Philosopher
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
1712–1778
Genevan thinker who argued that society corrupts naturally good human beings, and that legitimate law must express the general will of free and equal citizens.
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Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born in Geneva in 1712 and made his name with an essay arguing that the progress of the arts and sciences had corrupted morals. In his Discourse on the Origin of Inequality he told a conjectural history of how human beings, naturally moved by compassion, came to depend on one another’s good opinion and to accept unjust social arrangements.
In The Social Contract (1762) he asked how people can live under laws and yet remain free, answering that legitimate law must express the “general will” of a community of equal citizens. His ideas influenced the French Revolution, which moved his remains to the Panthéon, and thinkers from Kant onwards.
Key ideas
- Natural goodness
- Rousseau said that all his thought turned on one idea: that humans are naturally good and society corrupts them. The “goodness” in question isn’t moral goodness, which Rousseau didn’t think natural.
- Amour propre
- In society, simple self-love (amour de soi) is joined by amour propre, a drive to be recognised and respected by others. It makes our worth depend on how we compare with other people.
- The general will
- “Man is born free, but is everywhere in chains.” In The Social Contract, Rousseau claimed to reconcile freedom with authority: by obeying the general will, citizens obey a will that is also their own.
- Natural education
- In Emile, education should follow the development of the child’s natural capacities. The tutor arranges the child’s surroundings so that the child learns through its own discovery rather than by being told.
- Tradition
- Western
- Region
- Geneva and France
- Schools
- Social contract theory
- Period
- Early modern
Influences
Influenced by
Jean-Jacques Rousseau1712–1778
Influenced
Influenced by
Jean-Jacques Rousseau1712–1778
Influenced
Where these links come from
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau drew on Plato. Source: Christopher Bertram, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau drew on and argued against Thomas Hobbes. Source: Christopher Bertram, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau drew on John Locke. Source: Christopher Bertram, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau drew on Montesquieu. Source: Christopher Bertram, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Immanuel Kant drew on Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Source: Michael Rohlf, Immanuel Kant, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Mary Wollstonecraft drew on and argued against Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Source: Sylvana Tomaselli, Mary Wollstonecraft, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- G. W. F. Hegel drew on and argued against Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Source: Paul Redding, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- John Rawls drew on Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Source: Leif Wenar, John Rawls, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Key works
- Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (Discours sur l’origine de l’inégalité), 1755
- Read free at Project Gutenberg (Harvard Classics edition)
- The Social Contract (Du contrat social), 1762
- Emile (Émile, ou De l’éducation), 1762
Sources
- Christopher Bertram, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy