Death of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau died on 2 July 1778 in Ermenonville, aged 66. A philosopher, writer and composer born in Geneva, Rousseau was a major figure of the Enlightenment, though he was critical of its optimism about progress. In his Discourse on Inequality he argued that civilisation corrupts natural human goodness, and in The Social Contract of 1762 he set out the idea of the general will and the sovereignty of the people. His novel Émile reshaped ideas on education, and his Confessions helped to establish modern autobiography. His books were condemned in France and Geneva and he spent years in exile. His ideas influenced the French Revolution and Romanticism.

Open on the timeline