint which has striking similarities to the way old aristocracies justified their immense power imbalance with everyday man.
Rousseau's writing is captivating and thoroughly exegetic as he takes time to open his concepts up as he proceeds through the text.
The book's content does not need selling as Rousseau's ideas stand in pre-eminence among thinkers of his time, a necessary read for anyone remotely interested in the origin of many common ideas about the human and social condition and for those interested by writers inspired by Rousseau such as Marx
The relevance of this is perhaps understated as we return to a society where the powerful and rich are re-given their pre-Enlightenment dignitas of having earned their position through the "nobility" of their supposed "hard-work", a viewpoint which has striking similarities to the way old aristocracies justified their immense power imbalance with everyday man.
Rousseau's writing is captivating and thoroughly exegetic as he takes time to open his concepts up as he proceeds through the text.
The book's content does not need selling as Rousseau's ideas stand in pre-eminence among thinkers of his time, a necessary read for anyone remotely interested in the origin of many common ideas about the human and social condition and for those interested by writers inspired by Rousseau such as Marx