Masterpiece
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Having read a vast amount of political literature during my politics degree there is only one book that really stands out from the rest. It is this book, 'discourse on the origin of inequality'. It is an intriguing read with some very thought provoking stuff. I think if you were to read any of Rousseau it should be this book. In response to the review where they say he states the obvious, he may well do but it is the way he writes that really gets you thinking. You must also remember the time he was writing, many of these things that we think are obvious were not in the 1700's!
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A lucid and engaging thesis on the origins of inequality
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Any suggestion that Rousseau is simply proffering a series of trite ideas is misplaced. Though largely ignored by comparison with The Social Contract, A Discourse on Inequality is in my opinion Rousseau's magnum opus. Rousseau's emphasis on the benefits of a culture based around philistinism - as seen in the less well-written Discourse on the Arts and Sciences - is clearly evident in his conception of 'savage' or 'natural' man (depending on edition) who sacrificed his asocial hunter-gatherer existence for life in society. The deleterious consequences of man's socialisation described by Rousseau are both polemical and compelling. Moreover, the effect, which the text had upon the ideas of both Marx and Engles, is perhaps ostensible in sentences such as: `The first man who, having fenced off a plot of land, thought of saying "This is mine" and found people simple enough to believe him was the real founder of civil society'.
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enlightenment
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here is another book from the 18th century enlightenment. it is again stunning that a discourse on stating the obvious has been so highly rated.
What is worrying is that our modern day politics and society are shaped by this.
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