Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (1755), the “Second Discourse,” was written for a prize competition of the Academy of Dijon on the question of what founds inequality among men and whether it is authorised by natural law. Rousseau imagines humanity in a hypothetical state of nature — solitary, free, and content — and traces how property, agriculture, and metallurgy gave rise to society, dependence, and the vast inequalities of the modern world. A cornerstone of political philosophy, it profoundly shaped Enlightenment and revolutionary thought. This is G. D. H. Cole's 1913 translation.
Translation
G. D. H. Cole (1913)