Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, (June 28, 1712 – July 2, 1778) was a philosopher of the Enlightenment whose political ideas influenced the French Revolution, the development of both liberalism and socialism theories, and the growth of nationalism. With his Confessions and other writings, he practically invented modern autobiography and encouraged a new focus on the building of subjectivity that would bear fruit in the work of thinkers as diverse as Georg Hegel and Sigmund Freud. His novel Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse, one of the best-selling fictional works of the 18th century, was important to the development of romanticism. Rousseau also made important contributions to music, both as a theorist and a composer.