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Enlightenment Thinker:
Jean-Jacques Rousseau: A Genevan philosopher of the Enlightenment whose political ideas influenced
the French Revolution, the development of socialist theory, and the growth of nationalism. Rousseau also made important
contributions to music both as a theorist and as a composer. 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 Hegal and Freud. His novel Julie ou la nouvelle Heloise was one of the best-selling
fictional works of the eighteenth century and was important to the development of romantism.
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Influential Thought: One of the primary principles of Rousseau's political philosophy is
that politics and morality should not be separated. When a state fails to act in a moral fashion, it ceases to function
in the proper manner and ceases to exert genuine authority over the individual. The second important principle is freedom,
which the state is created to preserve.
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