Freedom In Jean Jacque Rousseau's The Social Contract

The idea of freedom in Jean Jacque Rousseau’s The Social Contract (1762) is present throughout the book and Rousseau’s own, personal understanding of freedom underpins his argument for his ideal state. In this essay I will argue that individual citizens aren’t truly free in every sense in Rousseau’s state as the sovereign has complete dominion over public matters and due to the sovereign explicitly being composed of every citizen, this could lead to nearly every problem being deemed within the public realm. Furthermore, one cannot be individually free, in my opinion, when one cannot voice dissent against the prevailing convention of society, as is the case in Rousseau’s state. To argue this thesis effectively I will explore what freedom means …show more content…
In order to be a citizen of the state, one must forgo ‘natural freedom’, for example any human being can with their ‘natural freedom’ hit another, it is completely within their ability to do so. But with ‘civil freedom and property’ one cannot act in this way as it harms another person and thus falls within the public realm. Furthermore one is expected to participate within society and take citizenship seriously under the social contract - one has a duty to the sovereign and thus every other citizen (as they are all part of the sovereign). According to Rousseau ‘civil freedom and property’ means that one’s “faculties are exercised and developed, one’s ideas are enlarged, one’s sentiments ennobled…” Rousseau clearly sees ‘civil freedom and property’ superior to ‘natural freedom’ as it enables one to be more enlightened - but this ‘civil freedom and property’ is entirely dependent on every citizen agreeing to the social