About the Author

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Jean-Jacques Rousseau was one of the most influential political philosophers ofthe Enlightenment.
Writing in the eighteenth century, Rousseau profoundly shaped modern thought ondemocracy, freedom, education, and inequality.

Hisworks—including The Social Contract and Emile—challengedprevailing assumptions about authority and progress, arguing that socialinstitutions often corrupt rather than perfect human beings.
Rousseau’s critique of inequality laid the intellectual groundwork for laterdebates on justice, legitimacy, and social design.

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About the Book

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Originallywritten in 1754, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality seeks to explainhow inequality emerged among humans and whether it can be justified.

Rousseaudistinguishes between natural inequality—differences of age, strength,or health—and moral or political inequality, which arises fromconventions, laws, and social arrangements.
He argues that the decisive break occurs with the invention of privateproperty, famously observing that the first person to claim ownership over landset in motion a chain of domination, dependence, and exclusion.

Rather thancelebrating progress, Rousseau presents a paradoxical account: socialdevelopment increases wealth and refinement while simultaneously deepeninginequality and alienation.

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Why Inequality Matters

For Rousseau,inequality is not merely unequal distribution—it is a distortion of humanrelationships.

As societiesbecome more stratified, people cease to see one another as equals and begin tomeasure worth through status, wealth, and power.
Dependence replaces autonomy, and domination replaces mutual recognition.

Rousseau warns thatextreme inequality undermines freedom itself, creating societies in whichindividuals appear politically equal while remaining socially subordinated.

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Why We Selected This Book

The GlobalInequality Institute selected Discourse on the Origin of Inequality as afoundational text because it asks the earliest—and most radical—question aboutinequality: How did we come to accept it at all?

Rousseauexposes inequality as a historical and moral construction rather than a naturalfact.
His work challenges readers to question institutions that appear inevitable andto recognize that social arrangements are products of choice.

This bookaligns with GII’s core conviction that inequality is not destiny.
Long before modern economics, Rousseau insisted that understanding inequalityrequires confronting its origins—and imagining alternatives grounded in humandignity and freedom.