Rousseau's Social Pact And Property

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In the Social Pact and Property, Rousseau begins to outline his own idea of what a legitimate political order looks like. He believes that men have reached the point where obstacles that threaten their preservation in the state of nature eventually overcome resistance which will ultimately result in the enactment of the social pact. Rousseau contrasts with the previous reading “Discourse on inequality” by suggesting that these individuals engaging in constructing a legitimate state are not similar to the people from the primitive state of nature due to the population increase and massive development of technology. At first finding it difficult to develop a social contract that does not interfere with freedom, rousseau decides that it is there is no contradiction after all. Explanations include that (1) they all received the same renunciation meaning that there is no reason for people to make things difficult. (2) He argues that anything less than total alienation …show more content…

When it becomes and active body, it is referred to as a sovereign. Rousseau argues that the individuals cannot be harmed by the sovereign due to its opaque and unsatisfactory approach. In addition, it is stated that they could have no place to register oppressively. Rousseau suggests that unwilling subjects will be forced to obey the general will: they will be "forced to be free." While we lose the physical liberty of being able to follow our instincts freely and do whatever we please, we gain the civil liberty that places the limits of reason and the general will on our behavior, thereby rendering us moral. Rousseau suggests that ownership of land is only legitimate if no one else claims the land, if the owner owns no more land than he needs, and if he prepares that land for his

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