Who are you Mr Jean-Jacques Rousseau?

Portrait of Jean-Jacques Rosseau

Ohkay, so i've wanted to know who this guy is for a while now, and after much research, I can't say that i've been disappointed. In fact i've come to the conclusion that I will be using his piece (or an extract of it) called 'Du Contrat Social' (1762) as one of my primary sources for the project. After reading a few things it in many ways has parallels to Karl Marx and the Communist Manifesto, but obviously not as much into socialism as Mr Marxy was.

His texts have all been described to be very passionate about liberalism and freedom from oppression. Whilst I have not read his text called the social contract, I have learned the kind of ideas that were promoted in it. In a time of many monarchies, and unequal wealth, Rousseau preached a society that was governed by the 'general will' of the people. This general will is considered to be a collective desire for the welfare of society as a whole and according to Rousseau, "the citizens of a properly-contracted civil society are infallibly guided by the general will, rather than by their conflicting individual self-interests."
I must admit this sounds a little utopian to me. But at the same time it calls for equality, and fraternity. It calls people to believe in working for a society as a whole and not just for themselves. And because of this, it stirred up some opposition who obviously did not want this 'equality' to occur as they liked their little world with all their possessions and didn't exactly want to give it up. Rosseau's book was condemned in Paris and Geneva on the ground of religious heterodoxy, and thus began the tension within the societies at the time.

I have decided to include a few key quotes from Rousseau's book, which certainly helped me understand where the French people were getting their ideas from.

“...in respect of riches, no citizen shall ever be wealthy enough to buy another, and none poor enough to be forced to sell himself.” 

Here Rousseau is clearly alluding to the slavery present within his society at the time. He is reminding the people of a problem within their society and stating that if the people follow his ideas, this slavery will be abolished. Which was a very appealing statement to be making to a bunch of desperate people at the time.

“The greatest enemies of freedom are the extremely rich and the extremely poor, because one is willing to buy it while the other is willing to sell it.” 

Here, Rousseau identifies the issue in the current society and the reasons in the society as to why there is such a lack of freedom and rights for individuals in this time period. Rousseau implies greatly that it is the unequal balance of money in the society which is causing the issues and calls the people to change things.

“In any case, frequent punishments are a sign of weakness or slackness in the government. There is no man so bad that he cannot be made good for something. No man should be put to death, even as an example, if he can be left to live without danger to society... In a well governed state, there are few punishments, not because there are many pardons, but because criminals are rare; it is when a state is in decay that the multitude of crimes is a guarantee of impunity.”  

Rousseau in this case looks at the sometimes unjust punishment within a society and the oppressive nature of the authorities. He attempts to appeal to the people at the time by opposing the execution and punishment of men in a society and stating that it is government weakness and due to a bad and oppressive government, encouraging negative thought to be stimulated surrounding the regime. He then goes on to say that within a society that is governed well, there is little need for crime and hence little need for punishment. Once again he appeals to the people and promotes a society that is utopian, but at the same time desirable, and once he identifies the problem, it is only up to the people to then overthrow the government in an attempt to achieve what Rousseau preached.

“To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man, to surrender the rights of humanity and even its duties.”

This simple quote is playing on the ideas of liberty and promoting them in this particular society. Rousseau stresses that liberty, liberalism is so essential to humanity, as without it humanity has no true rights or duties. He basically states that without liberty, the people will have what they fear, or continue to live in what they fear. Rousseau offers the people a solution, to promote liberty.


Overall, reading Rousseau's work was very interesting and even looking at how passionate the text was and how much it would have appealed to the audience, there is no doubt with this book circling France, and even Europe at the time that the people would not feel a need for change, and liberation. Whilst this is only one piece of many texts that would have encouraged and influenced the people at the time, I must admit that it was a brilliant opportunity to see the kinds of material these people were exposed to, and how these texts that were written by philosophers were not only derivative of the enlightenment and the attitudes people had prior to the French and even American revolutions, but also inspired people at the time to seek change, and ultimately, revolution.

There will be more posts to come, I promise! I know this one is short, but I felt it was necessary before moving on.

VIVA LA REVOLUTION!!