JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

And why society is a mistake

Abby Monroe, Brass Burapa, and Ren Freidrich

WHO?

Rousseau was a French philosopher specializing in western philosophy. His ideas, contemporary to and criticized by Voltaire, were highly influential in society, both past and present.

IDEAS

Natural Humanity: Rousseau’s general idea of human nature threw our society into a new light. He believed that the primitive human was in fact the equilibrium of human function, between animalistic behaviors and the partitioned, vain, and dysfunctional society established by “modern development and enhancement”

Scientific Practice: Rousseau was highly critical of his contemporaries in the scientific world, whose practice he thought prideful, vain, and harmful to society, further separating the individuality of humankind and quashing its good will.

IDEAS

Rousseau’s ideas were highly controversial as they questioned even the functioning of political theory. His major ideas were that general will was not to be found in the government, and that the people should establish social law.

He also believed that wars and conflicts were caused by vanity and materialism, and that the partitioning of property was the beginning of that division in society.

EFFECTS ON SOCIETY

Rousseau’s following and teachings continued on long after he died, and have been believed to have spurred the French Revolution, as well as affected communities and governing like the United States.

CRITICISM

Although Rousseau was a Catholic, his Calvinistic ideas and heterodox social theories were highly criticized, mainly by his contemporary Voltaire, who his remains were buried across from. His practice furthered not necessarily the scientific aspect of the Scientific Revolution, per say, but rather the political and social aspects, furthering the general will of the people and tweaking the democratic societies of old into the practices we know today.