Very helpful for UG/PG students about J J Rousseau Life History; An overview of Work; Views on Human Nature; Views on State of Nature; Views on Social Contract; Views on General Will; Characteristics of General Will; Popular Sovereignty

1. •Life History
•An overview of Work
•Views on Human Nature
•Views on State of Nature
•Views on Social Contract
•Views on General Will
•Characteristics of General Will
•Popular Sovereignty
B Y : D R M D N A Z E E R H U S S A I N
D / O - P O L I T I C A L S C , U S T M
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
(1712 – 1778)

2. Life History
 Born in the independent Calvinist city-state of
Geneva (Switzerland)
 Father: Isaac Rousseau, a watchmaker
 Mother: Suzanne Bernard, died after 9 days of his
birth
 At the age of 10, father exiled from the city to avoid
arrest
 At the age of 16 left the city; influenced by a Roman
Catholic convert noblewoman

3.  April 1728; travelled to Turin, converted to Roman
Catholicism
 Worked as domestic servant for some time
 Got brief training to become a Catholic priest
 For a brief period became an itinerant musician,
music copyist and teacher
 1731: returned to noblewoman Mme de Warens,
became her lover and then household manager
 1740; moved to Lyon & took up a position as a tutor

4.  1741; moved to Paris, contact with major figures of
the French Enlightenment and other scholars
 1749; participated in an essay competition organized
by the Academy of Dijon
 Theme: whether the development of the arts and sciences had
improved or corrupted public morals
 Rousseau came with world view that humankind is good by nature
but is corrupted by society
 Entered his Discourse on the Sciences and Arts (conventionally
known as the First Discourse) for the competition
 Won 1st prize and Rousseau became very famous

5. An Overview of Work
 An important figure in the history of philosophy
 Immense Contribution in 2 fields
 Political philosophy and
 Moral psychology
 Great Influence on later thinkers
 Himself a philosopher but his own view of
philosophy and philosophers was firmly negative.
Why?
He believes that philosophers are depicting human
beings as:

6.  Always guided by self interest and
 Sufferers of various forms of tyranny
 Alienating modern individual from natural impulse
to compassion ( sympathy)
 Way to preserve human freedom in a world of
interdependence to satisfy the needs:
 2 dimensions: material and psychological; the latter is emphasized
more by Rousseau
 In modern world, human being derives the sense of
self by the opinions of others

7.  Rousseau says it is corrosive of freedom and destructive
of individual authenticity
 How we can achieve and protect freedom:
 Rousseau explores 2 ways:
 Political: political institutions that allows the co-existence of free
and equal citizens
 Development and education of child (to avoid development of self
interest)
 On the one hand Rousseau believed that freedom and
equality is possible
 On the other hand: believed that humanity can’t escape
from a dystopia of alienation, oppression, and unfreedom

8.  In addition to his contributions to philosophy:
 a composer and a music theorist
 pioneer of modern autobiography
 a novelist
 a botanist and
 an anticipator of the romantic movement

9. Views on Human nature
 Man is basically good and his wrong actions make
him wicked
 Governed by two instincts:
 self-love and
 mutual aid or sympathy
 Prefers to attend his own presentations
 First cares are those which he be obligated himself
 Second instinct is less important but encourages to
do more good than harm

10.  When self -interest goes off track it gives rise to pride
 Pride is the cause for the evils
 If get rid of this pride reach the goal
 To reform the self:
 Renounce imaginary desires
 Hold fast to true things
 Cast away a world of illusion
 Discord your own self
 Be humble and inherit your soul
 This way we can return to nature

11. Views on State of Nature
 Quite different from Hobbes and Locke
 Believed that:
 All men are equal and lived peaceful life
 Property had the joint ownership
 People led simple life
 Not organized structure but lived in peace atmosphere
 Led solitary, happy, free and independent life
 No law and morality were existed
 Why people left the State of Nature?

12.  Instinct of Social activities
 Forced man to leave solitary life
 Start living in groups
 How society came into existence?
 Believed that: first man with a piece of ground saying ‘This is
mine’ and found other people simple enough to believe him,
was the first real founder of the society
 Not in favour to have private property
 Rush for the land and other private property result in:
 war, murder, wretchedness and horror

13.  Also believes : capacity to own and produce being different led
to inequality
 Concluded that two stages of the status of State
 Pre-property: state of nature considered as an ideal state
 Post property: state as wretched

14. Views on Social Contract
 Somehow same as Hobbes and Locke
 Why people enter into Social Contract?
 to get out of shameful and intolerable conditions of the post
property stage
 The finalized contract according to Rousseau
 Individual puts his person and all his power in common under
the supreme direction of the general will
 Each individual as part of whole
 In place of individual personality; common identity, life and
will
 Yet person possess equal and inalienable position of the
sovereignty of the whole

15.  Rights individual has given up gains back under state
protection
 Consequently:
 He combines individual in the state
 And political society is based on the agreement of all the
members
 Rousseau’s contract was dual sided
 Individual as a part of sovereign, is guaranteed to other
individuals
 And as part of the state he was assured to sovereign

16. Views on General Will
 According to Rousseau:
 Most revolutionary
 Unique
 Striking and
 Influential doctrine
 The problems of this theory:
 Form of association not defined clearly between common
whole and each associates
 Association in which each, while uniting with all, may still obey
himself alone, and remains as free as before

17.  How this association is possible:
 individual puts himself and his power together under the
supreme direction of General Will
 Why General?
 Because formed as a moral, combined unit having its own
identity, life and will
 Two facets of Will according to Rousseau:
 Actual will: selfish, irrational and thinking of individual alone,
without caring for the society
 Real will: higher, nobler, and supreme, encourages to think of
welfare of all not his own interest

18.  Real will is:
 More social than anti social
 Collective and personal
 For the individual as well as the society
 Based on reasons
 Not temporary; it is permanent
 Hence, General Will consists of sum of ‘real wills’ of
the individuals
 Also believed that:
 General Will is different from the Will of all

19.  Will of all, a majority will considers only for few
people; private interest; sum of particular wills
 General Will is for the communities good; common
interest; sum of real wills
 Also believed that particular interests which conflict
each other when taken away, what remains is
General Will
 Characteristics of General Will:
 Can’t be divided like personality
 If divided, ceases to be General Will and becomes sectional will

20.  Can’t be represented by anyone, like the human will
 No one can break the rules of General Will
 If anyone refused to obey shall be compelled to do so by whole
body
 A single unit and cannot withdrawn; to alienate it is equivalent to
its death
 Direct democracy and it cannot be representable
 All times correct
 Always talks about the good of community though we are unable
to see
 Based on reason, wisdom and experience; not be influenced by
present times

21. Popular Sovereignty
 Rousseau’s contract;
 Sovereignty not to a single person or a group of individuals
 To the community as a whole
 Sovereignty through General Will
 Means Sovereignty of the people
 But from his writings:
 No appearance of popular government
 Absolute power to the ruler
 Whosoever refuses to obey, shall be compelled

22.  To impart popular character to sovereign
 General will is always right
 Always to the public advantage
 General Will is for general welfare, that’s why people are
morally/legally committed to obey as per contract
 Believes that Nature gives everyone absolute power over
all its members
 Similarly social pacts gives absolute power to everyone
over its members
 In short, no limitation to the authority of sovereign
general will

23.  Thus, sovereign of Rousseau is absolute like Hobbes
with a difference that
 Hobbes vests all the power in a single person
 while Rousseau gives it to the common general will
 In both the cases, sovereign with absolute powers
 Their authority cannot be defined under any
circumstances
 It’s rightly said:
 “Rousseau’s sovereign is Hobbes Leviathan with its head
chopped off”