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Rousseau's Purpose Of The Government

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Rousseau contends that the purpose of the government is to unite people under general will and ensure they live in harmony. He thinks that laws should be a collective expression of a general will. All laws should be based according to the general will and should be applied to the people as a whole and not just to one particular individual. He then proposes that it will not be easy for all to sit and create laws, and thus comes up with an idea of a “lawgiver.” According to Rousseau, a lawgiver is someone who creates laws for everyone in the society based on the general will of the people. He states, a lawgiver is a wise and selfless man. Someone outside from the society, who has great ingenuity and thinks for the general society “the legislator
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The Primary objective of all leaders should be to control citizens. A society that allows authority to be challenged will never succeed. This source depicts an authoritarian or totalitarian view of what a governing body should look like. The author suggests that the primary objective of government should be the “control of the citizens”, and therefore that the individuals should entirely obey said government.

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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 Rousseau felt that the system was outdated and it made citizens feel as if they were living in someone else’s home rather than their own, so he theorized that by fabricating a system in which the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.

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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.

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1365 Words | 6 Pages

Rousseau presents this question “How is a method of associating to be found which will defend and protect-using the power of all-the person and property of each ember and still enable each member of the group to obey only him and to remain as free as before?” Thomas Paine says that “Government, on the other hand, is an institution whose sole purpose is to protect us from our own vices.” In order to grow and protect itself people join a society. For a society to have order and justice and remain equal, laws must be put in place, such that protect the individual rights of these people that they were born with. Equality is another belief that all these philosophies shared.

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Most individuals , countries , and nations desire success. The process to succeed is evaluated by various people , which cause disagreements. Politicians will have different plans to the road to prosperity. Thomas Paine and Edmund Burke were two visionaries during the 1790’s, who voiced different ways of thinking about the French Revolution. Paine supported liberalism , and opposingly Burke promoted conservatism.

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Rousseau wanted to go by the majority rules government whatever the majority of the people wanted should become a law. Rousseau felt that the education systems was not good and that it needed to be change (Rousseau wanted to abolish education). Rousseau wanted people to learn from the world first hand not through a book. Rousseau believed that children should be allowed to express their emotion so they can become a “well-rounded and freethinking individual” (power point). Rousseau’s educational plan was seen as “impractical” (power point).

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Abraham Lincoln believed that the purpose of government centered around aiding the community in a way that can not be done independently. This is to say that government fills the gap between a group of individuals and their necessities. Such an ideal stands true in economics, foreign relations, and civil rights. Lincoln cited many examples of things that people cannot do on their own in the form of speeches to the American public. He said that making and maintaining roads and bridges, providing for the helpless, providing schools, and disposing of the deceased's property are all duty's of the government.

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The idea expressed by Rousseau in The People Should Have Power that “Man is born free. No man has any natural authority over others, force does not give anyone that right. The power to make laws belongs to the people and only to the people” influenced people who been suppressed by the royals and the aristocrats, and the independence of the United States is a perfect example for the Frenchmen to follow. Some people, such as historian Albert Mathiez, claims that leadership fell to the middle class with their knowledge of the ideas of the Enlightenment that “The middle class… was sensitive to their inferior legal position. The Revolution came from them- the middle class.

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Music was certainly the main priority to Rousseau. “I loved it from infancy, and it was the only inclination I have constantly adhered to,” (198). At first his main motivation for learning the subject was so he could practice and spend more time with Madam de Warrens, but eventually he soon did not need this motivation and he began to put many hours into the subject alone, trying to maximize his understanding. He began to resent his work because it impeded his studies, which is rarely heard of in the modern era. Today, most people learn to obtain a job in order to make money, but Jean-Jacques Rousseau was the complete opposite.

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This applies into two different areas of government and society. This fundamental idea of how to create laws and how they apply is set up for the sole factor to help give power to people and limit the control of the government. Montesquieu stated that when setting up a structured set of laws, a nation must remain aware of how it will benefit the people and the ability to grow as a nation as a result of these laws. A prime example of this is the U.S Constitution. The U,S Constitution is the structure to help guide the government in a positive direction when making a document that clearly states each right the American people have and is set up as a decision.

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The U.S 's first government was created on September 17, 1787 when the US Constitution was signed. This event brought together all 13 states by a unanimous vote. With this, our new government was formed, but now that we have this new system and much more freedom, what exactly is the purpose of our government? Is it to run our businesses? make treaties? or just to say that we have one?

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I think the purpose of government is to make and enforce laws the main purpose of government is to protect it citizen. The purpose of government is to keep strict order and to stop is citizens from hurting one another. An effective system of government protection it citizens. The purpose of government is to ensure the safety of the nation and its resident. While other concerns such as economic growth are important, governments primary duty is keep people save.

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This essay will analyse and assess whether the claim that Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s argued in “Children Should Not Be Reasoned with” is cogent. It is cogent because his claims about education making a reasoning man is the reason why children should not be educated to be a reasoning man, is sound since the ending conclusion is true and does follow after the premises, which makes it valid. When analysing the article, it is best understood that it is a deductive argument. A deductive argument is one where a leading conclusion is followed by a series of premises, in which it makes the conclusion impossible to be false if the premises are true.

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INTRODUCTION Jean Jacque Rousseau was born in the city state of Geneva, Switzerland in 1772. Rousseau is primarily known for major works like- The Social Contract, Emile, Discourse on the origin of Inequality, the Constitutional Project for Corsica, and Consideration on the Government of Poland. What makes Rousseau such an important figure in the history of philosophy is because of his contribution to both political and moral philosophies and his concept of ‘general will’, which also gained him a lot of criticism. Apart from his philosophical and political contribution, he was also a novelist, an autobiographer, botanist, composer and also a music theorist.

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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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