Jean Jacques Rousseau1712-1778

Jean Jacques Rousseau

•Rousseau was a major philosopher, writer and composer of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, whose political philosophy influenced the development of modern political and educational thought.

Jean Jacques Rousseau

•Rousseau's primary concern was to discover the psychological foundations of virtue, which he understood as the strength of will needed to respect the rights of others

State of nature• In Rousseau's state of nature, people did not know

each other enough to come into serious conflict, and they did have normal values

• Rousseau saw a fundamental divide between society and human nature and believe that man was good when in the state of nature but has been corrupted by the society and the growth of social interdependence.

Society's negative influence on men centers on its transformation of

•Love of self (amour de soi)a positive self-love which he saw as

the instinctive human desire for self-preservation

•Self love (amour-propre) a kind of artificial pride which forces

man to compare himself to others.

• In "Discourse on the Arts and Sciences" (1750) Rousseau argued that the progression of the arts and sciences has caused the corruption of virtue and morality.

• Rousseau argued that the arts and sciences had not been beneficial to humankind because they are not human need.

The Social Contract• It is the preservation of their wealth and preserving lives ,

liberty and well-being in general.

• The social contract is opened by Rousseau's famous quote "Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains.  One believes himself the others’ master, and yet is more a slave than they." Therefore, Rousseau believed within his modern state that in order to obey the law an individual must obey themselves.

• He argued that, by joining together into civil society through the social contract and abandoning their claims of natural right, individuals can both preserve themselves and yet remain free.

•Rousseau encourages the idea of a sovereign state, which will only be legitimate if it imposes the 'general will'.▫The sovereign does not have absolute

power but only holds authority over situations which are of public concern, however no one should violate the social contract as the punishment would be death.

General will•General will is what rational people would

choose for the common good.

•The general will is not the same as the will of all individuals, because it is not the sum of all individual private interests. Unlike the combined will of all individuals, the general will is concerned with the public interest rather than with private interests.

Natural freedom• According to Rousseau, natural freedom is

acquired by allowing the General Will to be the ruling factor of a government.

Educational Philosophy• The aim of education, he said, education does

not mean merely imparting information or storing knowledge.

•  He minimized the importance of book learning and placed a special emphasis on learning by experience.

• Women needed to be educated as well as men

• Discipline according to natural consequences

Man is born free, yet he is everywhere in chains.

No man has any natural authority over his fellow men

Do not judge and you will never be mistaken

Referencehttp://www.philosophybasics.com/philosophers_rousseau.html

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Prepared by: Abby Espinoza