Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Žan Žak Ruso 28. juni 1712 Ženeva - 2. juli 1778), bio je švicarsko-francuski filozof, pisac, politički teoretičar[1] i samouki kompozitor iz doba prosvjetiteljstva. Bio je najuticajniji filozof prosvjetiteljstva koji je smatrao da je savremena kultura negacija prirode i zato je govorio da se ljudi trebaju vratiti prirodi - slobodi i jednakosti. Smatrao je da je nejednakost nastala sa privatnom imovinom, a država ugovorom. Za njega, kao prosvjetitelja, odgoj je bio temelj društva.
Neizmjeran uticaj je ostavio tako jer je bio prvi pravi filozof romantizma, koji je utjecao na napredak doba prosvjetiteljstva širom Evrope, kao i na aspekte Francuske revolucije i razvoj moderne političke, ekonomske i obrazovne misli.[2]
Prvi je koji pominje mnoge teme koje su dominirale intelektualnim životom narednih stotinu godina, kao što su: uzdizanje osjećanja i nevinosti i umanjivanje značaja intelekta; izgubljeno jedinstvo ljudskog roda i prirode; dinamična koncepcija ljudske historije i njenih različitih nivoa; vjera u teologiju i mogućnosti obnavljanja iščezle slobode.
Njegova politička filozofija istaknuta u djelima O porijeklu nejednakosti i Društveni ugovor su kamen temeljac moderne političke i društvene misli. Rousseauov sentimentalni roman Nova Eloiza (1761) bio je važan za razvoj predromantizma i romantizma u fikciji.[3][4] Njegovo djelo Emil, ili o vaspitanju (1762.) je obrazovna rasprava o mjestu pojedinca u društvu. Autobiografski spisi — posthumno objavljene Ispovjesti (napisane 1769) započele su modernu autobiografiju, i nedovršeno djelo Sanjarije usamljenog šetača (nastale 1776–1778) — predstavljaju primjer „Doba senzibiliteta“ iz kasnog 18. vijeka i povećan fokus na subjektivnost i introspekciju koja je kasnije obilježila moderno pisanje.
^Darnton, Robert, "6. Readers Respond to Rousseau: The Fabrication of Romantic Sensitivity", The Great Cat Massacre for some interesting examples of contemporary reactions to this novel.
——— (1991), "The Noble Savage", The Scientific Monthly, Chicago, Illinois, 36 (3): 250, Bibcode:1933SciMo..36..250M
Dent, Nicholas J. H. (1988). Rousseau: An Introduction to his Psychological, Social, and Political Theory. Oxford: Blackwell
——— (1992), A Rousseau Dictionary, Oxford, England: Blackwell.
——— (2005), Rousseau, London: Routledge
Derathé, Robert (1948). Le Rationalism de J.-J. Rousseau. Press Universitaires de France
——— (1988) [1950], Jean-Jacques Rousseau et la Science Politique de Son Temps (jezik: francuski), Paris: Vrin
Derrida, Jacques (1976). Of Grammatology, trans. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press
Farrell, John (2006). Paranoia and Modernity: Cervantes to Rousseau. New York: Cornell University Press
Faÿ, Bernard (1974), Jean-Jacques Rousseau ou le Rêve de la vie (jezik: francuski), Paris: Perrin
Garrard, Graeme (2003). Rousseau's Counter-Enlightenment: A Republican Critique of the Philosophes. Albany: State University of New York Press
Garrard, Graeme (2014). "Rousseau, Happiness and Human Nature," Political Studies, Vol. 62, No. 1, str. 70–82.
Garrard, Graeme (2021). "Children of the State: Rousseau's Republican Educational Theory and Child Abandonment," Educational History, Vol. 50, No. 2, str. 147–160.
Gauthier, David (2006). Rousseau: The Sentiment of Existence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Hendel, Charles W. (1934). Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Moralist. 2 Vols. (1934) Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs Merrill
de Jouvenel, Bertrand (1962). "Rousseau the Pessimistic Evolutionist". Yale French Studies (27): 83–96.
Kanzler, Peter. The Leviathan (1651), The Two Treatises of Government (1689), The Social Contract (1762), The Constitution of Pennsylvania (1776), 2020. ISBN978-1-716-89340-7
Kateb, George (1961). "Aspects of Rousseau's Political Thought", Political Science Quarterly, December 1961
Christopher Kelly, Rousseau’s Exemplary Life: the "Confessions" as political philosophy, Ithaca: Cornell, 1987.
Christopher Kelly, Rousseau as Author, University of Chicago Press, 2003.
Kitsikis, Dimitri (2006). Jean-Jacques Rousseau et les origines françaises du fascisme. Nantes: Ars Magna Editions
LaFreniere, Gilbert F. (1990). "Rousseau and the European Roots of Environmentalism." Environmental History Review 14 (No. 4): str. 41–72
Lange, Lynda (2002). Feminist Interpretations of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. University Park: Penn State University Press
Maguire, Matthew (2006). The Conversion of the Imagination: from Pascal through Rousseau to Tocqueville. Harvard University Press
Marks, Jonathan (2005). Perfection and Disharmony in the Thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Masters, Roger (ed.), 1964. The First and Second Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, translated by Roger D Masters and Judith R Masters. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN978-0-312-69440-1
Masters, Roger 1968. The Political Philosophy of Rousseau. Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press (ISBN978-0-691-01989-5), also available in French (ISBN978-2-84788-000-7)
McCarthy, Vincent A (2009), "Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Presence and Absence", u Stewart, Jon (ured.), Kierkegaard and the Renaissance and Modern Traditions, Farnham: Ashgate, ISBN978-0-7546-6818-3
Christie McDonald and Stanley Hoffman (eds.), Rousseau and Freedom, Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Melzer, Arthur (1990). The Natural Goodness of Man: On the System of Rousseau's Thought. Chicago: University of Chicago Press