Although similar ideas can be traced to the Greek Sophists
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, born in Geneva in 1712, was one of the 18th century’s most important political thinkers. His work focussed on the relationship between human society and the individual, and contributed to the ideas that would lead eventually to the French Revolution.
The social contract theory is one of the theories of the origin of the state. It has been emerged since the time of the sophists of the Greece but it has got recognition in the hands of the great trio. The name of these great philosophers were –
John Locke, Thomas Hobbes and Jean Jacques Rousseau
.
Social contract theory says
that people live together in society in accordance with an agreement that establishes moral and political rules of behavior
. … The U.S. Constitution is often cited as an explicit example of part of America’s social contract. It sets out what the government can and cannot do.
Rousseau’s central argument in The Social Contract is
that government attains its right to exist and to govern by “the consent of the governed
.” Today this may not seem too extreme an idea, but it was a radical position when The Social Contract was published.
political philosophy
Government (1690) by Locke and The Social Contract (1762) by
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
(1712–78) proposed justifications of political association grounded in the newer political requirements of the age.
Social contract
attempts to evaluate and show the purpose and value of the organized government by comparing and contrasting the civil society and the state of nature
. It has played a role of identifying the useful government to the western communities and the best state of governance to hold.
The social contract states that
“rational people” should believe in organized government
, and this ideology highly influenced the writers of the Declaration of Independence. that created it, or popular sovereignty. He believed that every citizen was equal in the view of the government.
The idea of the social contract goes back at least to
Protagoras and Epicurus
. In its recognizably modern form, however, the idea is revived by Thomas Hobbes and was later developed, in different ways, by John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Immanuel Kant.
The theory of
social contract has played – and still plays
– an important role in the central stage of political philosophy. The social contract answers the question of the origin of the society. The history of the theory originates in the ancient Greece political philosophy and extends to the recent years.
social contract, in political philosophy,
an actual or hypothetical compact, or agreement, between the ruled or between the ruled and their rulers
, defining the rights and duties of each. … They then, by exercising natural reason, formed a society (and a government) by means of a social contract.
(1) Hobbes’ sovereign is not a party to any contract and has no obligation to protect his citizens’ natural rights. (2) Locke has
two contracts (between citizens and citizens, and between citizens and the government)
in place of Hobbes’ single contract (between citizens to obey the sovereign).
One kind of social contract is
a constitution
. A constitution says how decisions are made, and sets limits on the powers of leaders and other people who have authority. In the Age of Enlightenment, philosophers Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote books about social contracts.
What was the main idea of Rousseau?
Rousseau believed modern man’s enslavement to his own needs was responsible for all sorts of societal ills, from exploitation and domination of others to poor self-esteem and depression. Rousseau believed that
good government must have the freedom of all its citizens
as its most fundamental objective.
The classic social-contract theorists of the 17th and 18th centuries—Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), John Locke (1632–1704), and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78)—held that the
social contract is the means by which civilized society, including government, arises from a historically or logically preexisting condition of
…
What were Rousseau’s main ideas?
| Jean-Jacques Rousseau | School Social contract Romanticism | Main interests Political philosophy, music, education, literature, autobiography | Notable ideas General will, amour de soi, amour-propre, moral simplicity of humanity, child-centered learning, civil religion, popular sovereignty, positive liberty, public opinion |
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