Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Words That Fueled a War The French Revolution came about following a period referred to as the enlightenment period, which was a time of learning and many great writers emerged from this period including Jean-Jacques Rousseau. A majority of Rousseau’s writings were political and some of these writings impacted the leaders of the French Revolution, as his writings addressed equality, freedom, sovereignty and education. Rousseau was born in Geneva on June 28th, 1712 and he was raised by his father and later his uncle due to the fact that his mother passed away soon after his birth and his older brother ran away from home. His uncle raised him after his father quarreled with a French Captain and fled the country for fear of imprisonment. Rousseau was an apprentice engraver for three years, but left …show more content…
He then moved to Paris, where he pursued his musical career by both playing and composing. It was in Paris in 1745 where he met Therese Levasseur, the woman he would marry in 1768 and spend the rest of his life with. Around the same time, Rousseau became friends with philosophers Condillac and Diderot whom he wrote articles about music for. His first influential piece was entitled Discourse on the Arts and Sciences, and it was a response to the question, “Has the restoration of the sciences and arts tended to purify morals?” which was proposed by the Academy of Dijon for an essay contest. Rousseau’s essay won and it became widely read and a topic of conversation due to it’s controversial ideas. Rousseau then returned his music and a few years later his opera, Le Devin du Village opened and was an enormous success and gained him more fame than he wanted, so he decided to give up composing music. His second major piece was also a response to a question proposed by the Academy of Dijon and it was entitled, Discourse on