Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Biography
Born in Geneva on June 28,
1712
Suzanne Bernard, his mother,
died a week after he was born
Brother ran away from home
Isaac Rousseau, his father, left
Geneva to avoid imprisonment
Was raised by his uncle after
his father left
Was sent to study in the
village of Bosey.
 Biography (cont.)
Apprenticed to an engraver
1725; left and went to Annecy due
to his master being violent
1742; went to Paris to become a
composer and musician
Wrote the books –
o Discourse on the Origin and
Foundations of Inequality(1754)
o Lettre sur les spectacles(1758)
o La Nouvelle Héloise(1761)
o The Social Contract(1762)
o Émile(1762)
o Réveries(1782)
 Philosophical Ideas
Did this political thinker think people
could govern themselves?
 Believed people could
govern themselves
 Sees freedom and liberty
not to do whatever you
want but the opportunity to
do the right thing.
o This includes obedience to
authority, an authority agreed
on by the citizens not a
forced authority.
 Philosophical Ideas (cont.)
Is humankind basically good or bad?
 Children naturally good, innocent.
 He writes “Make the citizen good by
training”, “and everything else will
follow”.
 Training = education
o Education should be personalized
depending on the stage, nature of the
individual.
 Develop ideas for your own based on
experience, not be taught other peoples
ideas
 Humans are by nature good - and it is
society's institutions that corrupt them
 Philosophical Ideas (cont.)
What are the underlining ideas behind
Rousseau’s thinking?
 Was isolated from other children
 No formal education
 Draws influence from his relationships
 Thérèse Lavasseur:
o Companion to Rousseau (believed she had a ‘pure heart’)
o Had five children but gave them up to an orphanage because they felt
they would be better of
 Found living amongst people difficult
o Preferring solitary life
o Felt like he maliciously attacked, particularly by Voltaire
 Beliefs in Government
Believed that authority lies with the people.
In The Social Contract written in 1762 Rousseau
states:
o Man is born free.
o Controls by a freely formed government are good.
o Consent to a form of governments means that the
individual gives up self-interest in favor of the common
good.
o When government is by the consent of the governed
the people retain their rights.
 Beliefs in Government
(cont.)
Hated political and economic oppression
Supported revolt
Influenced thinkers for more than 200 years
o may have influenced the writers of our Constitution.
Was influenced by the modern natural law tradition
o Which Attempted to answer the challenge of skepticism
through a systematic approach to human nature that,
like Hobbes, emphasized self-interest
Jean-Jacques
Rousseau’s
Symbol