Major Works

• Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts (First Discourse)

  - Recommended Translation: ‘First Discourse,’ in Rousseau: The Discourses and other early political writings, ed. and trans. by Victor Gourevitch (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 1-28.  
  In 1750, Rousseau’s First Discourse, or the Discourse on the Sciences and Arts, won an essay contest held by the Academy of Dijon on the topic of, “Whether the restoration of the sciences and arts tended to purify morals?” Rousseau argued that… More

Other Works

• Essay on the Origin of Languages

  - Recommended Translation: ‘Essay on the Origin of Languages,’ in Rousseau: The Discourses and other early political writings, ed. and trans. by Victor Gourevitch (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 247-299.
  Rousseau’s Essay on the Origin of Languages (Essai sur l’origine des langues) was first published posthumously in 1781. Rousseau wrote that he had originally intended to include this work in the his Second Discourse but that he finally decided to omit… More