Essays on Rousseau

The Age of Enlightenment brought a new era of political consciousness to Europe. No longer would the destiny of the Western world be limited to the clergy and their bewildered notions of Divine Command Theory – instead, rational intellectualism sought to reform political communities. New...

Can a man living in society be content? In the essay, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, author Jean-Jacques Rousseau addresses this very question. Man first originated in the state of nature, where he was alone and only dependent on himself. Over time, natural man...

Jean Jacques Rousseau’s Emile (1762) consists of a series of stories, and its teaching comes to light only when one has grasped each of these stories in its complex artistic details and in its entirety. The interpretation of this hybrid text, the first ‘bildungsroman’ requires...

Hobbes, Rousseau, and The State of Nature Introduction Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan and Jean Jacques Rousseau’s Discourse on Inequality both offer contrasting theories about how men act in the state of nature. Hobbes’ theory is based on upon the idea that human nature is naturally competitive...

Jean Jacques Rousseau Although most famously known for his work in philosophy, Jean Jacques Rousseau contributed to many other areas during his lifetime. He not only built upon contemporary moral, political, and educational thought, but also developed the subjects of musical composition and writing. His...

Jean Jacques Rousseau’s The Social Contract How can man surrender his natural liberties to the body politic (or community) and yet still have a level of primitive or natural right where he may preserve himself? Rousseau attempts to answer this question in his essay. An...

How would Rousseau’s General Will eliminate the tendency of individuals to distinguish themselves from each other which he had identified in the Discourse on Inequality? In the Discourse on Inequality Rousseau identifies that individuals developed a need to distinguish themselves from others in an unequal...

Civilization leads humans to an unhealthy form of self-love which centred on vanity, jealousy and pride. Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed that this unhealthy self-love emerged when humans went to live in cities, as they lived in ‘bad habits’, vices and in comparison. As a result, he...

Jean-Jacques Rousseau and his predecessor, Thomas Hobbes, both encounter the issue of language while constructing a concept of the state of nature and the origin of human society, a favorite mental exercise of seventeenth and eighteenth century philosophers such as themselves. The two agree that...

In his discourse on inequality among men, Rousseau argued that, contrary to intuition, “savage” man living in a totally pre-social wilderness acted with more empathy and kindness towards fellow human beings than even reasoned philosophers of the modern era. Rousseau considered pity to be a...

Rousseau deepens purely negative reaction against the philosophy of the Enlightenment. While philosophers-enlighteners discover one-sided worship of reason too, Rousseau highlights the cult of feelings. While philosophers-enlighteners extol the individual and personal interests, Rousseau extols the community and the common will. While the enlighteners talk...

In Rousseau’s Emile, all naturally-created things are inherently good. Rousseau states that man and society are what corrupt Amour de son (or self-love that is innate and worthwhile), turning it into Amour proper (or self-love under social pressure). In order to be a good man,...

Students and scholars alike are often deceived by the association between Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau as founders of the social contract. Grouping these authors together often causes people to forget the essential variations presented by each man. The issue of liberty, for example, takes on...

Social Contract Review Book I of the Social Contract, was written by Jean Jacques Rousseau and published in 1762. At the time of the release of this document, Rousseau claimed residency in France, where the reception of it’s publishing was not so welcome by the...

The state of nature and the emergence of the human capacity to reason has been a common interest for writers throughout history. John Stuart Mill, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and John Locke, all address these issues in their works, “On Liberty” , “Discourse On The Origins of...

Although Adam Smith is considered a great defender of commercial society and Jean-Jacques Rousseau one of its prominent critics, both thinkers share certain criticisms of the division of labor. The two acknowledge that splitting tasks among people leads to the creation of social distinction and...

In their article entitled “Me,” Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Royale assert that “Literature, like art more generally, has always been concerned with aspects of what can be called the… ‘not me’ or other,” (Bennett 129-130). Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his Confessions and William Wordsworth in his...

There exists a debate between Rousseau, Plato and the philosophers of the Encyclopedia over the experience of the passions. While Plato and the philosophers choose to philosophically debate over the reasons behind love and sexuality, Rousseau, who insists that “imagination wreaks so much havoc,” unfastens...