Reviews - A Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (Translated by G. D. H. Cole)

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143 reviews for:

A Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (Translated by G. D. H. Cole)

Read this book for a required class.

The intense amount of racism and misogyny throughout this book is honestly astounding-how can a man hold so much prejudice and immediately contradict it sentences later? Rousseau cannot hold a single stable thought throughout this entire essay.

It's interesting to read in almost a masochistic way, but would never have picked this up on my own. Tired of reading about awful white cishet men in the college curriculum.

loyaultemelie's review against another edition

Rousseau is the actual worst (this is about his views on women; also Locke did it better)

salon3ly's review against another edition

3.0

challenging reflective fast-paced

insufferable. but also he ate tho!! so true rousseau law and property are the cause of all our problems. and white men like you !!!

abfreda184's review against another edition

4.0

dark funny informative medium-paced

Content Warnings

ad7leb36's review against another edition

5.0

BIG TIME SLAY
jean jacques (jj) a tout dit tout vu tout fait et tout compris. if you want to educate yourself on politics, this is where you should definitely start. it's quite an easy read for a philosophical essay (well, seemingly at least), and it gives you an idea of the broad state of society. it is accurate, worryingly so, and insightful, worryingly so.
invented karl marx. would have stolen your girlfriend.

harry_7's review against another edition

3.0

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

goosemixtapes's review against another edition

JJ rousseau my bestie worstie. mary wollstonecraft was right to dunk him like a basketball for the general misogyny, but after reading the second discourse for class, i have grudgingly recovered some respect for him. the man can write & he makes a lot of good points. even if, to a teenage dyke living in the 21st century, it sometimes reads like [joker voice] we live in a society

tristanpej's review against another edition

4.0

It's hard to make a review of a book centuries old. What you will find from this is an 18th century person investigating the inequalities in his society. Read it as a spring board to bigger discussions, but it offers little applicable today.