Jean Jacques Rousseau's The Origin Of Civil Society

Jean Jacques Rousseau expressed many different concepts about society in his work The Origin of Civil Society, including theories regarding human power and human temptation. Rousseau’s theories can be applied directly to the book of Genesis, in particular the stories of The Creation and the Creation and Fall. This application aids in seeing both works in the eyes of the other, creating a connection of themes that make them relevant in any age. Throughout history, societies have seen power take many different shapes and forms. In Rousseau’s time, power was most often held by the aristocrats of the monarchy. His personal ideas of power, however, revolved around the idea of a sovereign people. This meant to him that people as a whole control

To put in simpler terms, Rousseau is trying to stress that people cannot do whatever they want or have whatever they want all the time, or else society would fall to chaos. When applied to Genesis this idea is best fit into the story of Adam and Eve, the story of Creation and Fall. According to the Hebrew creation story, God had warned the first two people on Earth to stay away from eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eating from this tree, God insisted, would result in “death.” However, a sneaky serpent came to tempt Eve into eating the fruit from the tree and in turn, Eve’s tempting of Adam led him to eating the fruit as well. Consequently, Adam and Eve were punished by God for giving into their personal temptations. These punishments would affect the rest of the human race until the end of time. Looking at this through the eyes of Rousseau, one can declare that the character of the serpent is the indeed the personification of Adam and Eve’s natural liberty. He tempted Adam and Eve into eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and therefore represents the image of human temptation. Rousseau would argue that by giving into their natural liberty, Adam and Eve thusly affected the civil liberties of future societies, something that he believes people should try to avoid at all