In The Social Contract, Jean-Jacques Rousseau presents a political philosophy based on the principle that legitimate authority originates from the consent of the people. Individuals willingly surrender their rights in order to create a collective sovereign, which embodies the general will of the people.Rousseau examines different forms of government, addresses the challenges of ensuring that a government executes the general will of the people, and addresses the need for s...

Key themes and ideas explored in "Discourse on the Origin of Inequality Among Men" include:State of Nature: Rousseau posits a hypothetical "state of nature," a pre-social and pre-political condition in which human beings lived in simple, primitive societies. In this state, individuals were free, self-sufficient, and equal.Development of Inequality: Rousseau discusses the emergence of inequality as a result of the development of agriculture, property ownership, and social institutions. He a...

A fascinating examination of the relationship between civilization and inequality from one of history's greatest mindsThe first man to erect a fence around a piece of land and declare it his own founded civil society—and doomed mankind to millennia of war and famine. The dawn of modern civilization, argues Jean-Jacques Rousseau in this essential treatise on human nature, was also the beginning of inequality.One of the great thinkers of the Enlightenment, Ro...

Emile is divided into five books. In the first book, Rousseau discusses the nature of man and the importance of education. He argues that man is born good, but that he is corrupted by society. He also argues that education should be designed to develop the natural goodness of man.In the second book, Rousseau discusses the early childhood of Emile. He argues that children should be allowed to develop naturally and that they should not be forced to learn anything. He also argues that childre...

The Enlightenment included a range of ideas centered on the sovereignty of reason and the evidence of the senses as the primary sources of knowledge and advanced ideals such as liberty, progress, toleration, fraternity, constitutional government and separation of church and state. In France, the central doctrines of the Enlightenment philosophers were individual liberty and religious tolerance, in opposition to an absolute monarchy and the fixed dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church. The Enl...

The Social Contract, Or Principles of Political Right was first published in France in April 1762. As with Émile, The Social Contract was banned and burned in both Paris and Geneva due to its chapter called ‘ The Civil Religion’, which offended Protestant and Catholic authorities. Rousseau was distressed and appalled by the Genevan reaction to The Social Contract and Émile and he responded by renouncing his citizenship and writing two defences of his banned works.

“A powerful, gut-wrenching tale of pain, suffering, and recovery.” —KIRKUS REVIEWS“Unique and haunting…. A mesmerizing and unforgettable meditation on a stranger-than-fiction tragedy.” —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY STARRED REVIEWOne month before his college graduation, Paul Rousseau is accidentally shot in the head by his roommate and best friend.At some point in the course of Paul and Mark’s friendship, Mark...

Reveries of a Solitary Walker was first published in 1782, four years after the author’s death. The work was discovered in his notebooks, with only the final section of the work left unfinished. Rousseau composed the text between the autumn of 1776 and the spring of 1778; he was still working on it less than two months before his death. After a little over a year in England, during which his friendship with David Hume came to an abrupt and acrimonious end , Rousseau returned to France in t...

In A Discourse on Inequality, Rousseau demonstrates how civilization's growth corrupts man's natural happiness and freedom by creating artificial inequalities of wealth, power, and social privilege. Contending that primitive man was equal to his fellows, Rousseau believed that as societies become more sophisticated, the strongest and most intelligent members of the community gain an unnatural advantage over their weaker brethren and that constitutions set up to rectify these imbalances thr...

The War of 1812 - 1814 as it happened on upper Lake Huron. The start of the war was a bloodless offence against Mackinac Island, Michigan. Then, the pressure was on the Canadians to defend this island, thier interests in the vicinity, and the borders of Canada.

This volume of Wildside Press's best-selling MEGAPACK® series focuses on tales first published in the "Spice" line of pulp magazines. Here are 25 mystery tales considered quite titillating in their day, but mild by modern standards.