Perspective

The perspective of the Discourses is that of its author, Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau was an 18th century philosopher, writer and composer with strong views about the nature of society and human progress. He was a major figure in the Enlightenment, a movement in Continental Europe that emphasized the innate goodness of the human being and the unlimited power of human reason to make the world a better place.

Rousseau, however, also has pre-Romantic elements, with an emphasis on emotion, nature and the nobility and meaning of life beyond pure reason. These two emphases come together in the Discourses, the one on the beauty of the natural and original and the other on the power of reason and hope for human progress. Rousseau's pre-Romantic element is strongest in the Discourse on the Arts and Sciences, where he argues that modern morality has been corrupted by these products of human...