Analysis Of The Social Contract By Jean-Jacques Rousseau

In the latter half of the 18th century, there were many questions regarding absolutism, the church, and the individual’s role within society in both Europe and the Americas. This period referred to as the Enlightenment brought religion, economics, government, and the role of society and it’s people into question. Born in 1712, Jean-Jacques Rousseau helped to vocalize the Enlightenment ideals of natural rights, equality, and the importance of individuals living in communion with one another. Born in Swiss-Geneva, Rousseau came from humble beginnings, raised differently than many of the aristocratic philosophes of the time (Rousseau, 284). Many of his arguments, such as the importance of the general will and the importance of the return to nature could be attributed to his humble and common upbringing. Rousseau believed in the general good of mankind and believed that every individual was born with a clean slate, or a tabula rasa. In his 1762 work The Social Contract, Rousseau exemplifies the ideals of the Enlightenment such as the importance of natural rights, criticisms to absolutism, and the importance of governments that are based on and built by the people, writings which later influenced French revolutionaries in the late 18th century.

Throughout The Social Contract, Rousseau argues that individuals’ opportunities and natural rights …show more content…
Much of what Rousseau writes concerning the natural rights of man directly opposes the current states under absolutist control. Rousseau does not draw his idea of natural rights from political, religious, or historical sources, but rather bases them on nature and emphasizes the ideals of the “noble savage” and philosophically hopes to find a primitive paradise (Lecture 8/25). Rousseau states in the beginning of his social contract stating that, “…no man has any natural authority over