Social Contract Theory of Rousseau

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) was born in Switzerland. He spent most of his life in France. He was among the social contract theorists. Rousseau’s description of the state of nature is different from that of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. Rousseau says that the state of nature was an ideal condition for humans to live. Man lived a free, happy, and peaceful life there. But two things ended this condition of ideal life. One was the growth of population and the other was the origin of private property. It was the origin of private property which, according to Hobbes, contributed to the pollution of human beings. He wrote this in his well-known work “Discourse on the Origin of Inequality of Men”. He wrote his social contract theory in another famous work “The Social Contract”.

Rousseau argues that man is born free and yet everywhere he is in chains. He attributes these chains to the laws and regulations of the civilized society. For Rousseau, there was a need for another contract in which people would enjoy the same conditions of ideal life in civil society as they enjoyed it in the state of nature. For this, he proposed that individuals will do a contract in which they will surrender all their rights to one assembly of men represented by all of them. This will become a sovereign body. Rousseau named it as General Will. The general will is sovereign because it is created by the free act of those who have created it. And it is the custodian of the interests of all. The individuals have surrendered all their rights not to one man but to the whole community. This complete and unconditional surrender ensures equality and liberty of all person’s life, liberty, and property. In this way, man continued to enjoy the same freedom as he enjoyed in the state of nature.

Rousseau also argues that no man can justifiably disobey the general will. He argues that by obeying the general will, the individual really obeys himself. When he disobeys the laws, which is the expression of general will, he orders his punishment. And the whole body will compel him to obey and force him to be free. By obeying the sovereign unconditionally and unquestionably the individual becomes really free.

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