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Jean-Jacques Rousseau views on freedom
Rousseau's views on human nature
Rousseau's views on human nature
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The human civilisation is composed of innumerable individuals, countless interest groups and social strata, with each of them following the fundamental instinct – striving to maximise their own well-being by obtaining as many benefits as they can and averting as much cost as possible. Unfortunately for humankind, for one to improve one’s life, competing with others is unavoidable. Competitions, by definition, means the winners get something at the expense of others. The good news is that competition among people is not a constant-sum game, that is to say, theoretically, if we can reallocate resources, rights and duties in a certain way, the humankind may benefit maximally. In the most ideal case, the self-interest of each individual and the collective welfare should not outbalance each other. This essay will discuss the thoughts of three of the great thinkers on this matter. Focus of analysis Consulting works by Huang Zongxi, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Adam Smith, the essay will analyse this problem from two perspectives, namely (1) the political problem of multiple identities, and (2) the economic problem of goods allocation. In the first part of the essay, we want to investigate a dilemma faced by the heads of a state that they have both the duty to the state as the ruler and the desire to make a better living as a human being. We would like to have a method to ensure the integrity of the rulers so as to reduce the likelihood of the rulers’ self-interest jeopardising the collective welfare, and to reasonably compensate the rulers for their effort. In the second part of the essay, we will discuss the more general economic problem, namely how to allocate rights, duties, resources and wealth in order to maximise overall soc... ... middle of paper ... ... given that fraud and deception are prohibited, free trades among people, which root from private interest, do facilitate the reallocation of goods and resources in an economy. The outcome of a free market, after all, promotes the social welfare. Works Cited Friedman, Milton. “The Social responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits,” The New York Times Magazine. 13 September 1970. Available from http://www.umich.edu/~thecore/doc/Friedman.pdf Rousseau, Jean-Jacque. The Social Contract. Tr. G.D.H. Cole. Accessed 15 July, 2011. Available from http://www.constitution.org/jjr/socon.htm Smith, Adam. The Wealth of Nation. Accessed 15 July, 2011. Available from http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/smith-adam/works/wealth-of-nations/index.htm 黃宗羲,《明夷待訪錄》。取於2010年7月15日。取自 http://lib.jmu.edu.cn/departments2/magazine/philosophyol/index-37.html
For a few people to amass great wealth in a society is the highest expression of civilization. This is the base argument of Andrew Carnegie’s “The Gospel of Wealth” (1889) however he also explains the importance of philanthropy from those in the upper class, arguing that the wealthy entrepreneurs of society have a responsibility to distribute their excess wealth in a manner that proves to benefit society as a whole while avoiding wasting it on frivolous expenditures. Although claiming that the income gap between social classes has played an important role in society, Carnegie believes that the incredibly uneven distribution of wealth can be mitigated by the upper and lower classes working together to gain a mutually beneficial outcome. With an extending argument, Carl Becker seeks to explain in his article “Ideal Democracy” (1941), what his idea of the ideal democracy is, which he defines as “of the people, by the people, for the people” (148). However arguing that in today’s society, it is defined more so as “of the people, by the politicians, for whatever pressure groups can get their interests taken care of.” (148).This paper will serve to analyze the relative strengths and weaknesses of each text’s argument and supporting material. In doing so we will touch on the rhetorical strategies and structure that each text employs, while connecting them together through comparison. Becker argues that democracy has changed over time, while Carnegie extends this argument by stating the change will be beneficial to the human race.
The political philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Karl Marx examined the role that the state played and its relationship to its citizen’s participation and access to the political economy during different struggles and tumultuous times. Rousseau was a believer of the concept of social contract with limits established by the good will and community participation of citizens while government receives its powers given to it. Karl Marx believed that power was to be taken by the people through the elimination of the upper class bourgeois’ personal property and capital. While both philosophers created a different approach to establishing the governing principles of their beliefs they do share a similar concept of eliminating ownership of capital and distributions from the government. Studying the different approaches will let us show the similarities of principles that eliminate abuse of power and concentration of wealth by few, and allow access for all. To further evaluate these similarities, we must first understand the primary principles of each of the philosophers’ concepts.
SparkNotes: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778): The Social Contract. (n.d.). SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides. Retrieved February 9, 2011, from http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/rousseau/section2.rhtml
Bibliography:.. Works Cited Friedman, Milton. A. The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Profit. N.P. Santayana, George.
Rousseau’s version of the social contract depends on his characteristics of “the state of nature”. Rousseau once said “Man is born
The opening line of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's influential work 'The Social Contract' (1762), is 'man is born free, and he is everywhere in chains. Those who think themselves masters of others are indeed greater slaves than they'. These are not physical chains, but psychological and means that all men are constraints of the laws they are subjected to, and that they are forced into a false liberty, irrespective of class. This goes against Rousseau's theory of general will which is at the heart of his philosophy. In his Social Contract, Rousseau describes the transition from a state of of nature, where men are naturally free, to a state where they have to relinquish their naturalistic freedom. In this state, and by giving up their natural rights, individuals communise their rights to a state or body politic. Rousseau thinks by entering this social contract, where individuals unite their power and freedom, they can then gain civic freedom which enables them to remain free as the were before. In this essay, I will endeavour to provide arguments and examples to conclude if Rousseau provides a viable solution to what he calls the 'fundamental problem' posed in the essay title.
In The Social Contract philosophers John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau discuss their differences on human beings’ place of freedom in political societies. Locke’s theory is when human beings enter society we tend to give up our natural freedom, whereas Rousseau believes we gain civil freedom when entering society. Even in modern times we must give up our natural freedom in order to enforce protection from those who are immoral and unjust.
Friedman, M. (1970). The Social Responsibility of Business is to make Profit. New York Times
Society has a problem with the distribution of wealth and income. Traditionally philosophers agree that the distribution of wealth within a limited society is considered a problem of distributive justice. Over time there has been a collection of solutions recommended about how much income and wealth people deserve or have a right to possess. Distributive justice has appealed to political ideals as well as the ideas of socialists, libertarians and welfare liberals.
ľ The Social Contract or Principles of Political Right second edition revised; Jean Jacques Rousseau translated by Henry J Tozer; 1898; Swan Sonnenschein and Co.
The article “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits” is written by a famous economist Milton Friedman. Friedman in this article implies that shareholders are the main drivers of the corporations and he believes that it is to them corporations must be socially responsible to. The goal of any corporation is to maximize profits and return the portion of these profits to shareholders for investing in the corporation. The shareholders can themselves decide which social causes to take part in rather than assigning a corporate executive to decide on their behalf. Friedman argues that a corporation must have no social responsibility to society because its only concern is the increase profits for itself and its shareholders.
This essay seeks to examine the inequalities of distribution of resources and the defences of these inequalities provided by John Locke, in Of Property , and David Hume in Of Justice . Both writings set out the scene in which their theories would evolve. Locke starts with the idea that everything is held in common, and ownership is acquired through ones labour. Hume starts off with an illustration of a society where everybody has more than enough, and poses the question if we had more than enough what is the point of justice?
Friedman, M., (2007). The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits. In W.
While human motivations such as charity, love, or concern for others are important and salutatory, they are nowhere nearly as important as people's desire to have more for themselves. We all know that but we pretend it is not. That unwillingness to acknowledge personal greed as vital to human welfare, and instead view it with disapproval, makes us easy prey to charlatans and quacks who'd take away our liberties in the name of combatting greed.
In 1968, Garrett Hardin published an iconic paper on the issues of human sustainability. He describes the tragedy of the commons with herdsman keeping their cattle on common grounds, where individual herdsmen could maximize his gain by adding additional cattle (1968:1244). He said that adding one animal would benefit that herdsman to a utility of +1, where the negative utility from overgrazing of -1 would be shared among all herdsmen. Feeny named this phenomenon subtractability, where one’s behavior could subtract from another’s welfare (1990:3). Subtractability shows us that an individual acting in their self-interest is inherently detrimental to all those that share the common resource. Communities are made of self-interested individuals that have free choice to defect. Individuals are free to choose to defect, and therefore an individual’s choice of self-interest is directly or adversely tied to that group’s sustainability, or using a resource “without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Feeny 1990:5). Moreover, in a place of complete free choice, the sustainability and survival of the group is dependant on the consciousness and goodwill of people with others. Cl...