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140 reviews for:
A Discourse Upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality Among Mankind
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
3.52 AVERAGE
140 reviews for:
A Discourse Upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality Among Mankind
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
3.52 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
I always feel weird giving star ratings to "hard" philosophy, but I think this was relatively solid and honestly has aged SO well relative to a lot of older philosophy. I appreciated the introduction fleshing out a lot of the background of Rousseau that was necessary to understand his viewpoint, and also found the biography of his life interesting. I was quite surprised to realize that his theorizing on the origin of mankind significantly pre-dates Darwin, and yet still somehow is ultimately much in line with natural selection. He is careful to always add in that "well it must have come from God" part, but he still maintains quite a bit of scientific conjecture. I enjoyed his discourse on the origins of inequality, and I think it's interesting to read knowing what would come in the future (e.g., Darwin, Marx). I never read this in undergrad, however I found that his last section is very readable. That said, like almost all older philosophy, it can be very dry and slow, reiterative, and unclear at times requiring multiple re-reads. I enjoyed it enough for myself, however unless you genuinely want to read philosophy, just don't.
obviamente alguns pontos envelheceram mal, mas Rousseau era muito visionário e é a base de muitas teorias atuais as quais eu acredito e estudo, portanto uma leitura extremamente interessante
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Unscientific, racist, sexist, and altogether a miserable read, despite what I suspect were good intentions. Inequality definitely deserves some discourse, but this doesn’t fit the bill.
informative
slow-paced
He includes some interesting ideas on how the development of language and society befitted oppression, but it shows its age a little when considering how to be moral. Overall an interesting read
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Solid 3.5* rounded up to 4*.
Still not sold on the premise that primitivism is a good idea, but it's still an interesting read nevertheless.
Still not sold on the premise that primitivism is a good idea, but it's still an interesting read nevertheless.