The Philosophy of Jean Jacques Rousseau

I. Introduction: the Individual versus the Community

A. No one is indifferent about the teachings of Rousseau

B. All agree that Rousseau's writings have had a tremendous impact on the Age of Enlightenment.

C. Rousseau's objective is to reconcile individual freedom with the need for social order.

D. The dispute over Rousseau's writings is based on whether his ideal polity is democratic or tyrannical.

A. Born in 1712 to an impoverished Genevese family.

B. Mother was a dancing instructor, who died giving childbirth to Rousseau.

C. Father abandoned Rousseau at age 10.

D. Lived mostly as a drifter until age 26, when he finally realized that he wanted to make something of his life.

E. Under the tutelage of a wealthy benefactor, he studied the arts and philosophy.

1 . Wrote 'Discourse on the Arts and Sciences' and won a prestigious contest sponsored by the Academy of Dijon in 1749.

2. Rousseau became widely accepted in the Paris salons, but rejected this life as hypocritical and went into partial seclusion for the rest of his life.

3. Lived with an uneducated, peasant mistress, Therese Levasseur.

 F. Died in 1778 in a rural town outside Paris.

III. Philosophical Approach to the Study of the Human Condition

A. Rousseau did not use a systematic methodology in his studies.

B. Method best described as "intuitional."

1. Literary skills which constitute a logical whole.

. . .
ers, but most importantly, the Social Contract is about authority. The primary question for each individual in a social unity is: whom should be obeyed? Who can legitimately claim authority? Gay, ed., 1987, p. xv). Rousseau offers a model of social order in which the moral potential of the state of nature is fulfilled rather than frustrated. Membership in this society "substitutes justice for instinct in behavior, and gives to his actions a moral basis" which was absent in the state of nature. A properly organized society, then, not only can respect natural rights, but it also elevates human beings above the state of nature by nurturing morality in human interactions. "The voice of duty replaces physical impulse." Man's faculties are enhanced, "his ideas take on a wider scope, his sentiments become ennobled, and his soul is elevated" (Rousseau, "The Social Contract," 1947, pp. 262-263). A proper social organization, in other words, can transform human beings from instinctive animals into intelligent, moral beings. The proper society must be organized in such a way that the fundamental aspects of the essential man, the aspects that made life happy in the state of nature, are preserved. These aspects include the natural equa
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