Discourse on Inequality

Published in 1755, Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Discourse on Inequality stands as one of the seminal works of social philosophy. Rousseau first exposes his conception of a human state of nature, broadly believed to be a hypothetical thought exercise and of human perfectibility, an early idea of progress. He then explains the way in which, in his view, people may have established civil society, and this leads him to conclude that private property is the original source and basis of all inequality.