Rousseau 'The Social Contract'

The social contract is an idea suggested by Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) vastly regarded as the founder of the Romantic movement. Rousseau was born into a transitional period of time 'the enlightenment' a time when the scientific method was prevalent. However Rousseau's opinions on the enlightenment became known when he responded to an essay writing competition on 'Whether the enlightenment had helped morality' and claimed that it had in fact caused the corrosion of morality amongst men. Rousseau's opinions didn't sit too well with other prominent philosophers of his day e.g Voltaire but nonetheless he won the competition and received wide spread fame off the back of his victory.

Rousseau believes that mankind is at its most noble when in its most natural state, he used the idea of the noble savage to personify his thoughts. A man who lived in uncivilised lands and lived off the land. One must remember that he was writing this at a time when European countries where competing with one another by conquering new lands to expand their empires, so it is likely Rousseau is criticising the government for this policy. Rousseau said that society corrupts humans and likened the effects of the state on humans to a statue eroding overtime to the point where it can no longer be recognized as human. These thoughts were published in Rousseau's Discourse on equality a book which his contemporary Voltaire labelled 'a book against the human race'.

Nonetheless the focus of this blog is on Rousseau's Social Contract an idea that has been credited as the basis of the French Revolution which through no coincidence started ten years after Rousseau's death. Throughout his life Rousseau openly spoke of his disdain for society and the effects the state had on mankind. He believed that people were imprisoned by the laws of the state and had the right to live their life freely, this view is epitomised by his line 'Man is born free, but everywhere is in chains'. Rousseau attacked other philosophers such as Locke. Locke believed every man should be able to protect their property whereas Rousseau believed that the first person who claimed land as there own triggered the decline of mankind. 'The first man who, having fenced a piece of land, said 'This is mine' and found people naïve enough to believe him, that man was the true founder of civil society. He said that wealth made people unhappy and claimed Europe was the most unhappy continent as it had the most wealth as the inhabitants had surrendered their freedom to live in such a way. Rousseau's ideas are believed to be based around the Ancient Greek poleis with particularly likeness to that of Sparta an agricultural State where the Spartiates lived off the land. This may have been appealing to Rousseau as the Spartans represented the 'natural man' character he was promoting. The people would govern themselves by a utilitarian vote making up the 'Sovereign' he mentions but other than this each person alienates themselves from the rest so therefore everyone only looks after their own interests unless something compromises the 'General will'. The general will can be best understood as a set of rules that everyone must follow to live in harmony if someone refuses to follow the will then they will be forced 'forced to be free'. Rousseau's doctrine of the general will is particularly tricky to understand as he opposes laws and the state but he believes every man has a set of interests familiar and common to all and these interests make up the general will.

Rousseau stated that his aim for writing The social contract was to see if there was a place for legitimate authority. He writes that in order for mankind to revert to a more natural state they must each agree to a contract which essentially would create a democratic state and denounced the birth right of kings and other legitimate authority figures. Rousseau's social contract meant that he had to flee and spent many years living with Hume in London. His thoughts have been credited for starting the French Revolution as well as having a profound influence on Hitler and other pseudo-democratic dictatorships but regardless he was a very interesting man.