A discourse on equality

In this text, Rousseau demonstrates how the growth of civilization corrupts man's natural happiness and freedom due to the artificial inequalities of wealth and social privilege.

Contending that primitive man was equal to civilized man, he believed that as societies become more sophisticated the strongest and most intelligent members gained an unnatural advantage over the weaker.

He also argued that constitutions set up to rectify such imbalances through peace and justice do nothing but perpetuate them.The political and social arguments in "A Discourse on Inequality" were a greatly influential denunciation of the social conditions of Rousseau's time, and the work stands as one of the most revolutionary documents of the 18th century.