A Discourse Upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality Among Mankind

"A Discourse Upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality Among Mankind" by Jean-Jacques Rousseau is a deep examination of how people become unequal, looking into both the natural differences between people and the inequalities created by society. It asks if the rules of nature support the uneven playing field we see or if it’s all just made up by human customs. The book starts by setting up two kinds of inequality: the first comes from things like age and health, and the second comes from social rules that give some people more power than others. Rousseau thinks about what humanity was like in a natural state, where people mostly kept to themselves and didn't need much, compared to our complicated society, which is full of comparing ourselves to others, depending on each other, and fighting for the top spot. The author invites people to rethink how they see their place in the world and the rules they live by.