Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Notes

• {{note|quote}} Interestingly, though all scholars of note consider this to be Rousseau's epigramatic statement, there is less than universal agreement as to its translation. Because of a particular ambiguity in French, the line ("L'homme est né libre, et partout il est dans les fers." can just as accurately be translated into English as "Man was born free but everywhere he is in chains." Though subtle, the change in translation can yield an immense difference in the significance of Rousseau's basic thesis. Is he positing that each individual who comes into the world every day is born free, but then society enslaves him? Or is he rather saying that Man was once a free creature who--as a body politic and social--has been enslaved by a corrupting society? Many scholars argue that the latter better reflects the analysis that follows later in the book. Yet a third perspective is that Rousseau, who was certainly aware of the ambiguity of the usage, did so intentionally. It was simply an application of the concept of double-entendre, one which would be seen by any educated reader of French. If this interpretation is correct, then, some linguists note, English translations would be better served by printing this line as "Man is/was born free. . ."