A Discourse Upon The Origin And The Foundation Of The Inequality Among
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
About Discourse on Inequality
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) was one of the most original—and rebellious—thinkers of the Enlightenment. While other philosophers like Hobbes and Locke were busy building theories of government based on reason, rights, and mutual agreement, Rousseau basically looked at all of them and said: “Cool ideas, but what if society itself is the problem?”
In Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men, Rousseau questions the whole idea of the “social contract” as we usually hear it. He argues that the original state of human beings—what he calls the “state of nature”—wasn’t a violent, chaotic mess like Hobbes imagined, or a peaceful rational club like Locke proposed. Instead, Rousseau thinks early humans were chill, self-sufficient, and even kind. The real problems, he says, began after people started living together, claiming land, and organizing into societies.
For Rousseau, inequality isn’t natural—it’s manufactured. And who made it? Society. Civilization. Property. And yes, the “contracts” and governments that were supposedly meant to protect us. According to Rousseau, the social contract (at least the way Hobbes and Locke described it) wasn’t a mutual agreement between equals—it was a trick played by the powerful to keep their privilege and make it look legit.
So what we often call “justice,” Rousseau says, is really just inequality in disguise. He doesn’t totally reject the idea of contracts or community, but he insists that we can’t build a just society until we first face the truth about how inequality got baked into the system in the first place.
Before You Read
Imagine a time before laws, before money, before governments. What were people like? Were we savage and selfish (like Hobbes thought), rational and property-loving (like Locke believed), or… something else entirely?
Rousseau wants you to rethink everything you’ve heard about “human nature” and the idea of the social contract. In this text, he claims that most of the inequality we see around us—rich vs. poor, powerful vs. powerless—isn’t natural or inevitable. It’s something we created. And then we called it “normal.”
Before you dive in, ask yourself: Are our current systems of law, property, and government actually fair? Or do they just look fair because we’ve been taught to accept them? Rousseau is here to stir the pot, and he’s not afraid to point fingers at thinkers like Hobbes and Locke along the way.
Guiding Questions
- How does Rousseau describe the original state of humanity? How does it compare to Hobbes’ and Locke’s views?
- What does Rousseau say is the origin of inequality, and how does it evolve in society?
- Why does Rousseau think the traditional social contract is flawed or dishonest?
- How do Rousseau’s ideas challenge what we usually assume about law, property, and justice?
