Rousseau’s inequality meant feudal rank distinction, not economic disparity

Evidence

What justifies DeMan’s “linguistic” reading is that this process is in Rousseau everywhere described in terms of differentiation: the class experience of the eighteenth century was, above all, one of the intolerability of caste distinctions, rank, the overweening pride of the great, and obsessions with “degree” and face, all of which are powerfully concentrated in the eponymous word inequality in a feudal and social more than an economic sense. — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 497

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies that Rousseau’s ‘inequality’ primarily signified social/feudal rank differentiation rather than economic inequality.
• XREF: connects to: Rousseau held that bounded wealth inequality is required for democratic law — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 654; Magna Carta distributed rights by rank rather than equally. — Edward J. Larson, Declaring Independence, 8; Neoliberals treat inequality as a necessary motor of progress, not a flaw — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 173
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Rousseau held that bounded wealth inequality is required for democratic law — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 654; Magna Carta distributed rights by rank rather than equally. — Edward J. Larson, Declaring Independence, 8; Neoliberals treat inequality as a necessary motor of progress, not a flaw — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 173

Broader Connections

• Neoliberals treat inequality as a necessary motor of progress, not a flaw #complicates (0.74) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 173