Jean-Jacques Rousseau, His Philosophy Of Law, And Social Contract Theory

Short Profile

The known theorist and philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau had a great influence during the French Revolution with the Social Contract Theory. Although his views were somewhat controversial, he still made a huge influence during that era.

Rousseau was born in Geneva, Switzerland on June 28th, 1712. His mother had died just a couple weeks after his birth and his father had abandoned him in 1722 to avoid going to prison. Rousseau’s uncle cared for him and sent him to study in a village, Bosey. Rousseau had believed that science and humanities led to the corruption of moral virtue and that children were born good but were corrupted by their parents or society. Growing up with no parents and poor, helped Rousseau influence and speak for others who suffered through poverty and had also affected his life and his views on society. He started earning money by being a secretary, teacher, and doing music jobs. His passion for music later became more serious as he moved to Paris to become a composer, which failed. In 1728, he met a French catholic baroness who he lived with for thirteen years, Françoise-Louise de Warens. She had a major impact on Rousseau’s life, she found him jobs, sent him to a great Catholic school, and supported him. He started to become famous for his essay that won first prize in a competition, Discours sur les Sciences et les Arts. Rousseau had also invented modern biography and had written the most popular fiction novel of the Eighteenth century, Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse. Many people would discourage Rousseau and say he was only fit to be a failed watchmaker, like his father, but he persevered and continued to study and work hard to achieve the goals he wanted.

Philosophy on law

Rousseau once said in his social contract theory, “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. One man thinks himself the master of others, but remains more of a slave than they'. Rousseau is a man that believed all men are good when in the state of nature, this belief had been destroyed by his current society and social independence. Rousseau argued that by creating a civil society with the social contract and giving up our natural rights, people can stand up for themselves and write their own laws. To summarize, he believed that what people want, they get. There are many pros but also many cons that contradict his theory. If a woman wants to get an abortion, Rousseau would tell her to just get an abortion. Another example would be, if a basketball team in a high school wants to have their practice on this day but the soccer team wants to have their practice on that same day, there would be a conflict of interest because you can't always get what you want. His views on law were very simple, he wants a simple society. Rousseau defines the sovereign in the social contract as everyone acting as one so that they can all be the voice of the law instead of having one ruler. For example, in a group project, instead of making one person lead the group, come up with all the ideas, and do the work, they all do it together. Rousseau believed in natural law and how this law was what democratic rights used as a base. He had also believed that this law was freedom from mental obstacles. The Social Contract was based on his views on natural law, how he wanted freedom for all and how everyone deserves to do as they please.

Strengths and weaknesses

Rousseau argued the relevance between natural inequalities and social inequalities. He states that a more intelligent man will be more successful than a person who is less, which is stating that the intelligent man will be socially and naturally unequal to the less intelligent man. Another weakness of Rousseau’s views is his discrimination towards women. Throughout his career, he talked soley about men and when he did speak about women he said, “are the sex that ought to obey”. He is saying that women must obey men and that they aren’t efficient, which refers back to how natural inequalities are the sources of social inequalities. Having these opinions had lowered his past credibility for narrow-mindedness. Although Rousseau was discriminatory towards women, he still was a great philosopher and had made great impacts on others lives. He became such a famous philosopher because of his influence on both the French and American Revolutionaries. His contract outlined the conditions for a permissible government. One of Rousseau’s most popular and influential points were that the people should create our laws not the government. Now, we follow one of the most primary bases of a democratic government.

I believe the fact that Rousseau admitting that “women are insufficient” is completely impractical and unjust. He believes that women are only made to reproduce and are otherwise useless. Although he was trying to call attention to the obvious differences between women and men, he does not see that women are always going to be at a disadvantage and to be wary of that fact. Unique controversial issue Religious liberty is something that supports people and communities freedom to substantiate or change religion and belief. Rousseau believed that religion should only have an educational effect on people not towards a large society. In The Social Contract, Rousseau had said that the state should justify limiting religion’s educational power so that it could little or no relation to the community. Rousseau’s views have proven that the government can easily ignore religious objectors. For example, the president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards had argued in 2012, “birth control is basic health care and women should have access to birth control, no matter where they work,” why authorize dispute from that? Richards wouldn’t, neither would Rousseau. Richards had said it was wrong for the Obama administration even to spare houses of religion from this requirement. Currently, the state is deciding where and when religion should be allowed to citizens and are using the Rousseauian view. Rousseau’s point of view when it comes to religion is quite controversial and shows that he clearly does not approve of religion and wants our society to be religion-free. He had said, “The bigger a state becomes the more liberty diminishes”.

I believe Rousseau is so against religion because of the way he was raised and how no one really taught him about faith, after his parents had passed and abandoned him he didn’t have anyone to believe in anything. His concept of religious liberty was completely different from traditional liberals. Liberty to Rousseau was mean to talk and voice your opinion. Civil disobedience Civil disobedience is a desire fueled by a person. Civil disobedience does not exactly result in violence against the state, it usually occurs when someone does not agree with the majority. Rousseau on the other hand, does agree with this disobedience. An example of civil disobedience, currently our leader of the progressive conservative party of Ontario, Doug Ford, is cutting education costs, healthcare, jobs, increasing class sizes, etc. In Spite of all this, the students of FMSS and many other schools are skipping class and protesting against Ford’s political views. This is a perfect example of what civil disobedience is and why Rousseau would completely agree with this, the people are doing what they want and supporting what they believe in.

So the question is, “Can civil disobedience be legitimate?” The social contract theory shows a reasonable account of when civil disobedience is justified, which proves that Rousseau does agree with this but there is a limit of when to stop the disobedience behaviour. Rousseau argued that the majority is always right, but this could actually lead to many negative conflicts like propaganda, miscommunication and confusion. For example, eighty years ago people didn’t link smoking with cancer. Rousseau will be, until his beliefs are widely accepted, apart of the minority. The general will was developed from the Social Contract, Rousseau argued that by following the general will, it will allow diversity and freedom.