Editing Discourse on Inequality (section)

==Context==
The text was written in 1754 in response to a prize competition of the [[Académie des Sciences, Arts et Belles-Lettres de Dijon|Academy of Dijon]] answering the prompt: "What is the origin of inequality among people, and is it authorized by [[natural law]]?" As with his ''[[Discourse on the Arts and Sciences]]'', Rousseau answered in the negative. He did not win with his treatise (as he had for the ''Discourse on the Arts and Sciences''); a [[Canon (priest)|canon]] of [[Besançon Cathedral|Besançon]] by the name of [[François Xavier Talbert|François Xavier Talbert (l'abbé Talbert)]] did. The ''Discourse on Inequality'' was written in part to contradict the claims made by [[John Locke|Locke]], [[Thomas Hobbes|Hobbes]], and [[Samuel von Pufendorf|Pufendorf]] in their discussions of the [[state of nature]].<ref name="wokler-2001">{{Cite book |last=Wokler |first=Robert |title=Rousseau: a very short introduction |date=2001 |publisher=Oxford Univ. Press |isbn=978-0-19-280198-2 |series=Very short introductions |location=Oxford}}</ref>{{rp|49}} Rousseau published the text in 1755.<ref>Peter Gay, ''The Basic Political Writings of Jean Jacques Rousseau'', Hackett Press, 1987, p. 25</ref>