Rousseau became famous at the age of 30 in 1750. Dijon Academy of Sciences launched a prize-winning essay activity entitled "On whether science and art corrupt or enhance morality". Rousseau's paper demonstrates that the final result of scientific and artistic progress is not conducive to human beings. He won the first prize and made him a celebrity all of a sudden.
From 1762, Rousseau had a serious dispute with the authorities because of writing political articles. Some of his colleagues began to alienate him, and at this time, he obviously became paranoid. Although some people were friendly to him, he took a suspicious and hostile attitude and quarreled with each of them.
The last twenty years of his life were basically spent in pain. He died in Mino, 1778.
The influence of later generations
Rousseau's theory has a great influence on later generations. Politically, his anti-feudal and anti-authoritarian spirit influenced the tradition of bourgeois freedom and democracy, and his literary creation also had a distinct democratic tendency, which also deeply influenced many later writers.
Rousseau's thought of returning to nature, advocating himself and publicizing emotions directly led to the European romantic literature in the19th century. Many poets and writers were influenced by him, even Goethe, Hugo, george sand and Tolstoy all claimed to be Rousseau's disciples without exception.