The Geneva-born philosopher whose ideas about natural goodness, the social contract, the general will, and education shaped the French Revolution, Romanticism, modern democracy, and progressive pedagogy — while his life and contradictions made him one of the most contested figures in Western thought.
Rousseau argued that human beings are naturally good and that civilization corrupts them — directly contradicting Hobbes, inverting the Enlightenment's faith in progress, and launching a critique of modernity that has never stopped. His social contract is the foundation of democratic legitimacy theory. His ideas on education shaped how the modern world raises children. And he abandoned all five of his own children to an orphanage.