Jean - Jacquez Rousseau
By Jewel Starkey
The Facts
- Jean - Jacquez Rousseau was born on June 28th in Geneva, Switzerland to his parents Isaac Rousseau and Suzanne Bernard
- His mother died a few days after his birth and his only sibling, his older brother, ran away from home when Rousseau was still a young child
- Rousseau's father got into a quarrel with a French captain, and fled Geneva for fear of his life. Jean - Jacquez decided to stay behind, and was taken care of by his uncle
- Rousseau died on July 3rd, 1778
FUN FACT:
Jean - Jacquez Rousseau actually wrote a very successful opera called Le Devin du Village (The Village Soothsayer).
Quote #1
This is basically his idea of Social Contract, meaning that everybody gives up some basic rights given to them by nature (natural rights) in return for protection, usually by the government.
Quote #2
This quote is based off of Natural Rights, the idea that every person should have the same rights at birth, and that nobody is above anybody else right from birth. The idea goes against monarchy, which is the form of government where the king was "given the right to rule by God".
Quote #3
What Jean - Jacquez Rouusseau meant by this quote is that even though being patient with somebody can be painful, in the end, it pays off.
Quote #4
This quote means that, even though you aren't better than a person that you might not like (Natural Rights), at least you are different from them. It's pretty self - explanatory.
Quote #5
This quote points out the fact that, even though a person is supposedly "free", they are always being restricted by laws and governments.
So basically...
Jean - Jacquez Rousseau was a French philosopher and composer from the Enlightenment era. He came up with the idea of Social Contract, where a person gives up some natural rights in exchange for government protection. He was also a strong believer in Natural Rights, where everybody should be born with the same rights, and therefore everybody should be equal. Both of these ideas were used by the Founding Fathers and are still used in America today.
Jean - Jacquez Rousseau was a composer as well as a philosopher, but eventually gave that up contrary to the fact that his opera, Le Devin du Village, was wildly successful. In his later years, he wrote two works, Rousseau: Judge of Jean - Jacquez and The Reveries of the solitary walker. His last work, His Confessions was published several years after his death.
Bibliography
I got all of my information off of http://www.iep.utm.edu/rousseau and Google Images (for the quotes)