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Person1712 – 1778

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Also called: Rousseau

Genevan Enlightenment thinker whose The Social Contract argued for popular sovereignty guided by the general will, influencing the French Revolution

Born in Geneva, he soon lost his mother, left home at sixteen and educated himself as he wandered. He made his name in 1750 by winning a prize essay competition of the Academy of Dijon, arguing that the arts and sciences had corrupted morals. He wrote articles on music for the Encyclopédie but later fell out with Voltaire, Diderot and others. His novel Julie, or the New Heloise, his treatise on education Emile and his autobiography the Confessions were also widely read. He was criticised for leaving all five of his children at a foundling hospital.

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2 related events

  1. 1
    1751 – 1772The Enlightenment and the Encyclopédieparticipant

    In the 18th century the Enlightenment, which used reason to criticise outdated institutions and superstition, spread from France. Voltaire attacked the intolerance of the Church, and from 1751 Diderot and d’Alembert published the Encyclopédie.

  2. 2
    1762Rousseau’s The Social Contractauthor

    In 1762 Rousseau published The Social Contract, arguing that sovereignty belongs to the people and that the state must follow the general will, which seeks the common good — the doctrine of popular sovereignty.

People who appear alongside

  • Denis Diderot1713 – 1784

    French Enlightenment thinker who edited the Encyclopédie with d’Alembert, setting out the knowledge and techniques of the age in the light of reason

  • Voltaire1694 – 1778

    French Enlightenment writer who praised English liberty and fiercely attacked the intolerance and superstition of the Church

  • Montesquieu1689 – 1755

    French Enlightenment thinker whose The Spirit of the Laws called for separating legislative, executive and judicial powers so that each checks the others

Themes this person appears in

  • Scientific Revolution, Enlightenment and the English Revolutions1543 – 1796

    The Scientific Revolution from Copernicus to Newton, parliamentary government in England won through the Puritan and Glorious Revolutions, and the Enlightenment that sought to remake society by reason — the groundwork of the civic revolutions and the Industrial Revolution