**Jean-Jacques Rousseau** (1712–1778) was a philosopher, writer, educator, and political theorist. He was born on June 28, 1712, in Geneva. His father was a watchmaker, while his mother died nine days after his birth. Rousseau never attended school, but his father taught him to read and write using popular romances of the time and Plutarch's *Parallel Lives*.
At the age of ten, his father came into conflict with an influential family in Geneva and was forced into exile, leaving his two sons in the care of their uncle. His uncle first placed Jean-Jacques as a clerk and later apprenticed him to an engraver. At sixteen, Rousseau left Geneva and wandered through Switzerland and France, supporting himself with whatever work he could find.
During this period, he became associated with Madame de Warens, who greatly influenced his intellectual development, and in 1740 he worked for a time as a tutor. In 1741 he settled in Paris, and from 1743 to 1744 he served as secretary to the French ambassador in Venice. Returning to Paris in 1744, he collaborated on the great *Encyclopédie* project.
From 1742 onwards, Rousseau wrote essays on music, a field in which he was largely self-taught. In 1745 he began a lifelong relationship with Thérèse Levasseur, a young servant with whom he had five children, all of whom were placed in foundling institutions. In 1749 he wrote the articles on music for the *Encyclopédie*, and in 1750 he won the prize of the Dijon Academy with his *Discourse on the Sciences and Arts*, in which he argued that progress in civilization had led to moral corruption and human degeneration.
His ideas provoked intense debate, and two years later he composed an opera that enjoyed considerable success. In 1756 he moved to the Hermitage, an estate offered by Madame d'Épinay, in order to devote himself to writing. After a disagreement with her in 1757, he moved to live with friends near Paris.
The following five years were the most productive of his life and culminated in the publication, in 1762, of his two most famous works: *Emile, or On Education* and *The Social Contract*. Both works provoked strong reactions. *Emile* was condemned by the Archbishop of Paris because it argued that individuals did not require intermediaries in their relationship with the divine, while *The Social Contract* was publicly burned for its advocacy of liberty, equality, and popular sovereignty. Rousseau was condemned by the Paris authorities and spent the following years living under assumed names and moving between provincial towns and villages.
In 1765 he traveled to England at the invitation of the philosopher David Hume, but the two soon fell out and Rousseau returned to the continent, continuing a life marked by isolation and persecution. Throughout these difficult years, Thérèse remained his faithful companion, and the couple eventually married after many years together.
Among the writings of this period, *Confessions* stands out as one of the earliest and most influential autobiographies in European literature. In 1778 Rousseau retired to the estate of the Marquis de Girardin, one of his admirers, where he died suddenly on July 2 of that year.
