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Analyzing Jean-Jacques Rousseau's 'Voluntary'

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CHECKED BY SIR CHRISTIAN.
Leila Diane Mendoza
HMS11

On the Social Contract (1762)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau

“Man is born free, and everywhere he in chains.” It is accurate but debatable. Man is born free but become in chains the moment someone of the “upper hand” (specifically those who introduces themselves as one) says, if not, does otherwise. We do not initially grasp the concept of one’s set of rules and regulations until someone says so. Until someone opposes it and proclaim that it does not follow to what has already been laid out. It’s as if Rousseau is saying that “one’s freedom is another one’s slavery” which could be true but won’t apply to all.

The part where Rousseau had used family as his first …show more content…

Starting from what Grotius had said and Rosseau pointed out, “it is doubtful whether human race belongs to a hundred men or whether these hundred men belongs to the human race”, which the former was said to be leaning on what he had mentioned first, is totally irrelevant. These hundred men do belong to the human race because they came from the latter, in a way that they are still free. They could go and make sets of associations, but they are still considered as part of it. These hundred men could rule over the groups they have formed and will still belong to the human race. Hobbes’ point says, “the human race is divided into herds of cattle, each one having its own leader who guards it in order to devour it.” I believe that the human race is divided solely because of the several societies created by these hundred men, but to be divided as well internally? I don’t think so. It depends on how the elected leader acts on their role; whether they use their power to separate the people or to unite them. A leader doesn’t gain the power to lead for them to do as they wish with the people, a leader gains the power to lead in order for their society to prosper. One is no longer a leader to me the moment they abuse what they have. A leader leads and listens to the voices of their

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“Freedom is the power to choose our own chains” (Rousseau). Rousseau discusses the idea that freedom gives us enough power to pick who or what has control over us, which is an idea that is continually presented in the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles. When in a position to choose, people will strive to lack personal control as a way to relieve their physical or mental pain. People like to live without control to lessen the burden of their suffering.

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In any other system, the people give up their freedom without any reason; it should be created only if all agree to it. The social contract would exist for the purpose of self-preservation, pushing the common will of the Sovereign. To convince his audience of these complex ideas, Rousseau must stay organized and be intentional in his rhetorical

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The autobiography, The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, provides a vivid insight into the complicated, yet exhilarating, life of Rousseau. The beginning of his life was filled with misfortunes, such as the death of his mother which was quickly followed by a distraught and self-sabotaging attitude which his father adopted. This led to his father’s involvement in illegal behaviors and the subsequent abandonment of Rousseau. His mother’s death was the catalyst for his journey to meet multiple women who would later affect his life greatly. The Influence of Miss Lamberciers, Madame Basile, Countess de Vercellis, and Madam de Warens on the impressionable adolescent mind of Rousseau led to the positive cultivation of self-discovery and the creation of new experiences, as well as the development of inappropriate sexual desires and attachments towards women.

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