Jean-Jacques Rousseau

    Jean-Jacques Rousseau started the way of thinking that man is born free. His ideas redefined the way school is taught and the way children learn. His ideas also fueled the raging argument in the eighteenth about the meaning of freedom, Rousseau’s ideas challenged rulers and the government of France at that time. Rousseau also fueled the French Revolution. He also influenced thinkers and writers that came after him including a man by the name of Immanuel Kant. Kant, a German writer was one of the most important figures to follow in Rousseau’s footsteps. Kant used Rousseau’s writing as a springboard for his writing about ethics. Kant in turn became one of the most influential philosophers in history.

    Not only did Rousseau influence the French Revolution and the government that would follow but he also influenced the American Revolution. Unlike the French Revolution with its “positive” freedom the American Revolution viewed the “negative” freedom due to the fact that they were fighting for independence and the right of freedom. Were as the French fought for a knew government in a “gentlemen’s” war.

So with the formidable mind of Rousseau compared to that of a bear “that he must be must be kept in chains as to not eat the peasants,” his lasting legacy effects us down to the very roots of our country.