Who was Rousseau?

Answer 1

Jean-Jacques Rousseau is one of the most influential thinkers during the Enlightenment in eighteenth century Europe. His first major philosophical work, A Discourse on the Sciences and Arts, was the winning response to an essay contest conducted by the Academy of Dijon in 1750. In this work, Rousseau argues that the progression of the sciences and arts has caused the corruption of virtue and morality. This discourse won Rousseau fame and recognition, and it laid much of the philosophical groundwork for a second, longer work, The Discourse on the Origin of Inequality. The second discourse did not win the Academy’s prize, but like the first, it was widely read and further solidified Rousseau’s place as a significant intellectual figure. The central claim of the work is that human beings are basically good by nature, but were corrupted by the complex historical events that resulted in present day civil society.

Rousseau’s praise of nature is a theme that continues throughout his later works as well, the most significant of which include his comprehensive work on the philosophy of education, the Emile, and his major work on political philosophy, The Social Contract: both published in 1762. These works caused great controversy in France and were immediately banned by Paris authorities. Rousseau fled France and settled in Switzerland, but he continued to find difficulties with authorities and quarrel with friends. The end of Rousseau’s life was marked in large part by his growing paranoia and his continued attempts to justify his life and his work. This is especially evident in his later books, The Confessions, The Reveries of the Solitary Walker, and Rousseau: Judge of Jean-Jacques.

Rousseau greatly influenced Immanuel Kant’s work on ethics. His novel Julie or the New Heloise impacted the late eighteenth century’s Romantic Naturalism movement, and his political ideals were championed by leaders of the French Revolution.

Answer 2

Who Was Rousseau

Answer 3

Jean Jacques Rousseau who most French people wrongly consider as French was born in Geneva and he was thus a Genevan citizen as Geneva was then an independent Republic which had already welcomed in the XVIth century another famous thinker called Calvin, the latter being 100% French and whose sermons were avidly read by Rousseau. It is often considered that the sole education of Rousseau was this readings and corporal punishment by the sister of the pastor who reared him.
Rousseau is the best representative of those pseudo Intellectuals of the XVIIIth century with ideas about everything and everybody. He even tried to dab in music and wrote another system to write music that was turned down. He was quite pretentious and thought he could innovate and change everything.
He is most famous for his "Reveries" where he expressed all his fancies and phantasms about everything. He wrote treaty about children education but abandoned his wife and each of his children as he has been himself by his father, pretending he was too poor to give them a good education.
Diderot, the Encyclopedist's boss, and Voltaire disliked him and never took him seriously. He always lived more or less as a gigolo or a parasite and discoursed about Politics and Economics and gained some fame with an Essay "Discourse on the Arts and Sciences".
He even wrote a treaty on child education, put forward the idea that man was naturally good but perverted by the society, a really stupid idea to my opinion but still very popular within the French Left. In one of his essays he attacked religion which was not the right thing to do at the time and he had to flee in Switzerland. His books are difficult to read, boring and full of contradictions. As a student we had in France to read Rousseau and nobody has ever liked it. But we had to do some homework on his ideas and it was painful, boring and a real ordeal. Nobody liked him and everybody thought he was a pretentious asshole. However his legacy is important insofar as his ideas were not conventional at the time and as they have inspired the French revolutionaries in 1789. He is regarded as a figure of The Enlightenment. He died in 1778 11 years before the beginning of the French Revolution.
If you want to have a go at Rousseau read the Reveries of a Solitary Walker, (Rêveries du promeneur solitaire), the most accessible book by him and that will give you a good insight of the guy. Personally I hate him but it is only my opinion and I know that I am not going to be popular in saying that..

Answer 4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rousseau

Answer 5

shes the french chick on Lost.