PHILOSOPHER

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

1712 - 1778

Photo of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Icon of person Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (UK: , US: ; French: [ʒɑ̃ʒak ʁuso]; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher (philosophe), writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolution and the development of modern political, economic, and educational thought. His Discourse on Inequality, which argues that private property is the source of inequality, and The Social Contract, which outlines the basis for a legitimate political order, are cornerstones in modern political and social thought. Rousseau's sentimental novel Julie, or the New Heloise (1761) was important to the development of preromanticism and romanticism in fiction. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Jean-Jacques Rousseau is the 11th most popular philosopher (down from 10th in 2019), the most popular biography from Switzerland and the most popular Swiss Philosopher.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a philosopher and writer who is most famous for his work on the social contract and his ideas on inequality.

Memorability Metrics

Loading...

Page views of Jean-Jacques Rousseau by language

Loading...

Among PHILOSOPHERS

Among philosophers, Jean-Jacques Rousseau ranks 11 out of 1,267Before him are Confucius, Pythagoras, Immanuel Kant, René Descartes, Avicenna, and Laozi. After him are Baruch Spinoza, Niccolò Machiavelli, Augustine of Hippo, Francis Bacon, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Thales of Miletus.

Most Popular Philosophers in Wikipedia

Go to all Rankings

Contemporaries

Among people born in 1712, Jean-Jacques Rousseau ranks 1After him are Frederick the Great, Count of St. Germain, Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine, Sayat-Nova, Francesco Guardi, Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp, Charles-Michel de l'Épée, Tokugawa Ieshige, Pauline Félicité de Mailly-Nesle, George Grenville, and Louis-Joseph de Montcalm. Among people deceased in 1778, Jean-Jacques Rousseau ranks 1After him are Carl Linnaeus, Voltaire, William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, Laura Bassi, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Anna Maria Mozart, James Hargreaves, Étienne-Gabriel Morelly, Duke Louis of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Thomas Arne, and Louis Victor, Prince of Carignano.

Others Born in 1712

Go to all Rankings

Others Deceased in 1778

Go to all Rankings

In Switzerland

Among people born in Switzerland, Jean-Jacques Rousseau ranks 1 out of 1,015After him are Leonhard Euler (1707), Le Corbusier (1887), Carl Jung (1875), Paracelsus (1493), Henry Dunant (1828), Jean Piaget (1896), Ferdinand de Saussure (1857), Jacob Bernoulli (1654), Huldrych Zwingli (1484), Sepp Blatter (1936), and Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746).

Among PHILOSOPHERS In Switzerland

Among philosophers born in Switzerland, Jean-Jacques Rousseau ranks 1After him are Benjamin Constant (1767), Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821), Emer de Vattel (1714), Frithjof Schuon (1907), Jean Vanier (1928), Denis de Rougemont (1906), Tariq Ramadan (1962), and Karl Ludwig von Haller (1768).