什麼是盧梭

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques

瑞士裔法國哲學家。1728年從日內瓦逃往義大利，旅行多年，1741年定居於巴黎。為狄德羅的《百科全書》撰寫音樂和經濟學部分。盧梭發表《論科學與藝術》（1750），斷言人類已被社會與文明腐化和奴役，雖然社會和文明本質上不是惡，但因越發錯綜複雜而變得愈有害。這一觀念隨著盧梭對它的不斷髮展終使他與保守和激進兩派分道揚鑣。他的輕歌劇《鄉村卜者》（1752）雖是未經正統訓練寫成的作品，仍獲得長期成功並因而使盧梭成名。《論人類不平等起源及其基礎》（1754）抨擊私有財產。《社會契約論》（1762）爭論說若公民社會或國家能建立在一種真正的社會契約論的基礎上，人們就會以其獨立自主換取更大的自由。該作品成為法國大革命的基礎，雖然社會契約論看似長期支援極權政體和激進民主。小說《愛彌兒》表達他對教育的觀點，在接下來的世紀有廣泛的影響，但出版該書引起的爭論迫使盧梭逃往瑞士。約1767年出現精神不穩定的症狀，因發瘋而去世。《懺悔錄》（出版於1781～1788年）為所有最著名自傳的其中之一。

1712～1778年

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques

Swiss-French philosopher. He ran away from Geneva to Italy in 1728, traveled for years, and settled in Paris in 1741. He wrote on music and economics for Denis Diderot's Encyclopédie. His Discourse on the Arts and Sciences (1750) asserted that humans had been corrupted and enslaved by society and civilization, which, though not inherently bad, had become increasingly harmful with their growing sophistication—an idea to which he returned throughout his life and which set him apart from both conservatives and radicals. His light opera Le devin du village (1752) had a long-running success, despite its naive music, and made him famous. His Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality Among Men (1754) attacked private property. His Social Contract (1762) argued that if a civil society, or state, could be based on a genuine social contract, people would receive in exchange for their natural independence a better kind of freedom. The work became the basic text of the French Revolution, though it has long been seen to support totalitarian regimes as well as radical democracy. His novel émile expressed his ideas on education, and became widely influential over the following century, but the controversy its publication aroused forced him to flee to Switzerland. He began showing signs of mental instability c. 1767, and he died insane. His Confessions (published 1781-88) is one of the most famous of all autobiographies.