Jean-Jacques Rousseau

ジャン＝ジャック・ルソー　/　じゃん＝じゃっく・るそー

American philosopher

June 28, 1712 – July 2, 1778　・　Geneva, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland

Canton of Geneva
philosopher
classical composer
musicologist

My Take

Rousseau is one of those figures who gets more interesting — and more troubling — the closer you look. This 18th-century Genevan thinker basically handed Western civilization its obsession with authenticity, nature, and the idea that society itself might be the thing corrupting us. The Social Contract's opening line alone — "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains" — is the kind of sentence that hits you at 20 and never quite lets go. What I find genuinely fascinating is how he contained so many contradictions: he wrote the landmark treatise on education in Emile while reportedly abandoning his own children to orphanages, and he pioneered the confessional memoir genre with Confessions while being spectacularly bad at actual friendship. He fell out with Voltaire, Hume, practically everyone. But the ideas? They helped seed both the French Revolution and Romantic literature. Messy genius, no doubt about it.

Overview

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.

1. Profile

Name (English): Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Name (Japanese): ジャン＝ジャック・ルソー
Reading: じゃん＝じゃっく・るそー
Born: June 28, 1712 – July 2, 1778
Zodiac / Chinese zodiac: Cancer / Dragon
Origin: Geneva, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland
Blood type: Private
Height: Private
Agency: Private
Occupation: philosopher / classical composer / musicologist / novelist / autobiographer

2. Background

Elementary school: Private
Junior high: Private
High school: Private
University: Private

3. Relationships

Spouse: Private
Children: Private
Parents: Private
Siblings: Private

4. Personality

Motto

Private

5. Works & records

Category	Title	Role
Notable work	Emile, or On Education	—
Notable work	The Social Contract	—
Notable work	Julie, or the New Heloise	—
Notable work	Confessions	—

6. Links

Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A3%E3%83%B3%EF%BC%9D%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A3%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF%E3%83%BB%E3%83%AB%E3%82%BD%E3%83%BC