There are many general overviews written on Rousseau. This article focuses primarily on these and related philosophical themes, showing how others of Rousseau’s works have been shown to have influence on them. The latter is Rousseau’s vision of an ideal political regime that can preserve equality and freedom for its citizens.

The former focuses on the moral education of an individual in a corrupt society. Two later important works, the Emile and the Social Contract, are Rousseau’s attempt to show how this difficulty can be overcome. It is nearly impossible to achieve virtue in such a society. Current society, however, is united under a specious social contract put in place by those in power to keep their advantage. In one of his principal writings, the Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, he explains how the primitive “savage man” gradually moves from the pure state of nature to the state of civilized society through a long and complex historical process. Against the criticism that his works are inconsistent with one another, he claims that this is the central idea underlying the system of his thought. The theme of nature, and specifically human nature, as inherently good is one of the most important in his writings. Additionally, Rousseau understands the creation of civil society itself as the source of the worst of human vices. In his first successful work, the Discourse on the Sciences and Arts, he argues that morality and virtue can actually be corrupted by progress. However, his work is also counter-Enlightenment in important ways. He is often characterized as an Enlightenment thinker, and he does express some core Enlightenment ideals such as the rejection of certain established dogma. It is difficult to categorize Rousseau’s philosophical thought. He also wrote a successful novel, Julie or the New Héloïse.

He wrote a successful opera, and designed a new system of musical notation. His first love, he claimed, was not philosophy but music. Rousseau’s work was not limited to philosophy however. He is probably most famous for his social and political philosophy. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (b. 1712–d. 1778) is one of the most influential figures of the 18th century and French Enlightenment period, As a philosopher (though he himself claimed he did not embrace that label for himself), his works broach topics in ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophical anthropology, philosophy of religion, and philosophy of education.

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