Quotes · Quote card
Quotation from Discourse on the Origin of Inequality by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“Let us begin therefore, by laying aside facts, for they do not affect the question.”
Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, Opening address (exordium), trans. Anonymous (Harvard Classics, 1910)
Rousseau declares his method: hypothetical reasoning about human nature rather than historical narrative.
Citation: "Let us begin therefore, by laying aside facts, for they do not affect the question." — Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, Opening address (exordium), trans. Anonymous (Harvard Classics, 1910). (id rousseau-discourse-on-inequality-q1)
Portrait: Portrait of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), Maurice Quentin de La Tour, Public domain.
