The French Revolution and Rousseau

The French Revolution followed in the wake of and to a degree imitated the American Revolution, and both derived much of their theoretical base from several political and social theorists, notably John Locke, David Hume, Thomas Hobbes, and Jean Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau was an especially potent force in the French Revolution, as might be expected given the fact that he was a Frenchman and that he had championed the right of the people to overthrow a despotic government. Inherent in the writings of Locke, Hobbes, and Rousseau is the idea of a contract as the basis of society and as the wellspring of government. The individual is seen as existing in one state in nature and in a different state in society, and the act of coming together in society is based on the social contract (though this is viewed somewhat differently by the three writers, though each sees it as the basis of society, as a voluntary agreement, and as both the source of government power and the protection of the individual from that power).

After Rousseau and the others, the sovereign was no longer seen as ruling by divine right. He did have to answer to the people, and both the people and the sovereign had to behave in accordance with the law. That law is to be the touchstone for the sovereign to determine how to govern. These are standing laws--they are not developed at the whim of the sovereign to cope with each situation that arises. They are also to be "known to the people," which

Related Essays

Rousseau & Locke on Society .... While he is associated with the French Revolution and its efforts to restore rights, Rousseau was more concerned with limiting those rights if they threatened .... (1162 5 )

Marx & Rousseau on Private Property .... On the other hand, while he is associated with the French Revolution and its efforts to restore rights, Rousseau was far more concerned with limiting those .... (1370 5 )

Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Political Philosophy .... New York: WW Norton, 1982. C. Rousseau's influence on the French Revolution D. Importance of Rousseau's life on his philosophy II. .... (6084 24 )

Rousseau and the Barbizon School of Painting .... Rousseau and the Barbizon School advocated a return to nature .... a conservative outlook, but the popular revolution of 1848 .... them to a new prominence in French art .... (3202 13 )

Elements of The French Revolution .... community, "virtue" in the language of Montesquieu, Rousseau and Robbespierre. .... to take the author's romantic notions about the French Revolution as seriously .... (1512 6 )

otect the individual freedom that existed in the state of nature to the greatest degree possible. Locke saw government as necessarily responsive to the people, and if it was not responsive, the people had the right to challenge the government and to remove a government if it became tyrannical. Rousseau was less interested in individual freedom and more in making government responsive to the general will. Rousseau considered the formation and influence of groups within society. For Rousseau, the social contract created an environment in which the general will of the people, a unifying force, would dominate individuals and their particular wills. Though both men saw society as deriving from an agreement or social contract, the government that would result was somewhat different because of their differing views of people and their responsibilities. Locke saw the human being as essentially good in nature and as entering the social contract to protect that goodness from others. Rousseau agreed that man in nature, the "noble savage," was essentially good, but he also sees that man in society is not free and has not protected himself from tyrannical government. He sees this as a consequence of the failure of people to participate

Category: History - T