Jean-Jacques Rousseau
![Portrait by [[Maurice Quentin de La Tour]], 1753](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Jean-Jacques_Rousseau_%28painted_portrait%29.jpg)
His ''Discourse on Inequality'', which argues that private property is the source of inequality, and ''The Social Contract'', which outlines the basis for a legitimate political order, are cornerstones in modern political and social thought. Rousseau's sentimental novel ''Julie, or the New Heloise'' (1761) was important to the development of preromanticism and romanticism in fiction. His ''Emile, or On Education'' (1762) is an educational treatise on the place of the individual in society. Rousseau's autobiographical writings—the posthumously published ''Confessions'' (completed in 1770), which initiated the modern autobiography, and the unfinished ''Reveries of the Solitary Walker'' (composed 1776–1778)—exemplified the late 18th-century "Age of Sensibility", and featured an increased focus on subjectivity and introspection that later characterized modern writing. Provided by Wikipedia
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