JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU (1712-1778)
Early life
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born to Suzanne Bernard and Isaac Rousseau on
June 28, 1712, in Geneva, Switzerland. Nine days later his mother died and
his only sibling, an older brother, ran away from home when Rousseau was
still a child. At the age of three, he was reading French novels with his father,
and Jean-Jacques acquired his passion for music from his aunt. His father
fled Geneva to avoid imprisonment after a quarrel with a French captain
when Jean-Jacques was ten. Without any formal education except his own
reading of Plutarch's Lives and a collection of Calvinist sermons, he was
employed first by a notary who found him incompetent and then by an
engraver who treated him so poorly that in 1728 he ran away. Feigning
enthusiasm for Catholicism, he was sent to Madame de Warens who,
separated from her husband, became a convert to Catholicism and assisted
other converts. She sent Rousseau to Turin to be baptized and there he
eventually found employment with a shopkeeper's wife whose lover he
became until her husband's return. After short spells as footman and
secretary, he returned to Annecy and to Madame de Warens. He became her
general factotum and lover, joined the local choir school to complete his
education and picked up a fair knowledge of Italian music.
On an unauthorized visit to Lyons with the music master, he meanly
deserted the latter during an epileptic fit. Eventually supplanted in his
mistress's affections by a wigmaker, he made for Paris in 1741 with a new
musical notation, which the Academy of Sciences pronounced "neither
useful nor original." With secretarial work and musical copying as a
livelihood, Rousseau began his association with a maid at his hostelry, Le
Vasseur, who was neither attractive nor literate and by whom he boasted he
had five children. Despite his much vaunted sensibility and regard for the
general innocence of children, Rousseau consigned all five children to the
foundling hospital.
Rousseau composed an opera Les Muses galantes which led to a
correspondence with Voltaire and eventually acquaintance with Denis
Diderot (1713-1784) and the encyclopedistes. On a visit to Diderot in prison,
he discovered in a periodical the prize essay competition by the academy of
Dijon on whether the arts and sciences had improved or corrupted the
morals of mankind. This he won with his essay Discourse on the Arts and
Sciences in 1750 by maintaining that they did not, having seduced man from
his natural and noble estate, decreasing his freedom.
The Social Contract
It was on 1762 when he penned his masterpiece, The Social Contract, which
attempted to solve the problem posed by the opening sentence: Man is born
free; and everywhere he is in chains.
Rousseaus work presents the concept of general will, in that its surrender
means that a person is allowed individual diversity and freedom or personal
autonomy. However, it is said that the general will also encourages the well-
being of the whole, and therefore can conflict with the particular interests of
individuals.
Despite the difficulties, however, Rousseau clearly articulates his position on
his political thought. First, he claims that the general will is tied to the
Sovereignty: but not Sovereignty merely in the sense of whomever holds
power. The Sovereignty is directed always at the public good, and the
general will, therefore, speaks always infallibly to the benefit of the people.
Second, the object of the general will is always abstract, or for lack of a better
term, general. It can therefore set up rules, social classes or even a monarchial
government but it can never specify the particular individuals who are
subject to the rules, members of the classes, or the rulers in the government.
This is in keeping with the idea that the general will speaks to the good of
the society as a whole.
In his Discourse on Inequality, man is impelled to selfish actions to the
prejudice of others. Law established the virtue in society. By virtue is meant
the placing of general good above ones own. Competition is evil and
destructive to the individuals happiness; citizens must be formed for
harmony and cooperation. Group interests, i.e. particular wills must be
abolished to discover the general will.
Why Rousseau: Majority wins
Personally, Rousseaus political views best reflect the current dimensions of
our political system. In the sense that the general will best serves the interests
of the common good than favor the preferences of those who are in power
for the time being. Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. On
the figurative definition of chains, it can be construed to mean the rules that
had been promulgated by the Sovereignty for the common good as desired
by the general will, presumably with consent and thereby approval.
This demonstrates that the power of the Sovereignty is not concentrated on
just one person or a privileged class who are considered to be more educated
or of an elevated class. This eliminates the occurrences of people taking
advantage of their positions to inject their selfish interests and subordinate
the will of the majority to the latters detriment.
Past experience has taught us that power centered on just one person or
group can lead to abuses if not subject to loose regulations or monitoring.
The horrors of this scenario are written in history books when we have been
under the dictatorship of former President Ferdinand Marcos. Certainly, we
would not want another repeat of this.
And as consistently held in democratic forms of government, salus populi
est suprema lex welfare of the people is the supreme law.
Every action of man, though he claims to be with noble intentions, is always
imbued with a degree of personal interest. This interestthis intent, is
always personal cannot always be made known until after the effects of such
action is undertaken. Regrets always come after which is why for me,
prevention is better.
Best subject proposed actions to everyone first before implementation so that
whatever result it produces; it can be said that everyone has had a hand in
the decision. This will negate pointing fingers or shifting blames later on,
which always ends with in a bitter close for everyone.
This is why I always favor the rule of majority because it is the expression of
the general willthe general welfare is supreme compared to one noble
intent.
