Jean-Jacques Rousseau is a scientist, philosopher, writer, composer and botanist. A man whose ideas had a great influence on the figures of the Great French Revolution. The basic principles created by Rousseau in his works are now written in the American Constitution.
Jean Jacques Rousseau was born on June 28, 1712 in Geneva, known for its Protestant spirit. His mother, Susanna Bernard, died just nine days after giving birth. The father of Jean Jacques, Isaac Russo, was very upset by the death of his wife, which, of course, was reflected in the boy himself. Throughout life, Jean Jacques will call the death of his mother the first of his misfortunes.
This biography of the philosopher and scientist is vast and diverse. He was a student of a notary and engraver. At 16, he left the city and converted to Catholicism. For some time he worked as a lackey in an aristocratic house, but soon left and spent more than two years in wanderings around Switzerland. He made his trips on foot, and spent the night in the open.
For some time he did not work very well as a home mentor. During this period, the first signs of misanthropy begin to form in him. Jean Jacques Rousseau finds more and more comfort in nature. He walks for pigeons and bees, works in the garden and collects fruits. After some time, Russo briefly got a job as a home secretary.
In Paris, Rousseau marries Teresa Levasser - a vulgar, illiterate, ugly peasant woman. The writer himself has repeatedly said that he was not in love with her. They had five children, all of them were sent to an educational home. During this period, Rousseau begins the creation of his famous works.
Rousseau's ideas were based on the fact that art and science corrupt people, it is because of them that the decline of morals in society occurs. The author most fully reflected his political thoughts in his treatise "On the Social Contract" of 1762.
The scientist first tried to investigate the causes and types of social inequality. In his view, the state arose as a result of a social contract. The supreme power in the state belongs to the people, and its sovereignty is absolute and infallible. The law, in turn, is intended to protect the people from the arbitrariness of the government.
France at that moment resembled a powder keg. Rousseau's ideas came to a beneficial post and became a kind of slogan of the revolutionaries. The philosopher himself could not observe the impact of his ideas, since he died in 1778. Byron called him the "Apostle of Sorrow." Rousseau lived a life full of wanderings and hardships, which to some extent shaped his political and social views.
