Rousseau is known as father of French revolution
Equality, liberty & fraternity – slogans are inspired by Rousseau
Greatest contribution of Rousseau is Popular sovereignty/general will
Rousseau is the thinker of Paradoxes. Even his language is paradoxical
His paradoxical statements:
o Man was a noble savage
o Man is born free, but is everywhere in chains
o Thinking man is a deprived animal
o Man can be forced to be free
He is paradoxically a source of inspiration for all – Liberals, socialists, radical democrats, totalitarians
Rousseau belonged to the age of enlightenment (science, reason, modernity, secularism)
However, Rousseau emerges as a critic of modernity, and thus inspires even Gandhi
Rousseau is a French philosopher who spent most of his life in Geneva Switzerland
He was impressed by direct democratic system that had survived there since ancient times
Rousseau’s most famous work is the book – Social contract
Opening statement of this book is “Man is born free, but is everywhere in chains”
Nature/God has given birth to the free man, but he is found in chains everywhere
Chains of society & chains of state
It is just an illusion that modernity has given liberty and freedom to man
What we consider as liberty in modern times is just an illusion and in real, simply isolation
Central concern of Rousseau
It is to devise a system which reconciles liberty and equality
Purpose of life in western philosophy is happiness
Rousseau – Happiness means doing what one wants to do, which requires freedom
Thus, purpose of life is Happiness, and freedom is the source of happiness
Freedom is ability/capacity to act according to one’s choice and will. Exercise of free will.
Rousseau’s social contract
Rousseau’s view of human nature
He takes an overtly optimistic view of human nature
He says man is essentially good – noble, kind, sympathetic – by nature
If man appears bad, it is because of society & its value system is such
Ex – If entire society is patriarchal, there is not much we will gain by killing the rapist
He is the first philosopher to suggest that what needs to be changed is society and not man
Rousseau – “man is noble savage”
In state of nature (before emergence of modern capitalist society) man was noble, though savage.
Man was essentially good (self-love, empathy, kindness) society and its emergence corrupted him.
Thus, what needs to be changed is the society that has corrupted man
Since he emphasized on the need to change the society, he inspires socialists
Rousseau’s view of state of nature
He says that the state of nature was the state of bliss (opposite to Hobbes’s view of state of war)
Man was free in the state of nature, thus he was able to do what he wants, so he was happy
Man was free to go from one place to other
End of state of nature
State of nature came to an end gradually, due to growth of reason in man (Rousseau’s paradox)
In the age of enlightenment, Rousseau became the critic of it. When everyone was emphasizing on
positive contribution of reason, science & modernity, Rousseau emerges as critic of modernity
This marked the beginning of tradition of post-modernism
Modernity – science, reason, secularism, industrialization, urbanization
Rousseau – “Thinking man has become depraved animal”
When man was savage/uncivilized, before beginning of modern civilization
However, with the growth of reason/thinking, this noble savage became depraved animal
Depraved animal means whose appetite is never satisfied
Thinking/reason is bad because it made man depraved animal
Thinking implies the capitalistic approach (reason/calculations)
Man is busy doing calculations about profit and loss
Man lost his originality (nobility and goodness)
Thus, man is compelled to live artificially
Man is not happy because man is not living according to his true nature
Reason of contract
Since with modern civilization, man lost freedom and thus his happiness, man is unable to act
according to his true nature (good – noble, empathetic, kind)
Therefore, men come together to create a system or a way of life, where they can act according to
their true nature.
Since the state of nature was state of bliss where man had freedom and thus happiness, man wants
to regain that happiness. However, they cannot roll back the history.
Therefore, they need to enter into a new contract
Purpose of contract = gain back freedom
How = create a system where man can act according to his real will
Rousseau’s concept of Popular sovereignty/general will (we the people)
Rousseau categorized wills of man into two types
o Real will – Man’s original will = Since originally man is good, real will is the good will of man
Real will is our intuitive will. Ex- taking bribe is bad
o Actual will – Man’s artificial will = will shaped by circumstances around man that compel him
Actual will is calculative. Ex- taking bribe because everyone does it
In social contract, all people come together, and decide/pledge that from now onwards, they will not
act as per their actual will. Rather, they will act as per their real-original will.
Rousseau’s concept of general will
General will = the sum of the real wills of all = good will
General will represents state, because it represents the collectivity (people coming together)
State represents the original wills of all people living
Constitution of state is an expression of general will (real will of all people)
Constitution of state is an expression of Popular sovereignty (general will)
Thus, constitution represents the general will of people – real & original will – good will
Provisions of constitution have to be obeyed because when we obey the constitution, we are
actually obeying ourselves and our original/real will, the good will.
Thus, for Rousseau, ultimate power and sovereignty lies with the people
Since Rousseau says that sovereignty lies with the people (nation, that is summation of people)
Thus, he is the father of nation-state
Rousseau – “man should be forced to be free”
Yet another paradoxical statement of Rousseau
Above statement is from Rousseau’s theory of general will that represents state
However, in Rousseau people represent state
General will represents people and popular sovereignty
Since sovereignty is the supreme power to make laws
Popular sovereignty means people have supreme power to make laws
People’s power to make laws is expressed in the constitution
Therefore, the law (sovereign’s will = people’s will) has to be enforced
Man should be forced to be free – implies that all should be compelled to abide by the constitution
and the laws made according to the constitution (expression of general will)
Only when man is obeying the constitution, man is free. Because only then man is acting according
to his real & original will, which is called true freedom and thus gives true happiness.
Rousseau being influenced by direct-democracy in Geneva SWZ
Only when people come together and participate in formulation of laws, general will emerges
Only when people follow general will, they can be happy in real sense.
“Rousseau’s general will, is Hobbes’s leviathan, with his head chopped off”