Rousseau investigates the fundamental question of whether inequality is a natural condition of humanity or an artificial construct born from the development of civil society. The author, a central figure of the Enlightenment, utilizes a hypothetical historical framework to trace the transition of humans from a state of nature to organized society. He argues that the emergence of private property and the subsequent establishment of laws and government served to institutionalize and perpetuate social disparities.

Scholars and historians recognize this work as a foundational text in political philosophy that significantly influenced modern social contract theory. Readers frequently note the dense, argumentative nature of the prose, which requires careful engagement with 18th-century intellectual conventions.