Jean Jacques Rousseau was one of the many great minds in the eighteenth and nineteenth century who made many contributions to society. Rousseau had numerous ideas and thoughts on society and how people evolved to become who they were. Rousseau's thoughts on how people evolved and his contradicting ways of life, is what was intriguing to me and lead me to researching his life.
Rousseau believed, in contrast to Hobbes, that all people were good by nature. However, he felt that society or the industrialized world made people bad. One of Rousseau's most famous quotes was that, " Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains." I agree totally with this thought of Rousseau. I believe that human beings are born free and pure and it is actually society that makes them evil or corrupt. If you look at a newborn child all they want is to be loved and cared for. They don't know right from wrong, good from bad. It is life that teaches them these lessons. Rousseau believed that if you take two newborn children and raise one in the city and raise one in the unindustrialized world, that the one in the city will be evil and the one in the unindustrialized world would be good. I agree somewhat with Rousseau's theory, but I don't think that the one in the city would definitely be bad, but I do believe that the chances are higher. If the child in the city, grows up in an area where violence, drugs, and sex is all that's around them, then yes I feel the child's chances of being bad a very good, but on the contrary the child in the country can be evil and bad also. Just because one child isn't around buildings and industrialized life doesn't mean that he won't become evil. Many times the child in the country is taught to kill and fight much more than the one in the city, in order to survive. .
Rousseau believed in the "Noble Savage." His belief is that a man in the unindustialized world living like Tarzan is considered good.
How does Rousseau conceive the relationship between democracy and freedom? ... The general will is essential to Rousseau's idea of freedom. ... Rousseau states that "so perfect a government is not suited to men". ... Ultimately democracy is not necessary for freedom under Rousseau's definition of the concept. ... Rousseau envisages a state where people think of the whole before themselves. ...
Rousseau's biography is important in the romanticism, it reflect the philosophical ideas of romanticism. ... Rousseau was free to expresses his natural feelings and emotion as a human being. ... Rousseau's ideas reflect the philosophical ideas of romanticism. ... Rousseau udestood it and respect it. ... Rousseau" s ideas reflect philosophical ideas of romanticism. ...
Who influenced David and Rousseau? ... Without knowledge of Rousseau's own personal history it is hard to appreciate the intensely moralistic character and relevance of Rousseau's political writings. "Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778) became famous as a "French" political philosopher and educationalist. ... "Rousseau never abandoned the republican ideals of his native city. ... It made it possible for most of Rousseau's social group to take the existence of society for granted". ...
Rousseau explains that human evolution and the increase of inequality between people are interconnected. ... Rousseau tries to imagine people in their once natural state, disregarding the traditional influence of biblical rationalisation. ... Natural Right is based on pity and self- preservation because, for Rousseau they were the most basic impulses that existed. ... Rousseau continues by affirming that the modern moral inequality, between people is unnatural and is not the true nature of humankind. ... Rousseau's explanation of the function of society has various stages. ...
As a result of this blame he takes upon himself, Rousseau develops a deep hatred of himself. ... Rousseau views his birth, and the subsequent death of his mother, as a grave misfortune. ... Rousseau describes his conception as "the unhappy fruit of [his father's] return" (19). His birth is not the celebratory occasion for Rousseau as it is for others. ... Because Rousseau sees Mlle. ...
(pg 12) Passion and feeling, for Rousseau, preceded reason and thought. ... The grounds on which Rousseau's account lie seem to be contradictory. This is a valid concern, Rousseau recognizes this as well and he addresses it in his essay. ... Rousseau, in his essay, brings several notions about language into question. ... Rousseau also discusses how the transmittance of passions through language, alters those passions. ...
One of the first and most important questions Rousseau asks is " How can one know inequality without knowing man?" ... Rousseau's enquiry will not deal with historical truths, but with hypothetical and conditional reasoning. ... From his picture of a savage man Rousseau derives the two basic principles of his Discourse: pity and self-preservation. ... According to Rousseau, early society was the happiest epoch. ... Rousseau measures a society by how much freedom it manages to deliver its citizens. ...
