Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to debunk two of the myths surrounding Rousseau. The first myth claims that Rousseau was the father of Romanticism. While his work may have paved the way for the Romantic movement, his works did not intend to eliminate reason in favor of emotion. The second myth claims that Rousseau called for the French Revolution. While it was claimed by many revolutionaries that Rousseau's concept of equality was strictly egalitarian, his concept is at best an extremely limited egalitarianism. Although the Romantic movement and the revolutionaries of the French Revolution often used ideas expressed in Rousseau's works, these ideas were most often taken out of context and not used as Rousseau had intended. This dissertation will reinsert these ideas into Rousseau's works and examine what Rousseau really meant by the term "equality."