Rousseau's Approach to Law

Rousseau's Approach to Law

Rousseau was the presenter of challenging idea about human beings,

nature, politics and history. Whether he was found interesting or

disturbing, it is impossible not to be affected by his ideas. In this

essay it is necessary to explore whether these ideas make him radical

as some would suggest or merely makes him , like other thinkers a

renowned philosopher, with ideas that he believed would make the world

a better place.

Rousseau was very definitive about his views of how the world should

have been, which is why he was most likely labelled a radical thinker,

he heavily attacked the new science of politics that was headed by the

likes of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke.

In the Discourse on Inequality he rejected the previous attempts to

account for the origins of government describing what human beings

must have been like in the state of nature. Hobbes had recounted the

progress of mankind from a `horrible state of war` with each other and

Locke’ had said it was a `very precarious, very unsafe` existence that

had led to a more secure and organised way of life.

Rousseau argued that writers before him had been unable to understand

the natural conditions of man, because they `carried over to the state

of nature` ideas they had acquired in society, they spoke about the

savage man but were actually describing the civil `man`. For Rousseau,

the earliest human was a simple animal like creature `wholly wrapped

up in the feelings of [his own] present existence`, he was not

inherently dangerous to his fellows as Hobbes suggested. Rather he has

led a solitary indolent life, satisfying his basic psychical need...

... middle of paper ...

...r their mutual

benefit.

Overall it can be said that Rousseau was a radical thinker who put

forward revolutionary theories. He put forward the theory that the

government was based on a contract, that is the consent of the

governed, and that society should be led by the general will, for him

the best government was the republic. Because it was sensitive to the

desires of the people. Rousseau clearly promotes a perfect society in

the Social Contract which according to his theory would eliminate all

society problems. Although such a society would be wonderful, the

ideas would not work, quite simply because of the wants and desires of

the human for himself and his family.

Bibliography

Boucher and Kelly, Political thinkers, from Socrates to the present

Steven M Cahn, classics of political and moral philosophy