Discourse on the Origin and the Foundations of Inequality Among Men

"The Second Discourse"

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Translated by Ian Johnston

Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men, also commonly known as the "Second Discourse," is a work by philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Rousseau first exposes in this work his conception of a human state of nature, presented as a philosophical fiction (like by Thomas Hobbes, unlike by John Locke), and of human perfectibility, an early idea of progress. He then explains the way, according to him, people may have established...