On the Origin and Foundation of Human Inequality (Yilin Humanities Selection)

"On the Origin and Foundation of Human Inequality" is a paper written by Rousseau in response to a call for papers from the Dijon Academy of Sciences in France. It puts forward the distinct idea that the emergence of private ownership is the origin of human inequality. From a political point of view, its importance is second only to the later "Theory of the Social Contract"; and in terms of ideological system, this book can be regarded as the foundation and introduction to the "Theory of the Social Contract". In this paper, Lu Jun relied on anthropological data about savages at the time and developed dialectical imagination, reviewing the historical process of the transition from the natural state to the social state of mankind, pointing out that the history of human progress is also the history of human degradation, and the establishment of private ownership is a key link in causing human inequality and its consequences. This paper can be described as the introduction to Rousseau's entire political theory.