Influential Philosopher During the French Revolution it was a time where Enlightenment ideas were welcomed to the majority population of the Third Estate. Enlightenment thinkers and philosophers although welcomed to some were also threatened by Roman Catholic Clergy, nobilities, and monarchs of the time. But that didn 't stop Jean Jacque Rousseau and other philosophers from influencing and impacting people about individual freedom, fighting against inequality, and advocating a government by the general will of the people. Rousseau, in his first years was committed to fighting for individual freedom in which he later won fame and recognition in Paris as a writer of essays. As Rousseau was in Paris he disagreed with most of the ideas of what some philosophers believed. Some philosophers believed that reason, science, and art would improve life for all people. Rosseau on the other hand argued that civilizations corrupted peoples natural goodness in life. “Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains” he stated. To Rousseau 's view, people lived as free and equal individual in a “State of nature” as primitives. But as civilization grew, people became civilized and the strong forced others to obey unjust laws, ruling out individual freedom. Rosseau reasons that …show more content…
In addition to individual freedom, Rousseau also believes that two forms of inequalities, both of natural and artificial in origin are what caused unfair treatment to others. First inequality coming from differences in strength and intelligence. Second inequality arising from conventions in which govern societies. In his time Rosseau adopted the scientific method to reason that human life on earth prior to societies were solitary and not social. Out of personal acts of jealousy, to compare abilities and achievements, this is what started the rise to inequality. Unfair treatment to others meant loss of respect and loss of natural goodness. From the day humans built their first huts inequality began its