rousseau

A detailed Summary of rousseau

Rousseau and Totalitarianism Rousseau clearly promotes totalitarianism in The Social Contract, and hints at it in a few passages from his Second Discourse. He desperately attempts to lay down a form of government that eliminates any chance for the people to be victims. Rousseau specifically shows us the faults in the other types of government and tries to prevent them in his ideas. He wants to create a political situation where people have as much sovereignty as possible. In order to reduce the chance of victimhood among the peoples there must be equality between them all. Rousseau discusses 'the right of the first occupant' in The Social Contract. He writes, "...the claimant occupies no more than he needs for subsistence...he takes possession...by actually working and cultivating the soil - the only sign of ownership..."(Social, p.66) Each man receives what he needs from the common good and no more. Rousseau obviously wants people to be as equal as possible, and believes that once yo!

u enter the civil society you only have the right to what is yours and no more. In a democracy this would not exist at all. There is no equality between everybody's property, meaning anyone can have more than he needs. In a democratic society peopl

l society before the well being of his or her religion. Religion tends to get in the way or conflict with the well being of the state. (Social, p.179) Religion can become tyrannical and intolerant to those who will not accept their Gods. (Social, p.182) Rousseau notices examples with the Christian Crusades and Inquisitions. There was no form of tolerance when these occurred. Christianity disconnects people from what is truly important to the state and can destroy the social bond. (Social, p.182) Rousseau argues if religion is necessary, it should also be provided by the government. He sees how religion can be used to the benefit of the state. Rousseau writes, "it is very important to the state that each citizen should have a religion which makes him love his duty."(Social, p.185) Religion can promote unity among all. A civil religion can express religious dogmas as well as a social conscience. It could be used as an extra way to make sure that everyone in the state behaves acc!

quality, democracy is not willing to sacrifice that freedom of choice to each individual. At first glance Rousseau seems to be promoting some form of democracy in The Social Contract. Upon closer inspection Rousseau's description of democracy takes on the form of a more totalitarianistic nature, giving almost total control to the government over all the members of the state. His views are very optimistic assuming that no one would take advantage of the power given. Some might even label him as wanting utopianism. Works Cited Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Social Contract. Trans. Maurice Cranston. New York: Penguin Books, 1968. ---. The First and Second Discourses. Trans. Roger D. and Judith R. Masters. Ed. Roger D. Masters. New York: St. Martin's, 1964.

can demand services from the citizens whenever necessary. This commitment of everybody to render services to the state is legally constraining. The general will must be general in purpose and nature in order to provide equal rights and justice. The general will must come from all and apply to all, it must not be directed towards any particular object or being. Each man must think of him as part of a 'we' and nothing else. (Social, pages 74-75) The whole idea of an individual is lost from this angle of thought. What one own truly belongs to the sovereignty, which means the state. Everybody must be given property to live with, but it is not really theirs to own as long as it can be taken away from them at any given moment. Rousseau creates a faceless, wealthless society in this section of his book. On pages 76 and 77 in The Social Contract he elaborates even more on this faceless society. He has all the citizens pledge themselves to the same conditions and they all enjoy the sam!

tells the reader that in a new society it was "necessary for punishment to become more severe as the occasions for offense became more frequent." He sees that civil society needs to instill fear of punishment in the members otherwise they will not obey the laws. He finds that this type of action will be the least likely to cause a revolution. (Second, pages 150-151) This would be an extremely oppressive behavior of a government that does not try to really fix a problem

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Approximate Word count = 2153
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History