Jean Jacques Rousseau and His Political Philosophy

2. The main actors in the drama of the
French Revolution were intoxicated by
Rousseau’s narcotic spell.
His influence on the French Revolution—one of the pivotal events in
history—validates the oft-quoted expression in political philosophy
that “ideas have consequences.”
In an effort to rescue humanity from a downward spiral of debasement, Rousseau exploded
the alienating patterns of modern life that he believed divided and corrupted, and enslaved
the human spirit.
To remedy this unfortunate condition, he prescribed an alternative vision of a
free, cooperative and virtuous society informed by man’s original freedom in
the state of nature.
His political project may be seen as an attempt to redeem fallen humanity, recapturing by
means of human artifice and the grace of an enlightened lawgiver something of the
unity, vigor, and freedom of its original condition in the state of nature.

3. Rousseau’s personal
odyssey began in the Swiss
town of Geneva in
1712, where his mother
died shortly after giving
birth to him.
In 1762, he
published perhaps
two of his
greatest
works, The Social
Contract and
Emile. Both were
condemned for
their religious and
political
heterodoxy.
After his volatile father was
imprisoned for dueling, the
10 year old Rousseau was
sent to live with a country
minister and then his uncle.
1750 marked the turning point
of Rousseau’s life and the
beginning of his celebrity.
He won the prize of the Dijon
Academy for his essay in
response to the question,
“Has the restoration of the
sciences and arts tended to
purify morals?”
Young Rousseau
received little formal
education. Yet, he was
supreme autodidact
who mastered a variety
of subjects.
In 1728, at 16, he ran away
from home to sojourn
through Europe. This was
the beginning of a lifelong
wanderlust.

4. Provides a narrative of
how man’s original
freedom as a
solitary, naturally
good, happy being was
lost.
Provides a secular
version of the Bible’s
account of man’s fall
from the Garden of
Eden. Yet it modifies
the biblical narrative in
significant ways.
Provides the descriptive
cornerstone on which
he builds his
prescriptive edifice in
the Social Contract
Naturalistic account of
human reveals that man’s
humanity is not fixed but
rather is acquired
through the force of
historical circumstances.
Tells how man was
transformed through a
gradual process of
socialization into a
rapacious, miserable
and divided soul
trapped in a cycle of
mutual
exploitation, codepend
ence, and domination.

5. THREE MAJOR STAGES OF HISTORICAL
ORIGINAL INNOCENCE AND SOLITUDE
IN STATE OF NATURE
DEVELOPMENT
Man’s original condition was marked by natural
goodness, self-sufficiency, radical freedom, and amoir de
soi—the sentiment of his own existence.
THE FALL—SOCIALITY AND PRIVATE
PROPERTY
The qualities of reason and amour propre (vanity or pride).
All vice stems from it. The prideful comparison of oneself
to others. Natural goodness and innocence are lost.
REDEMPTION AND LIBERATION—THE
GENERAL WILL
Man’s condition in a good society is marked by political
equality, civic, virtue, and the reconciliation of one’s
particular will with the general will.

6. Contrary to Aristotle, Rousseau denies that
Rousseau emphasizes that freedom, rather
than understanding, is the defining trait of
logos or rational speech is an intrinsic
characteristic of human an animal whose
human nature. Unlike beings. Rather, he
maintains that are governed entirelyat a much
actions reason was acquired by
instinct, human action is development.
later stage of human self-determining.
FREEDOM OF
WILL
CAPACITY OF
SELFPERCEPTION
DISTINCTION
MAN
ANIMALS
Human reasoning differs beings possess
Unlike an animal, human from that of an a
animal that can act in not in kind. with or
free willonly by degree,cooperation It is not in
the faculty of reason, he contends, that truly
opposition to their drive of self-preservation.
distinguishes man from the animals.

8. Human Nature
HOBBES
• Egocentric, vicious.
• “Man is a wolf to his fellow Man.”
• Reason is limited to calculation. The mind generates thoughts as scouts and spies to
achieve one’s desire. Reason is thus the slave of one’s passions and desires.
• Rationally self-interested.
• Incapable of being an objective judge in conflict with others.
LOCKE
ROUSSEAU
• Naturally good.
• Grounded in free will and pity.
• In state of innocence, human nature is motivated by sentiments of amour de soi and
pity. In society human nature is motivated by the sentiment of amour propre, which may
weaken natural pity.

9. State of Nature
• Negative pole where life is nasty, brutish, and short.
• State of nature = state of war.
HOBBES
• “Inconveniences” in which there is no common judge who can resolve occasional
conflicts between individuals.
LOCKE
• Positive pole, at first characterized by benign self-preservation, peaceful, habitable.
• Later on, characterized by private property, inequality and war.
ROUSSEAU

10. Consent
• Everyone surrenders absolute freedom to common power, which takes on the character
of an absolute sovereign.
HOBBES
• Surrender one’s right to judge in own case, but retain inalienable right to life, liberty
and property.
LOCKE
• Particular will must conform to general will.
• Obedience to a law one prescribes for oneself.
ROUSSEAU

11. Rights
• Right to physical-preservation in which the state can never require an individual to put
his life in jeopardy involuntarily.
HOBBES
• Inalienable rights of life, liberty and property which cannot be surrendered or given up.
LOCKE
• Man born free and equal.
• Free will to direct the course of one’s own life.
• No inalienable right to property.
• Property may be regulated by general will.
ROUSSEAU

12. Social Contract and Civil Society/State
• Absolute sovereign created with the aforementioned exception,
HOBBES
• Government establishes common judge whose rules are grounded in protection of
inalienable rights of life, liberty, and property.
LOCKE
• Enlightened lawgiver shepherds the establishment of the institutions of popular
government.
• Government executes general will.
ROUSSEAU

13. Revolution
• No right to resist. However, if the sovereign is incapable of regulating conflict and
diminishing the fear of violent death, then the civil society will revert to the state of
nature and new social contract will be necessary.
HOBBES
• Right to revolution by majority judgment when inalienable rights are habitually
abridged.
LOCKE
• Popular sovereignty guided by an enlightened lawgiver in the early stages of formation
of an effective popular government.
ROUSSEAU

14. Man’s radical independence changed with the advent
of sociality and conjugal love.
Chances of natural disaster, the discovery of
agriculture and metallurgy hastened the
permanent commingling of the species and
the establishment of society.
Man’s fall proceeded step by step with his
social relations and his dependence on
others. In exchanging solitude for
sociality, human beings lost their
freedom, self-sufficiency and natural
goodness.
Maintains that this “hut stage” was the most pleasant and
happiest in the Garden because human beings enjoyed
some of the benefits of society while retaining much of
their original freedom and feeling.

15. ENTERED
MAN

16. NATURAL INEQUALITY
Refers to the innate differences between human beings in
the early state of nature that were not yet apparent due to
man’s solitary condition.
CONVENTIONAL INEQUALITY
Represents the many customs, laws, and practices of
society that sanction these differences in
ability, strength, and intellect among human beings.

17. GARDEN,
The FALL,
ORIGINS OF
INEQUALITY
Spread garlands over
the chains of despotism
and dependence.
KNOWLEDGE,
ARTS, and
SCIENCE
Bring forth a new dawn of light for
humanity, thereby improving the
human condition both morally and
emotionally.
“the people already accustomed to
dependence, repose, and the
conveniences of life, superfluous
Addicted people to and already
incapable of breaking them
luxuries, and renderingtheir
chains, consented to leteffeminate.
decadent, soft and their servitude
increase in order to assure their
tranquility.”

18. THE SOCIAL CONTRACT:
ENABLING CONDITIONS
The general will can be
operative only in a
small territory.
Participatory
democracy is the only
legitimate form of
association. For the
general will to be
operative, citizens
must be selfdetermining in voting
directly on laws
themselves.
Discourages the formation
of interest groups or
factions. Any groups that
mediate between the
state and citizens are
dangerous because they
inevitably become a
power in and of
themselves, privileging
their particular group
interest to the common
good of all.