A strikingly original inquiry into politics and human nature, the Discourse presents a theoretical view of people in a pre-social condition and the ensuing effects of civilization. The author develops a theory of evolution that prefigures Darwinism and encompasses aspects of ethics, sociology, and epistemology. One of the most influential works of the Enlightenment. Unabridged republication of A Discourse Upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality Among Mankind, as published in French and English Philosophers, P. F. Collier & Son, New York, 1910.
On the Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau A milestone of political science, Rousseau's 1762 work argues that all government is fundamentally flawed and that modern society is rife with inequality. He proposes an alternative system for the development of self-governing, self-disciplined citizens.