Jean-Jacques Rousseau Section From Confessions
The primary confession that Jean Jacques Rousseau makes in this excerpt from his work of literature entitled Confessions is the fact that he was inadvertently responsible for the death of his mother. Evidently, his mother died during or shortly thereafter giving birth to him, because the author writes, "I was born, a poor and sickly child, and cost my mother her life. So my birth was the first of my misfortunes" (Rousseau 167). This confession is extremely deserving of the reader's sympathy, and the author certainly inspires sympathy in me after making this revelation. It is extremely difficult for children to lose their mother; I believe that it is even worse for children to grow up without ever having a mother. This difficulty is inherently exacerbated by seeing other children's mothers, and seeing how valuable they are to the lives of their children, and realizing that…...

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Works Cited

Matthews, Roy T., Platt, F Dewitt, Noble, Thomas. Readings in The Western Humanities. New York: McGraw-Hill. 2010. Print

Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Personal ackground

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born on June 28th 1712, in Geneva, a French-speaking city-state within Switzerland. He received little formal education and, in 1728, left Geneva to live an unsettled existence, travelling throughout Europe. Although mainly self-taught, Rousseau became a respected novelist, composer, musicologist, and botanist, in addition to his most commonly recognized contribution, as a moral, political and educational philosopher. He first came to prominence as a writer when his essay, Discourse on the Sciences and Arts, was awarded first prize in a competition set by the Academy of Dijon in 1750. He followed this, in 1755, with his Discourse on Inequality and, in 1762, with both Emile, which stated his philosophy on education, and the Social Contract, which remains one of the most influential works of political theory ever to have been written (McLean, 1996).

Main Idea

At the core of Rousseau's philosophy is his belief that, although man…...

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Bibliography

McLean, Ian. Dictionary of Politics. Kent: Oxford University Press, 1996, p 437-439

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Social Contract (and) Discourse on the Origins of Inequality. Edited by Lester G. Crocker. New York: Washington Square Press, 1967, p 120-134.

Wokler, Robert. 'Jean-Jacques Rousseau: moral decadence and the pursuit of liberty'. In Political Thought From Plato to NATO. London: BBC Books, 1985, p 7-8, 10, 11-13, 17-22.

Speech

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Rousseau on Political Representation, Democracy, Law, and the Need for Legislators:

In Book II, Chapter 3, Rousseau expresses the position that a representative form of democratic government undermines a true democracy where each individual maintains his own point-of-view without aligning himself with any sub-group or political party, because:

when factions arise, and partial associations are formed at the expense of the great association, the will of each of these associations becomes general in relation to its members, while it remains particular in relation to the State: it may then be said that there are no longer as many votes as there are men, but only as many as there are associations.... It is therefore essential, if the general will is to be able to express itself, that there should be no partial society within the State, and that each citizen should think only his own thoughts... "

On the other hand, Rousseau acknowledges…...

Jean-Jacques Rousseau is one of the European theorists who has been cited as an inspiration for the Founding Fathers as they wrote the U.S. Constitution and created the American form of government. In some ways, however, they were using what Rousseau wrote as a beginning point and then finding a governmental form to refute some of Rousseau's concerns for what representative government might become if not controlled. The authors of The Federalist Papers answered certain of these concerns, especially regarding concerns about factions and the effect of differences of opinion on the sovereign.
Property in its broadest sense was a concern for Rousseau, as it was for the Founding Fathers. Rousseau believed that the individual in effect own's him or herself, for he states that "no man has a natural authority over his fellow man" (Rousseau, The Basic Political ritings 144). All children are born free:

Their liberty belongs to them; they…...

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Works Cited

Hamilton, Alexander, James Madison, and John Jay. The Federalist Papers. Cutchogue, New York: Buccaneer Books, 1992.

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Basic Political Writings. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1987.

Rousseau, J.J. (1960). "The Social Contract." In Social Contract, J. Locke, D. Hume, and J.J. Rousseau. New York: Oxford University Press, 166-307.

Martin Luther King can also allude to Rousseau in the formation of the concept of civil disobedience. As Scott notes, "Rousseau argues that civil society is based on a contractual arrangement of rights and duties which applies equally to all people, whereby natural liberty is exchanged for civil liberty, and whereby natural rights are exchanged for legal rights." Legal rights are a natural extension of natural human rights. If any law is unjust, then that same law is invalid.
Rousseau seems to be strongly pessimistic about the role of society as a whole and not just government ("ROUSSEAU, Jean-Jacques (1712-78)"). This is because human beings make sacrifices that compromise their natural state of being, which is pure joy. henever a person sacrifices what they want to do for a job or for another person, that act potentially creates unhappiness. At worst, the person acts selfishly and with total disregard to…...

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Works Cited

Administrator. "Jean-Jacques Rousseau: The Origin of Civil Society." Retrieved online: http://www.satishstha.com.np/st-jml/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54:rousseau-civil-society&catid=35:arts-ba-english&Itemid=57

Delaney, James J. "Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 -- 1778)" Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved online:  http://www.iep.utm.edu/rousseau/ 

"ROUSSEAU, Jean-Jacques (1712-78)." Retrieved online: http://history-world.org/rousseau.htm

Scott, Alex. "Rousseau's the Social Contract." Retrieved online:  http://www.angelfire.com/md2/timewarp/rousseau.html

For Smith, however, the development of a commercial and economic society leads to the existence of a social structure. This social structure is furthermore divided into three classes - the landowners, the capitalists and the laborers. This is considered by Smith to be the three great constituent that exist in every single civilized society. For him, the introduction of social structures like government and economic classes are the major causes of aggression and war.

The idea that economic progress leads to a need to develop dominance over the less privileged in terms of skills or money by the more privileged is not new. Smith, through his writings and concepts, helps to bring an understanding of the connection between economics and human behavior this insightful and illuminating on a variety of levels. However, what Smith fails to acknowledge is that human beings have choices, and those choices are not solely based on…...

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Works Cited

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, the Social Contract, 1762, Available  http://www.constitution.org/jjr/socon.htm 

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, Filiquarian Publishing, LLC., 2007

Smith, Adam. 1863. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, University of Chicago Press, 1863/1977

jean-Jacques rousseau Confessions and others and Frederick Douglas Narrative of the Life
Upon first impression, few similarities appear between Confessions, the autobiography of Jean Jacques Rousseau, and The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. The former is written by a Caucasian European in the 18th century; the latter by an African-American who lived in the 19th century. However, upon examining these works of literature more acutely, a number of similarities between the authors, their lives, and their works of literature emerge. Both men spent a portion of their lives enslaved. Both reveal a number of less than desirable elements of their lives within their manuscripts. Both experienced revelatory moments upon learning to read and write, and went on to engage in careers that were tempered by politics. In retrospect, a close examination of these books reveals that each author had to overcome similar circumstances in life in order to…...

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Works Cited

Douglass, Frederick. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. www.gutenberg.org. 1845. Web.  http://www.gutenberg.org/files/23/23-h/23-h.htm 

Rousseau, Jean Jacques. Confessions. www.gutenberg.org. 2006. Web.  http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3913/3913-h/3913-h.htm#link1

Jean Jacques ousseau: An Interesting Mdaman, p .2, the author presents the argument that Jean Jacques ousseau was the most influential of modern intellectuals.
easons

"He popularized and to some extent invented the cult of nature, the taste for the open air, the quest for freshness, spontaneity, the invigorating and the natural" (ousseau 3).

"Second, and linked to his revaluation of nature, ousseau taught distrust of the progressive, gradual improvements brought about by the slow march of materialist culture…" (ousseau 3)

"It was the simple, direct, powerful, indeed passionate, manner in which ousseau wrote which made his notions seem so vivid and fresh, so that they came to men and women with the shock of a revelation" (ousseau 4).

I think the author's argument has this form:

The argument is that ousseau is the most influential of all the modern intellectuals who disavow the church as a source of authority. This is a sophisticated form…...

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References

Galilei, G. (1632). Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. www.dropboxusercontent.com. Retrieved from https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/10224324/Pepperdine/HUM%20313/Readings/Syllabus%20Readings/Galileo%20-%20Dialogue%20Concerning%20Two%20Chief%20World%20Systems.pdf

Rousseau, J.J. (I can't find the date). Jean Jacques Rousseau: An Interesting Madman. www.dropboxusercontent.com Retrieved from https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/10224324/Pepperdine/HUM%20313/Readings/Syllabus%20Readings/Johnson%2C%20Paul%20-%20Intellectuals%20-%20Rousseau.pdf

To impart knowledge and to make a child invulnerable to harshness of the world, it was important to connect him to nature and make him an active learner through natural means. The author maintains that "The [rapport] of nature does not depend on us... The one of things depends on us only to some extent...the one of men is the only one of which we are the masters" (Emile 247). He combined nature and education claiming:
What is [the] aim of [education]? It is [the aim] of nature itself.... Since the participation of the three educations is necessary... one must direct the other two toward [nature] about which we can do nothing" (Emile 247)

The few things I truly admire about this theory include the use of nature for familiarizing the child with various objects. I feel that while exposing a child to harshness of nature is synonymous with cruelty, taking…...

Rwandan genocide a philosophical theory (Jean-Jacques Rousseau's theodicy). How philosophy successful
Philosophical Healing

It is extremely interesting to note how much relevance philosophy -- and in particular that which was propagated by Jean-Jacques Roussueau -- has with very pragmatic and lethal matters of reality such as the Rwandan genocide. Many of the very ideas and notions that were of extreme importance to Rousseau factored quite substantially into the reasons for the systematic killing of the Tutsis at the hand of the Hutus. The relationship between the social and political needs for power, dominance, and self-preservation that inspired this ethnic cleansing are merely manifestations of what Rousseau termed self-love in two principle forms, that known as amour de soi and that known as amour propre. An analysis of the different attributes of each of these types of self-love helps to facilitate an understanding of the lurid actions that took place within Rwanda, and…...

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Works Cited

Lemarchand, Renee. "Disconnecting the Threads: Rwanda and the Holocaust Reconsidered." Ideajournal.com. 2002. Web.  http://www.ideajournal.com/articles.php?sup=11 

Martin, Wayne. "Rousseau's Theodicy of Self-Love: Evil, Rationality and the Drive for Recognition." Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. 2009. Web.  http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/24136-rousseau-s-theodicy-of-self-love-evil-rationality-and-the-drive-for-recognition/

Sovereignty however, as pointed out by ousseau has an internal component as well. It is primarily this component that enables the state to exercise sovereignty at the international level. Although ousseau mentions sovereignty as internal, in the 20th century the issue of sovereignty was much debated in terms of attributes of state at the international level. In terms of ousseau's beliefs, the sovereign, which was usually the head of state, monarch, prince, or emperor had the actual key of the common good. This implied a certain knowledge of what was necessary and important. Automatically, the issue of sovereign became more an aspect of power and submission of the society. However, even so, sovereignty implies freedom of choice at the level of the individual, society, and state. As presented in ousseau's views, the will cannot be transmitted, it can be represented. Thus, the sovereign represents the common will of the individuals.

The…...

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References

Berstein, Serge, and Milza. Pierre. Histoire de l'Europe. Paris: Hatier, 1994

Nye, Joseph. Understanding international conflicts: an introduction to theory and history. New York: Pearson, 2005.

Russbach, Oliver. ONU contre ONU. Le droit international confisque. Paris: Edition La Decouverte, 1994

He based his theories and ideas on these laws and his property related theories also related to the same ideals. ousseau differed with Locke in his perception of the ideal government. His work 'Social Contract' dealt with the issues related to governments, society, people and property. "ousseau was one of the first modern writers to seriously attack the institution of private property, and therefore is sometimes considered a forebear of modern socialism and communism. ousseau also questioned the assumption that majority will is always correct. He argued that the goal of government should be to secure freedom, equality, and justice for all within the state, regardless of the will of the majority" ('Jean-Jacques ousseau').
If God were considered the supreme lawgiver, then ousseau's sovereign power in this world would be a person who is assigned the task of implementing those laws to construct a livable society. This man would help…...

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References

Habermas, J. (1998). Three normative models of democracy. In J. Habermas, the inclusion of the other (pp. 240-252). Cambridge, MA: The MIT press.

Rousseau, of the Social Contract (1762), in the Social Contract and Other Later Political Writings, trans. Victor Gourevitch (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997)

Rawls, John, (1971) a Theory of Justice, Harvard University Press, 1999

The social contract: Less original positions. Vol. 354, the Economist, 02-12-2000.

Social Contract by Jean Jacques Rousseau
In The Social Contract, Jean Jacques Rousseau addresses the problem of political obligation and individual freedom. The work consists of four books, each comprising a number of sections that address the above-mentioned issue from several angles. The first book then deals with the troublesome aspect of a human being's apparent perpetual slavery. ook II concerns the issue of sovereignty. Rousseau now shifts his focus from the individual to the human relationship with the State. In ook III there is another shift of focus to government itself, and the various forms that government may take. Finally ook IV draws redresses the issue of the human relationship with the state in the light of the exposition given in the first three books. It is also in this book that he explains the ideal of the social contract, and how the state should work together with its…...

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Bibliography

Rousseau, Jean Jacques. 1762. The Social Contract or Principles of Political Right. Trans. G.DH Cole. Public Domain. The Constitution Society, 2004.  http://www.constitution.org/jjr/socon.htm

In so giving each grants the same rights to others over himself that he is in turn granted by them over them. Each member gains the equivalent of everything he loses, and a greater amount of force to protect what he has. Given these conditions, Rousseau is ready to make his argument:
If therefore one eliminates from the social compact whatever is not essential to it, one will find that it is reducible to the following terms. Each of use places his person and all his power in common under the supreme direction of the general will, and as one we receive each member as an indivisible part of the whole."

By locating the binding force of the state in this concept of a general will, Rousseau thinks he has formulated a source for legitimate power. Of course, how he constructs the state comes to be crucial. The devil, as the…...

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Works Cited

Locke, John. Second Treatise of Government. C.B. Macpherson, Ed. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1980.

Read, Herbert. The Paradox of Anarchism. 1941. Retrieved from  http://www.panarchy.org/read/anarchism.html .

Rousseau, Jean-Jacque. On the Social Contract. Donald Cress, Trans., Indianapolis: Hackett, 1983.

philosophical questions about, Jean Jacque Rousseau, John Dewey, Michel Foucault and Marin Luther King, Jr. It has 4 sources.
Rousseau and Nature"

We are born weak, we need strength; helpless, we need aid; foolish, we need reason. All that we lack at birth, all that we need when we come to man's estate, is the gift of education. This education comes to us from nature, from men, or from things."[Rousseau 143].

According to Rousseau out of the three factors involved in a child's development, Nature, is totally uncontrollable. "Nature, we are told, is merely habit."[20] Habits are a product of positive or negative conditioning. As a child grows in reason he uses judgment to modify his natural tendencies but often this process becomes warped due to already embedded habits. Harmony within is affected when natural tendencies conflict with what a child learns at the hands of society and other men. A man…...

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Sources:

Rousseau, Jean Jacques. emile, Everyman's Library 1969.

Foucault, M. (1979). Discipline & Punish: The birth of the prison. New York: Vintage Books

Preston, Edward. Martin Luther King: Fighter for Freedom. New York: Doubleday and Company, 1986.

Dewey, John, 1859-1952. Democracy and Education: an Introduction to the Philosophy of Education at  http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/DewDemo.html