Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born on June 28, 1712 in Geneva, Switzerland. His mother died and when he was 10 his father fled from Geneva to avoid imprisonment for a minor offense. He then had to be raised by his aunt and uncle. He was one of the first modern writers to seriously attack the institution of private property and therefore is considered a forebear modern Socialism and Communism. He argued that the goal of government should be to secure freedom, equality, and justice for all within the state, regardless of the will of the majority. One of the primary principals of Rousseau's political philosophy is that politics and morality should not be separated.