245 12 |a Discourse on the origin of inequality= |b 论人类不平等的起源/ |c (法)让-雅克·卢梭(Jean-Jacques Rousseau)著

520 __ |a This book puts forward the striking idea that the emergence of private ownership is the origin of human inequality. In terms of political viewpoints, its importance is second only to that of The Social Contract published later; while in terms of ideological system, this book can be regarded as the foundation and introduction to The Social Contract. In this treatise, Rousseau, drawing on the anthropological data about savages available at that time on the one hand and developing dialectical imagination on the other, reviews the historical process of human beings' transition from the state of nature to the social state. He points out that the history of human progress is also the history of human degeneration, and the establishment of private ownership is the key link that leads to human inequality and its consequences. This treatise can be described as the introduction to Rousseau's entire political theory.