ROUSSEAU AND PLATO

A detailed Summary of ROUSSEAU AND PLATO

Rousseau and Plato social contract ideas are extremely different. With that the thought of man is different. One believes that the true power is in the people while the other believes that the power lies in the government that rules the people. Therefore believing that a just man is one that obeys the government.

Rousseau asserts the idea of the people's general will be the ideal governing force of the state. This idea is the total alienation of each individual to the entire community, therefore constructing the Sovereign. The collective body rules in the common interest, acting without individual bias or selfish concerns, to decide the laws that the Sovereign itself is to follow. However, this concept is flawed because it requires people to put the community's needs above their own. Rousseau distorts basic human nature by committing deceit of assuming people value the common good over their own personal interest. Ideally, civic politics would be the most important thing to every citizen, but in reality it is almost impossible to make a unanimous decision without the influence of self-interest. The General Will has good intentions, but its spirit would better be carried out through a more attainable concept of democracy. Rou

sseau forms the Social Contract as a way to preserve freedom t!

nt parts of the soul. The first is said to be appetite and reason, which considers the consequences. Reason may work against anything that is not for the total good of the man. Plato holds that if the desire were truly for a good, reason would never oppose it. Our usage of the word good, however, has come to mean an expectation of usefulness to our purpose. Although this may be relative to the end result that we experience from the object. We need to consider everything that is relevant to the action or object and determine its possible consequences before we mean it as good. Once we have done this, and assigned a value to each object or action, then Plato believes that we can say that "everyone wants the things that really are good" even if the person does not realize the true nature of what is good. Plato more represents him as a man overpowered by a dictatorial desire led to do something that he both disapproves of and is contrary to his interests. Plato states his views o!

hrough self-government by eliminating individual self-interest, basing his theory on the optimistic assertion that society will voluntarily follow the General Will. However, self-interest is the matter of progress, and for a state to advance and prosper there must be a government, such as the modern form of democracy. The fundamental problem-facing mankind, according to Rousseau, is that "Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains." His "freedom" can only be attained when each man is independent and is not ruled by the private interests of any individual or group. Until this is accomplished, each person is still a slave to others and his freedom is forfeited. Man united form a civil society, but Rousseau is dissatisfied with the one they form. He feels the people are still oppressed and are only equal in that they have all degraded into slaves. He recognizes the nature of humans and the governments that already exist. He believes that The Social Contract, a complex syst!

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Rousseau believed that government was necessary to guard liberty and force us to be free. While Plato believed that democracy makes

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Approximate Word count = 1510
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

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