Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher (''philosophe''), writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolution and the development of modern political, economic, and educational thought.

His ''Discourse on Inequality'', which argues that private property is the source of inequality, and ''The Social Contract'', which outlines the basis for a legitimate political order, are cornerstones in modern political and social thought. Rousseau's sentimental novel ''Julie, or the New Heloise'' (1761) was important to the development of preromanticism and romanticism in fiction. His ''Emile, or On Education'' (1762) is an educational treatise on the place of the individual in society. Rousseau's autobiographical writings—the posthumously published ''Confessions'' (completed in 1770), which initiated the modern autobiography, and the unfinished ''Reveries of the Solitary Walker'' (composed 1776–1778)—exemplified the late 18th-century "Age of Sensibility", and featured an increased focus on subjectivity and introspection that later characterized modern writing.