Born in Geneva, Switzerland in 1712; Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a man with a great influence in philosophy, politics and literature; right up to the present day.
He is really influential in two aspects, one in The Social Contract and secondly, he was considered the founder of romanticism.
The rough time line of Rousseau, the romantic period and the French Revolution is shown below.
Essentially Rousseau was anti-establishment and thought society would cause nothing but a negative effect upon a human's life. He believed that the regulated systems with laws, governments and elitist groups were wrong and the 'Newtonian world' wasn't a true of full expression of what it meant to be to be a human being. It's often said Rousseau was quintessentially anti-enlightenment - he was a noble savage.
“And perhaps its greatest legacy to prosperity has
been its message to the young, and those who are
strong in love may yet find a way of escaping from
the rotten parchment of bonds that tie us down. I
can see them still through the windows of
university desperate to change the world, vivid in
hope, although what precisely they hope for or
believe in, I don’t know.”
If it wasn't for Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Romantic period, the world would be a very different place. The idea of alienation by society has been picked up throughout the centuries and throughout the different eras. Rousseau was about free will, basic instinct and being as far away from society as possible; romanticism was very similar. This idealism weaves it's way through literature, political thinkings and music.
The rough time line of Rousseau, the romantic period and the French Revolution is shown below.
Essentially Rousseau was anti-establishment and thought society would cause nothing but a negative effect upon a human's life. He believed that the regulated systems with laws, governments and elitist groups were wrong and the 'Newtonian world' wasn't a true of full expression of what it meant to be to be a human being. It's often said Rousseau was quintessentially anti-enlightenment - he was a noble savage.
The morals of romantics and Rousseau were both primarily based on aesthetics. Nature was incredibly important as was symbolism. Mountains, the sea and storms were all frequently mentioned.
Although these ideas originated in the 1700s, they are far from forgotten. The 1960s saw a rebirth in Rousseau's ideas and people began to live by their own rules and started to live on the outside of society. The song below is John Lennon's song 'Imagine' released in the early 1970s and is a new age adaption of Rousseau's theory.
Below is a quote heard in The Fallacies of Hope 12/13 which also backs this point; Rousseau's ideas are still influential today.
If it wasn't for Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Romantic period, the world would be a very different place. The idea of alienation by society has been picked up throughout the centuries and throughout the different eras. Rousseau was about free will, basic instinct and being as far away from society as possible; romanticism was very similar. This idealism weaves it's way through literature, political thinkings and music.
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