Perspective

Jean-Jacques Rousseau's perspective is the perspective of the First and Second Discourses. Rousseau was a composer, writer and political philosopher in the 18th who defended unique positions about social and human nature, along with social and human progress. He was among the most prominent members of the Enlightenment, the Continental European movement which held that men were mostly innately good and believed that human reason had unlimited power to improve upon the world.

Rousseau is not wholly an Enlightenment figure, however, for he possesses several pre-Romantic elements by emphasizing the importance of emotion, physical nature and the nobility and purpose of life that go beyond reason. His Enlightenment and Pre-Romantic views combine in the Discourses. The First Discourse focuses on the beauty of the natural and the tragedy of civilization, whereas the latter argues that the power of reason, despite corrupting man, might lead to his liberty. The...