Jean Jacques Rousseau

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses how Jean Jacques Rousseau was essentially against any social order that curtailed personal freedom or natural liberty. The paper explains his beliefs of allowing the public to choose the person who would implement laws while the system would work on the principle of general will. The paper relates that Rousseau's social contract theory shaped modern political thought and is still commonly cited when democracy and rights are discussed.

From the Paper:

"Political upheaval in the 19th century France was caused as much by political discourse as by active insurgence. Jean Jacques Rousseau's theory of social contract or rather his rejection of the same occupied an important place in the political discourse of the time. It was not starkly different than previously held beliefs but definitely encompassed some original concepts including the idea of general will and the elusive lawgiver. Rousseau's rejection of social contract was grounded in the premise that by contracting with a man or assembly of men, individuals are forced to part with some of their natural liberty. In other words while he knew that freedom was compromised to an extent with social contracts were entered into, he maintained that the relinquished freedom should be social freedom and not natural freedom."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Habermas, J. (1998). Three normative models of democracy. In J. Habermas, The inclusion of the other (pp. 240-252). Cambridge, MA: The MIT press.
• Rousseau, Of the Social Contract (1762), in The Social Contract and Other Later Political Writings, trans. Victor Gourevitch (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997)
• Leo Strauss, Natural Right and History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1953)
• James Madison. The Federalist No. 10. The Utility of the Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection Thursday, November 22, 1787. Retrieved online 6th Feb 2007 from http://www.constitution.org/fed/federa10.htm

More papers on Jean Jacques Rousseau:

• Book Review # 108936 : "Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "The Social Contract"
• Book Review # 118582 : "Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "La Nouvelle Heloise"
• Essay # 60953 : "Jean-Jacques Rousseau"
• Essay # 51763 : "The Life and Works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau"

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