In any case of failure to protect the rights, the people were in their complete right to overthrow the government (Doc 2 & Pg. 630) In agreement, Rousseau believed that the government’s power also comes from the consent of the people, which he included in his book, The Social Contract. (Pg. 632) Rousseau included much more ideas that incorporated political aspects, but he also his thought about
Rousseau’s beliefs coincided with the beliefs of other Enlightenment thinkers. This is shown when he writes, “Duty and interest thus equally require the two contracting parties [the people and the government] to aid each other mutually” (Document 3). In that period of history, it was typical for people to be ruled by a monarch and they had very little say, if any, in the laws and policies that impacted their day to day life. Rousseau felt that the system was outdated and it made citizens feel as if they were living in someone else’s home rather than their own, so he theorized that by fabricating a system in which the government and the people are forced to work together, it creates a sense of unity and equality. This works because “ … an offense against one of its members is an offense against the body politic.
Rousseau’s beliefs coincided with the beliefs of other Enlightenment thinkers. This is shown when he writes, “Duty and interest thus equally require the two contracting parties [the people and the government] to aid each other mutually” (Document 3). In that period of history, it was typical for people to be ruled by a monarch and they had very little say, if any, in the laws and policies that impacted their day to day life. Rousseau felt that the system was outdated and it made citizens feel as if they were living in someone else’s home rather than their own, so he theorized that by fabricating a system in which the government and the people are forced to work together, it creates a sense of unity and equality. This works because “ … an offense against one of its members is an offense against the body politic.
Artificial equality would be the result of this statement by Madison, “ Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit. ”(Federalist 17) Rousseau believed strongly in free choice and in the Federalist Papers it is shown that it is very difficult to establish a government that is stable and will not threaten the liberties of the people. Overall Rousseau believed that the people should be left to create their own natural equality and inequality through their use of liberty while the Federalist Papers focused on how the government could accomplish the same task.
Rousseau’s main idea is that everyone should feel safe, happy, and equal even if it means sacrificing personal joy for the good of society. If these things are not present then the community does not work. The contract
He based his beliefs off of the ideas that all men are created good-natured, but society corrupts them. Unlike some other French Enlightenment thinkers, Rousseau believed that the Social contract was not a willing agreement. He also said that no man should be forced to give up their natural rights to a ruler. He came up with the solution that people should “give up” their natural rights to the community for the public’s good. He believed in a democratic government.
Rousseau, one of the most leading philosophers during the Enlightenment, had indeed left many of legendries behind. Not only his writings had caused many of the reactions at that time, but also influenced many writers’ aspects of the French Revolution and the overall understanding of inequality and the General Will. As one of the chief political theorists during the French Revolution who was also influenced by Rousseau’s ideas, Abbe Sieyes, published the pamphlet, “What is the Third Estate?” in 1789. This pamphlet was one of the documents that changed the world and lit the flame toward the French Revolution, as characterized by Joe Janes, a University of Washington professor (Janes).
In Sweden, during the Age of Liberty the power of the state moved from monarch to the parliament where the people were paying taxes, like the farmers were represented in parliament and their power were limited, plus the people that were not paying taxis did not had the right to vote. In 1755 the Corsican Constitution give the right to women and all men above 25 to vote. (56,57 reference democracy w) Jean-Jacques Rousseau that he was sometimes more radical democrat than Locke, in his most important and influential work “The Social contract” (1762) addressed that a democracy is not compatible with representatives and that the moment the people allows themselves to be represented, they are no longer free or exist. Rousseau was a strong supporter of direct democracy and believed that if a political association is not small enough to practice direct democracy then they will be replaced by a nation-state association and as a result will stop been democratic. Furthermore, he wrote that “it is against the natural order for the many to govern and the few to be governed and that where are people of gods then the government is democratic, so perfect government is not for men”.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a great philosopher, writer, and composer during the 18th century. Rousseau’s civic philosophy influenced the Enlightenment and changed the general way of thinking. Rousseau’s first major piece of work when the academy he attended, the Academy of Dijon, conducted an essay contest and Rousseau was chosen as the winner with his essay called: A Discourse on the Sciences and Arts. Rousseau argued that Science and the Arts have corrupted the morals and virtue of people. Rousseau’s essay instantly won fame and recognition and it laid the building blocks for his next piece of work, The Discourse on the Origin of Inequality.
His idea supported the fact that each individual had natural rights and that a monarch was not able to abuse their power and force any person to give up their rights. Rousseau promoted a civil state where all people enjoyed security, justice, liberty, property, and protection. I believe that Rousseau’s ideas were vital to the development of an American democracy because he supported the idea of giving power to the people and believed that they should vote for their own laws, but I do not agree with his idea of allotting all the political power to the people and having no separation of powers. Ensuring that people have power is crucial so that the voices of the people are heard, but the separation of powers is necessary to prevent any person or part of the government from becoming too powerful. If the political power was simply handed to the people without balance, there could be corruption.
To begin Rousseau starts the reading by saying that there cannot be a legitimate political authority because political authority puts restraints of freedoms that man was born with, Rousseau says that man was born with one natural form of authority, and that is the authority of a father over a child which exist only to keep the child alive all other authorities are rejected. The reasoning that some philosophers such as Hobbes assume that natural superiority of rulers over the ruled is the same as parental authority. However, Rousseau believes that this authority has no basis in nature because they use force to keep it. Rousseau says that the only answer to this problem is through some social contract made between members of society where people surrender their freedom
Rousseau also influenced these ideas today by believing that the government belongs to the people. As a country, we have the power to control who is in the government by electing them. Before being elected,
At the time of its publication, Rousseau had withdrawn from Paris and was living with a noblewoman. His location allowed him to write with little concern for the controversy surrounding his two previous Discourses, and the period was one of the most productive of his life (Delaney). He wrote as a way to address the ideas he had been accumulating from years traveling around Europe. His observations led him to argue that the rights of the people are violated in a civil society, and this should be changed under a social contract. After observing numerous governments, he concludes that people should only be governed by the Sovereign, a body with one collective will.
In his work Discourse on the Origin of Inequality Rousseau presents the argument that political inequality is rooted in the origins of human sociality. He suggests that in the state of nature, only physical inequality existed. Thusly meaning that political inequality only came into being as a result of human beings shifting from undifferentiated oneness to differentiated individuals. He illustrates three main stages that lead to this (civil society): the development of village life, the social division of labor and the formation of government. In forming society, we as human beings entered into social relationships and so were able to socially construct agreed upon measurements of human worth (i.e. private property) and so create political inequalities.
Rousseau’s his political philosophies flows through his moral philosophies. In order to understand this better, let me begin by explaining in details both his moral and political philosophies ROUSSEAU’S MORAL PHILOSOPHY- Rousseau was of the one of the very few thinkers who felt that human beings are good by nature but it is the society that corrupts them. He necessarily talks about three components that form the basis of Rousseau’s moral psychology- amour de soi, amour propre and pitie. All these three elements have developed well in Emile and in Discourse on the Origin of Inequality.
