Jean-Jacques Rousseau was an 18th century French philosopher who was born in Geneva in 1712 and died in France in 1778. He was orphaned as a child and raised by his uncle before marrying Thérèse Levaseur. Rousseau is renowned for his contributions as a collaborator on the Encyclopédie and participation in the French Revolution as a member of the Jacobin Club. He left a significant legacy as one of the Enlightenment's most influential philosophers and through his work on the Encyclopédie, which laid foundations for disseminating knowledge.