1.
Marc-Michel Rey
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Marc-Michel Rey was an influential publisher in the United Provinces, who published many of the works of the French philosophes, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In his day, he was the largest and most important publisher in the French language in the United Provinces, Rey was born in Geneva in 1720, son of French Huguenot parents. He later wrote that he had little schooling and he was an apprentice to a Genevan bookseller Marc-Michel Bosquet from 1733 to 1744. After moving to Amsterdam in 1744, he purchased citizenship and opened a publishing business, in 1746 he married Elisabeth Bernard, daughter of the bookseller J. F. Bernard, who brought her fathers stock with her. The business flourished as a result, Rey never became fluent in Dutch, but entertained himself lavishly within the French-speaking social circle. He published mainly in French, and most of his sales were in France, although his books were sold in Russia, although he was a member of the local Walloon church, he published material that was offensive to the church, including Voltaires attacks on the priestly order. He was Rousseaus main publisher and also published the works of Diderot and these authors praised him for publishing their books but also accused him of taking most of the profits. Rey had to deal with pressure from the French, Dutch and Genevan authorities and pastors, dHolbach, a prolific atheist, said that Rey profited by his books both financially and from his pleasure in their subject. He published Jean-Paul Marats De LHomme, at different times, Rey employed Mirabeau and the encyclopedist Abbé Claude Yvon. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Johannes Bosscha, Marc-Michel Rey, lettres inédites de Jean Jacques Rousseau à Marc Michel Rey. Jeroom Vercruysse, Marc-Michel Rey, libraire des lumières, II, Le livre triomphant, 1660-1830, Paris, Promodis,1984. Jeroom Vercruysse, Typologie de Marc-Michel Rey, Wolfenbütteler Schriften zur Geschichte des Buchwesens, IV,1981, jeroom Vercruysse, Marc-Michel Rey et le livre philosophique. In, Literaturgeschichte als geschichtlicher Auftrag, in memoriam Werner Krauss, Berlin, Akademie-Verlag,1978, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Bibliotheek van de Koninklijke Vereniging van het Boekenvak,1999. Jeroom Vercruysse, Voltaire et Marc Michel Rey, in, Studies on Voltaire and the eighteenth century,58 Vol.2 p. 1707-1763. Transactions of the congress on the Enlightenment = Compte rendu du congrès international sur le siècle des Lumières K. R. Gallas, Autour de Marc-Michel Rey et de Rousseau, in, Annales de la Société Jean-Jacques Rousseau, vol.17 p. 73-90
2.
French language
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French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to Frances past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, a French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is a language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie. As of 2015, 40% of the population is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas. French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union, 1/5 of Europeans who do not have French as a mother tongue speak French as a second language. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast. In 2015, French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers, approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050, in 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese. Under the Constitution of France, French has been the language of the Republic since 1992. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland called Romandie, of which Geneva is the largest city. French is the language of about 23% of the Swiss population. French is also a language of Luxembourg, Monaco, and Aosta Valley, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. A plurality of the worlds French-speaking population lives in Africa and this number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050, French is the fastest growing language on the continent. French is mostly a language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and in Libreville. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages, sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth
3.
Philosopher
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A philosopher is someone who practices philosophy, which involves rational inquiry into areas that are outside of either theology or science. The term philosopher comes from the Ancient Greek φιλόσοφος meaning lover of wisdom, the coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek thinker Pythagoras. Typically, these brands of philosophy are Hellenistic ones and those who most arduously commit themselves to this lifestyle may be considered philosophers. The separation of philosophy and science from theology began in Greece during the 6th century BC, thales, an astronomer and mathematician, was considered by Aristotle to be the first philosopher of the Greek tradition. While Pythagoras coined the word, the first known elaboration on the topic was conducted by Plato, in his Symposium, he concludes that Love is that which lacks the object it seeks. Therefore, the philosopher is one who seeks wisdom, if he attains wisdom, therefore, the philosopher in antiquity was one who lives in the constant pursuit of wisdom, and living in accordance to that wisdom. Disagreements arose as to what living philosophically entailed and these disagreements gave rise to different Hellenistic schools of philosophy. In consequence, the ancient philosopher thought in a tradition, as the ancient world became schism by philosophical debate, the competition lay in living in manner that would transform his whole way of living in the world. Philosophy is a discipline which can easily carry away the individual in analyzing the universe. The second is the change through the Medieval era. With the rise of Christianity, the way of life was adopted by its theology. Thus, philosophy was divided between a way of life and the conceptual, logical, physical and metaphysical materials to justify that way of life, philosophy was then the servant to theology. The third is the sociological need with the development of the university, the modern university requires professionals to teach. Maintaining itself requires teaching future professionals to replace the current faculty, therefore, the discipline degrades into a technical language reserved for specialists, completely eschewing its original conception as a way of life. In the fourth century, the word began to designate a man or woman who led a monastic life. Gregory of Nyssa, for example, describes how his sister Macrina persuaded their mother to forsake the distractions of life for a life of philosophy. Later during the Middle Ages, persons who engaged with alchemy was called a philosopher - thus, many philosophers still emerged from the Classical tradition, as saw their philosophy as a way of life. Among the most notable are René Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, Nicolas Malebranche, with the rise of the university, the modern conception of philosophy became more prominent
4.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Francophone Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of the 18th century. His political philosophy influenced the Enlightenment in France and across Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolution, Rousseaus novel Emile, or On Education is a treatise on the education of the whole person for citizenship. His sentimental novel Julie, or the New Heloise was of importance to the development of pre-romanticism and romanticism in fiction and his Discourse on Inequality and The Social Contract are cornerstones in modern political and social thought. During the period of the French Revolution, Rousseau was the most popular of the philosophes among members of the Jacobin Club and he was interred as a national hero in the Panthéon in Paris, in 1794,16 years after his death. Rousseau was born in Geneva, which was at the time a city-state, since 1536, Geneva had been a Huguenot republic and the seat of Calvinism. Rousseau was proud that his family, of the order, had voting rights in the city. Throughout his life, he signed his books Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Geneva, in theory, was governed democratically by its male voting citizens, the citizens were a minority of the population when compared to the immigrants, referred to as inhabitants, whose descendants were called natives and continued to lack suffrage. There was much debate within Geneva, extending down to the tradespeople. Much discussion was over the idea of the sovereignty of the people, in 1707, a democratic reformer named Pierre Fatio protested this situation, saying a sovereign that never performs an act of sovereignty is an imaginary being. He was shot by order of the Little Council, Jean-Jacques Rousseaus father, Isaac, was not in the city at this time, but Jean-Jacquess grandfather supported Fatio and was penalized for it. The trade of watchmaking had become a tradition by the time of Rousseaus father. Isaac followed his grandfather, father and brothers into the business, Isaac, notwithstanding his artisan status, was well educated and a lover of music. A Genevan watchmaker, Rousseau wrote, is a man who can be introduced anywhere, in 1699, Isaac ran into political difficulty by entering a quarrel with visiting English officers, who in response drew their swords and threatened him. After local officials stepped in, it was Isaac who was punished, Rousseaus mother, Suzanne Bernard Rousseau, was from an upper-class family. She was raised by her uncle Samuel Bernard, a Calvinist preacher and he cared for Suzanne after her father Jacques died in his early thirties. In 1695, Suzanne had to answer charges that she had attended a street theater disguised as a peasant woman so she could gaze upon M. Vincent Sarrasin, after a hearing, she was ordered by the Genevan Consistory to never interact with him again. She married Rousseaus father at the age of 31, isaacs sister had married Suzannes brother eight years earlier, after she had become pregnant and they had been chastised by the Consistory
5.
Progress (history)
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Many high-level theories, such as the Idea of Progress are available, such as the Western notion of monotonic change in a straight, linear fashion. Alternative conceptions exist, such as the theory of eternal return, or the spiral-shaped dialectic progress of Hegel, Marx. Time was generally regarded as the enemy of humanity which depreciates the value of the world, Robert Nisbet and Gertrude Himmelfarb have attributed a notion of progress to other Greeks. Xenophanes said The gods did not reveal to men all things in the beginning, platos Book III of The Laws depicts humanitys progress from a state of nature to the higher levels of culture, economy, and polity. Platos The Statesman also outlines a historical account of the progress of mankind, during the Medieval period, science was to a large extent based on Scholastic interpretations of Aristotles work. The Renaissance of the 15th, 16th and 17th Centuries changed the mindset in Europe towards an empirical view and this induced a revolution in curiosity about nature in general and scientific advance, which opened the gates for technical and economic advance. Furthermore, the potential was seen as a never-ending quest for being God-like, paving the way for a view of Man based on unlimited perfection. The scientific advances of the 16th and 17th centuries provided a basis for the optimistic outlook of Bacons New Atlantis, the epistemology of John Locke provided support and was popularized by the Encyclopedists Diderot, Holbach, and Condorcet. Locke had a influence on the American Founding Fathers. In the Enlightenment, French historian and philosopher Voltaire was a proponent of the possibility of progress. At first Voltaires thought was informed by the Idea of Progress coupled with rationalism and his subsequent notion of the historical idea of progress saw science and reason as the driving forces behind societal advancement. The first complete statement of progress is that of Turgot, in his A Philosophical Review of the Successive Advances of the Human Mind. For Turgot progress covers not simply the arts and sciences but, on their base, the whole of culture—manner, mores, institutions, legal codes, economy, scottish theorist Adam Ferguson defined human progress as the working out of a divine plan. The difficulties and dangers of life provided the necessary stimuli for human development, while the human ability to evaluate led to ambition. Man found his happiness only in effort, thus was born the idea of inevitable American future progress. The most original New World contribution to historical thought was the idea that history is not exhausted, besides rejecting the lessons of the past, the Jeffersonians Americanized the idea of progress by democratizing and vulgarizing it to include the welfare of the common man as a form of republicanism. As Romantics deeply concerned with the past, collecting materials and founding historical societies. They saw man in control of his destiny, saw virtue as a characteristic of a republic, and were concerned with happiness, progress
6.
Private property
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Private property is a legal designation for the ownership of property by non-governmental legal entities. Private property is distinguishable from public property, which is owned by an entity, and from collective property. Private property is distinguished from personal property, which refers to property for personal use. Private property is a concept defined and enforced by a countrys political system. Prior to the 18th century, English-speakers generally used the property in reference to land ownership. In England, property did not have a legal definition until the 17th century, private property as commercial property was invented with the great European trading companies of the 17th century. John Locke, in arguing against supporters of monarchy, conceptualized property as a natural right that God had not bestowed exclusively on the monarchy. Influenced by the rise of mercantilism, Locke argued that property was antecedent to. Locke distinguished between common property, by which he meant open-access property, and property in goods and producer-goods. His chief argument for property in land was improved land management, smith confined natural rights to liberty and life. Smith further argued that government could not exist without property. Economic liberals consider private property to be essential for the construction of a prosperous society and they believe private ownership of land ensures the land will be put to productive use and its value protected by the landowner. If the owners must pay property taxes, this forces the owners to maintain a productive output from the land to keep taxes current, private property also attaches a monetary value to land, which can be used to trade or as collateral. Private property thus is an important part of capitalization within the economy, socialist economists are critical of private property as socialism aims to substitute private property in the means of production for social ownership or public property. Socialists generally favor social ownership either to eliminate the distinctions between owners and workers, and as a component of the development of a post-capitalist economic system. According to Mises, this problem would make rational socialist calculation impossible, in Marxian economics and socialist politics, there is distinction between private property and personal property. Prior to the 18th century, private property usually referred to land ownership, private property in the means of production is criticized by socialists, who use the term in a different meaning. The socialist critique of private ownership is heavily influenced by the Marxian analysis of capitalist property forms as part of its critique of alienation and exploitation in capitalism
7.
Social inequality
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It is the differentiation preference of access of social goods in the society brought about by power, religion, kinship, prestige, race, ethnicity, gender, age, and class. The social rights include labor market, the source of income, health care, and freedom of speech, education, political representation, and participation. Social inequality linked to Economic inequality, usually described on the basis of the distribution of income or wealth, is a frequently studied type of social inequality. However, social and natural resources other than purely economic resources are unevenly distributed in most societies. Many societies worldwide claim to be meritocracies – that is, that their societies exclusively distribute resources on the basis of merit, a modern representation of the sort of “meritocracy” Young feared may be seen in the series 3%. In many cases, social inequality is linked to racial inequality, ethnic inequality, and gender inequality, as well as other social statuses and these forms can be related to corruption. The most common metric for comparing social inequality in different nations is the Gini coefficient, Two nations may have identical Gini coefficients but dramatically different economic and/or quality of life, so the Gini coefficient must be contextualized for meaningful comparisons to be made. Social inequality is found in almost every society, in simple societies, those that have few social roles and statuses occupied by its members, social inequality may be very low. Anthropologists identify such highly egalitarian cultures as kinship-oriented, which appear to value social harmony more than wealth or status and these cultures are contrasted with materially oriented cultures in which status and wealth are prized and competition and conflict are common. Kinship-oriented cultures may actively work to prevent social hierarchies from developing because they believe that could lead to conflict, in todays world, most of our population lives in more complex than simple societies. As social complexity increases, inequality tends to increase along with a gap between the poorest and the most wealthy members of society. Social inequality can be classified into egalitarian societies, ranked society, egalitarian societies are those communities advocating for social equality through equal opportunities and rights hence no discrimination. People with special skills were not viewed as superior compared to the rest, the leaders do not have the power they only have influence. The norms and the beliefs the egalitarian society holds are for sharing equally, ranked society mostly is agricultural communities who hierarchically grouped from the chief who is viewed to have a status in the society. In this society, people are clustered regarding status and prestige and not by access to power, the chief is the most influential person followed by his family and relative, and those further related to him are less ranked. Stratified society is societies which horizontally ranked into the class, middle class. The classification is regarding wealth, power, and prestige, the upper class are mostly the leaders and are the most influential in the society. Its possible for a person in the society to move from one stratum to the other, the social status is also hereditable from one generation to the next
Quotations related to Discourse on Inequality at Wikiquote
Works related to Discourse on the Origin of Inequality Among Men at Wikisource