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). It derived many of its ideas from Rousseau’s “The Social …show more content…
If examine this statement closer, one could find the core values of Rousseau’s utopian version of the General Will. The first core value of the General Will Rousseau had suggested was that it was a collective will from everyone. Indeed, Rousseau believed that “Each of us puts his person and all his power in common under the supreme direction of the general will” (Rousseau 8). In other words, the General Will Rousseau was advocating was the will that “both come from all and apply to all.” Correspondingly, Sieyes applied this idea and indicated that the law was at the center of the nation and the will of the Nation is the result of individual will (Lualdi 116), which both suggested that the General Will should come from all. The second value of the General Will in Rousseau’s belief was that everyone under it should gain the same rights (Rousseau 15). Similarly, in Sieyes’ excerpt, he argued that the citizens should stand in the equal distance from the General Will, and occupy equal places. This argument could be translated into the belief that “Legal rights are identical for every person, whether his property happens to be great or small” (Sieyes …show more content…
The first difference is who should the General Will be determined to. In Rousseau’ opinion, the social contract would not exclude anyone, and would “receive each member as an indivisible part of the whole” (Rousseau 8). However, in contrast to Rousseau’s “whole society,” Sieyes indicated that the Third Estate in France represented everything. The first reason why Sieyes stated so was that the First and the Second Estate were “like ravenous wolves,” who could not think of anything “but subduing and enslaving their neighbors” (Rousseau 107) while the Third Estate was the ones who carried out the work that sustained society (Lualdi 113). The second reason was that the nobles had all kinds of privileges and exemptions, “and even rights that are distinct from the rights of the great body of citizens” (Lualdi 115); therefore, they should be excluded from the common law. Moreover, Sieyes also claimed that the nobility was a foreigner “in our midst” because they were not defending the general interest, but a private one (Sieyes 3), which contradicted the core value of the General Will. Thence, unlike Rousseau, who would include everyone, Sieyes stated that the Third Estate should be everything. The second difference occurred when Sieyes suggested the “Extraordinary Representative Body.” Rousseau
This paper examines both Jean-Jacques Rousseau and James Madison remark concerning ‘ factions ’ as the potential destructive social force to the society. To layout and examine, this paper will first outline and discuss on Rousseau’s understanding of factions in The Social Contract,and Madison’s discussion on factionalism in the Federalist Papers 10.But there are many component surrounded with their remark’s on ‘factions’,so it is important to consider together. Firstly,I will consider the definition and the element surrounded with their remark on ‘ factions ’. With regard to Jean-Jacques Rousseau in The Social Contract,he believed that the society could only function to the extent that people had their interest in common.
One of the goals was to solve the problem of the “tyranny of the majority.” Rousseau sought to figure out how it was possible for citizens to be “both free and subject to laws to which they have not consented?” Can they “conform to wills which are not [their] own” but still be free? To Rousseau the answer was to frame the laws so that they reflect the “general will” and not the “will of all.” Only and only then the majority rule would in fact be just and not resolve in majority
The enlightenment philosopher Rousseau was one of the first to have an idea about a government run by the citizens which is also known as a democracy. This idea has shown up in multiple documents and is the basis of many governments around the world. One of these documents is the Declaration of the Rights of Man which allowed basic rights to French citizens. This document was one of the beginning sparks to the french revolution paving the way to a democracy in France. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen says, “All citizens have a right to decide, either personally or by their representatives, as to the necessity of the public contribution.”
Rousseau’s writings On the Social Contract critiques many aspects of modern society, including the use of representatives in most governments. With this critique, Rousseau attempts to persuade the readers that having a representative form of government is tantamount to being enslaved. This begs the question, is modern society wrong to use representative forms of governments or is Rousseau being courted by a utopian visage? Rousseau is persuasive in his arguments, however the impracticality of populaces sans representatives is a firm counterbalance. Rousseau’s main argument against the use of representatives in the political sphere is that utilising representatives thwarts any attempt at truly reaching the general will of the citizens.
Book One of The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau focuses on the reasons that people give up their natural liberty in order to achieve protection from threats to themselves and their property. This results in the formation of a legitimate sovereign where all members are equal. Rousseau believes that no human has authority over another individual because force cannot be established. He argues that no individual will give up his or her freedom without receiving something in return. I will focus my analysis on how the social contract states that we must give up our individual rights in order to obtain equality and security.
The questions of the whether social inequality is justified and the extent of government to address said inequality are some of the foundations upon which societies and economies are built. Two key philosophers on this issue – John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau – differ on this subject. In Two Treatises on Government, Locke holds that individuals have a right to property derived from their labor, citizens consent to the existence of inequality in society, and governments are instituted among men to protect said property. In contrast, Rousseau writes in Discourse on the Origin of Inequality and The Social Contract that inequality should be strictly limited and that governments have a duty to act in the best interest of its citizens by maintaining
Rousseau grew up in the small city-state of Geneva, Switzerland, where the form of local government is a direct democracy. Their entire town convenes together to decide on the laws of the city. Rousseau argues for a revolution to establish the entire French peoples as the state’s sovereign who make the laws according to the general will. Rousseau says that “Were there a people of gods, it would govern itself democratically” (The Social Contract, 180). Rousseau argues that the general will of the people cannot be decided by elected representatives, but rather by a direct democracy, similar to the one he grew up in.
Rousseau was a philosopher in the 1700’s whose musings contributed to the period of “Enlightenment” and the later philosophy motivating the French Revolution. He spends most of The Social Contract writing about the ideas of legitimate authority, the rights of the governed, and individual freedom. Rousseau argues against the popular notion of the time of “Divine Right”. Nobody was given the right to govern anyone else without their consent. People must be in convention with their leaders in order for a government’s power to be legitimate.
Because no man has a natural authority over other men and because force cannot establish right, all legitimate authority must depend upon convention. Rousseau goes on to argue against Grotius, who argues that a state can be legitimate even if the people are slaves and the government is their master. Rousseau debates his claim that the people can alienate their liberty and give themselves to a higher power. Rousseau understood it as, no one will give up his liberty without getting something in return. A popular argument made by political philosophers holds that people can waive their freedom in exchange for the civil tranquility offered by a monarch.
In this book, Rousseau wrote his famous line “Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains”. He argued that we lose the freedom given to us at birth when we join society. Rousseau does recognize the fact that living in nature is unappealing and unlikely. His social contract promotes his solution to this problem which is best summarized in this quote from Source 3 “by submitting our individual, particular wills to the collective or general will, created through agreement with other free and equal persons”. By doing this, Rousseau claims we can have the peace that once was when we lived in the state of nature along with the community they had
This general will consists of the the association of the will of all citizens: “[it] would always result from the large number of small differences, and the deliberation would always be good” (Rousseau 173). While not an average of the desires of all members, the differences in opinion between all citizens gets countered out and only the good desires remain. In order to correctly follow the desires of the general will of the entire republic, each citizen enters the following covenant: “Each of us places his person and all his power in common under the supreme direction of the general will; and as one, we receive each member as an indivisible part of the whole” (Rousseau 164). Every citizen gives up the entirety of himself or herself to the sovereign, and in return receives an equal amount back. This guarantees that every person receives the same rights in return that they gave to others, with the greater force of the entire sovereign to preserve what he has.
Rousseau echoes Locke’s support of the right to revolt through his similar theory of the social contract and the general will. Rousseau establishes the argument that a social structure is only legitimate if it exists according to the active will of all the populace. In his view, the sovereign is not a corporate entity but is composed of all the individuals in a society. Therefore, the general will serves as the sovereign. According to Rousseau, as long as the government abides by the general will, the subjects will continue to voluntarily transfer their rights to the community in order to secure their life and property.
The French Revolution was undoubtedly influenced by the political theorists of the Enlightenment. The ideas of two French political theorists in particular are easily seen throughout the French Revolution, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Baron Montesquieu. Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s thoughts and texts, such as the Social Contract, instilled the entitlement of basic human rights to all men. Rousseau’s concepts on rights combined with Baron Montesquieu’s ideas on government provided the backbone of a radical movement in the French Revolution known as the Terror. When one delves into the beginnings of the French Revolution, the motives and actions of the National Assembly, and the Terror of the French Revolution, one can obviously see the influence of two Enlightenment political theorists, Rousseau and Montesquieu.
His main beliefs on society, inequality, and war are not closely related to those of other philosophers. Rousseau believes that society brings benefits such as mutual protection, but that it also corrupts us. This makes society a benefit, but in the end our downfall as well. He believes that when we account for society we bring in the inequality. Some people are very luxurious with many things and much private property while others lack in these aspects of life.
There are many controversies and interpretations about what Rousseau meant by the idea of general will. The principal ambiguity is regarding the conflict between the democratic conception of the general will, in which general will is the will expressed by the public through their assemblies, and a transcendent incarnation of the people’s common interest other than what they individually will. In Rousseau’s text support for both interpretations