¶ … Jean Jacques Rousseau: An Interesting Mdaman, p .2, the author presents the argument that Jean Jacques Rousseau was the most influential of modern intellectuals.
Reasons
"He popularized and to some extent invented the cult of nature, the taste for the open air, the quest for freshness, spontaneity, the invigorating and the natural" (Rousseau 3).
"Second, and linked to his revaluation of nature, Rousseau taught distrust of the progressive, gradual improvements brought about by the slow march of materialist culture…" (Rousseau 3)
"It was the simple, direct, powerful, indeed passionate, manner in which Rousseau wrote which made his notions seem so vivid and fresh, so that they came to men and women with the shock of a revelation" (Rousseau 4).
I think the author's argument has this form:
The argument is that Rousseau is the most influential of all the modern intellectuals who disavow the church as a source of authority. This is a sophisticated form of disjunctive syllogism in which the author is considering either the achievements...
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