Rousseau (1712 – 1778)

Rousseau lived at a time when the absolutist feudal order presided over
by Louis XV reigned France. Political power, privilege and social Prestige
was the Monopoly of the king, clergy and nobility, who lived
extravagantly at the expense of the masses. He is a thinker of paradoxes.
Not only his language is paradoxical but his ideas have been a source of
inspiration for many contradictory schools of thoughts. On one hand he
is a source of inspiration for the supporters of direct democracy, on the
other hand his ideas have been used to justify state totalitarianism. On
one hand he is a source of inspiration for liberals on the other hand he is
a source of inspiration for socialist. Liberals, socialist, Idealist, totalitarian
and democrats all take inspiration from Rousseau. He was the first
person to highlight the negative impact of Science and reason. As I think
he was the first person to suggest that man is not bad rather society is
bad. Hence what is to be changed is society. Man will automatically
become good.
He is known as father of French Revolution and father
of concept of popular sovereignty as he has given the theory of general
will. The slogan of French Revolution Liberty equality and fraternity is
attributed to Rousseau. The central concern of his political philosophy
was reconcilation between liberty and authority. The book written by
him is social contract. In the opening statement of his book social
contract He suggest that “man is born free but he is everywhere in
chains”. His Central concern was freedom. He wants to find out how
liberty and authority can be reconciled which means how we can be free
even when authority exists. Opening statement of social contract
expresses the dilemma of Rousseau.
What is authority? Authority is the legitimate or acceptable use of
power. It is the power or right to give orders, make decisions and enforce
obedience. It is a person or organization having political or
administrative power and control.
What is freedom? Freedom is to act according to one's choice or will. It
also means to act according to one's true nature.
What is the true nature of man? According to him, man has self love as
well as sympathy for others. Man is essentially good.
How was the state of nature? State of nature is life before the start of
modernization. According to him state of nature was state of bliss. Man
was free and happy. The state of nature was state of equality.
• What does he imply when he uses the term state of nature? It is
a description of human life before the advent of modern age,
science and reason.
• What is the condition of happiness? When person is free to act
according to his nature.
• How happiness got spoilt? According to him, with the growth of
Civilization when man started settled life gradually he started
losing happiness.
• Why? There was growth of reason in man.
He mentioned about equality. Equality is modern virtue. In ancient and
mediaeval times, it was believed that inequality is natural. In modern
times, it was Hobbes who for the first time established that all people
are utilitarian by nature. Therefore, it is the utility of man to seek
pleasure and on the basis of it no man is superior or inferior. In one way
Rousseau has accepted the equality in natural terms.
The definition of a rational man in modern society is a
man who knows how to maximize his self interest, profit and pleasure.
Rationality has taught man the difference between how you calculate
self interest, profit and pleasure. Rationality has taught man how to
make difference between mine and thine. According to Rousseau, man
was noble Savage. Thinking man is a depraved animal. But with the
growth of reason he became depraved animal. He has attacked
enlightenment through an essay he has written in 1749 on the question
: “ has the progress of Science and Arts contributed to corrupt or purify
morality?”. He argues that science was not saving but bringing moral
ruin upon us. Progress was an illusion. What appeared to be
advancement was in reality regression. The development of modern
Civilization had not made man either happier or more virtuous. Virtue
was possible in a simple society, where man lived simple life. In the
modern sophisticated society man was corrupted, and greater the
sophistication the greater the corruption.
He is against creating abundance on earth as he saw
more Evil than good in it. Abundance to him means luxury and luxury was
notoriously the breeder of corruption. Luxury, undermined Nations as it
undermined men. Athens was doomed to perish because of its Elegance,
luxury, wealth, art and sciences. He also found support in Roman history
– so long as Rome was poor and simple she was able to command respect
and Conquer and Empire; after having developed luxury and engulfed
the riches of the universe Rome fell prey to peoples who knew not even
what riches were. He believe that our minds have been corrupted in
proportion as the arts and Sciences have improved. The politeness, the
glory of civilized refinement, for him was a uniform veil under which he
saw ‘ jealousy, suspicion, fear, wildness, reverse, hate and fraud.’ He
believed that science was destructive because it takes away faith and
reasonable was bad because it sets prudence against moral intuition.

Reasons for the contract: According to Rousseau, the present state is not
a state of happiness. Man is unable to do what he wants. Helps to gain
freedom and happiness people enter into social contract. He suggest that
gradually state of nature come to an end, when man started living a
settled life. People come together to change the situation and to gain
true happiness as well as real freedom which man was enjoying in the
state of nature. Rousseau man has two options. The central problem of
Rousseau , man is born free but everywhere in chains.
What are the options?
1. Either go back to the state of nature point however it is not
practically feasible.
2. To rebuild a society - To enter into the contract and to create a
society where we can live according to our real nature and we can
get true happiness. Create a society where man can live in a state
of freedom and happiness. This is feasible option. The purpose of
social contract is to create a society where man is free.
He believes that in the state of nature, which is the condition prior to the
emergence of society, man was a noble savage. He lived in isolation and
had a few elementary needs. It was neither a condition of plenty not
scarcity. Neither there was conflict nor cooperative living. There was no
language or knowledge of any science or art. In such a situation man was
neither happy nor unhappy, had no conception of just and unjust, virtue
and Vice. The noble Savage was guided not by reason but by to instincts
– self love or the Instinct of self Preservation, and sympathy.
The state of nature, which was one of innocence,
did not last forever. In course of time, the noble Savage who lived in
isolation discovered the utility and usefulness of labour. Man began to
collaborate occasionally and created a degree of provisional order. Letter
Men began to build Shelters for themselves and families stayed together
- a stage Rousseau calls the patriarchal stage. As he consolidated his first
social relations, he gave himself to labour and to thought which means
to the use of reason and language. This brought in the first fall for man,
wrenching him from the happiness of the patriarchal stage even as the
discovery of division of labour, enabled man to pass from a subsistence
economy to an economy of productive development. The emergence of
Metallurgy and Agriculture was indeed a great Revolution, but iron and
corn, which civilized men, ruined humanity.
Man began to claim possessions, the inequality of
men's talents and skills lead to an inequality of fortunes. Wealth enabled
man to enslave others. This provoked competition and conflict. Conflict
led in turn to a demand for a system of law for sake of order and
tranquility. The result was the origin of civil society and laws, which gave
new change to the poor, and new powers to the rich. This destroyed
natural Liberty forever, fixed for all the law of property and inequality.
He created civil society but he believed that there is no going back to the
state of nature. For him society was inevitable, without which man could
not fulfill or realise his native potentials. He was criticizing civil society
because it was not founded on just principles and had corrupting
influence. So as a solution he wanted to create a new social order that
would help man realise His true nature. And that is why he devoted
himself and social contract. In the opening statement of social contract,
he says that man is born free, and he is everywhere in chains. His
purposes how to make the change legitimate in place of the in legitimate
change of the contemporary society.

Concept of general will – popular sovereignty

According to Rousseau, we are free even in the presence of authority
only when we are governed by the laws made by ourselves. According to
him, popular Sovereignty is General will. It is the condition of freedom.
Purpose of theory of general will? To give freedom to man.
Why freedom? Because purpose of life is happiness and freedom is
happiness. Freedom is when we act according to our will or choice.
There are two types of will –
1. Real will – what we actually want to do? It is the original will, Good,
spontaneous and real freedom.
2. Actual will – what we actually do? This type of will is shaped by the
society. It is selfish, artificial and Illusion of freedom.
What is General will? It is the result of the contract among people who
agreed that they will always act by their real will. General will is the sum
of real will of the all people. When people combine, they form the state.
State can be considered as representative of the general will. He belong
to France yet he has spent many years of life in Geneva. He has been
inspired by the practice of direct democracy. According to him, general
will emerges only when people directly participate in the formulation of
laws. Another condition is acting with their real will. In Rousseau, we get
the idea of direct democracy which means participatory democracy,
deliberative democracy and consociational democracy.
What were the terms and conditions of the contract?
▪ All people agree to act with their real will.
▪ The sum of real will of all create the general will.
▪ General will is the sum of real wills of the all.
▪ General will is essentially good because it is the sum of good wills.
▪ General will is represented in the state and in Rousseau people
coming together form the state.
▪ The idea comes to the near view that state is individual writ large.
▪ What does state symbolize? When people combine together they
form body politic. For example it is assumed that the members of
the constituent assembly were working with their real will and
constituent assembly represented the general will of the people of
India.
▪ General will is indivisible, collective and always right. We are free
only when we follow the general well. Rousseau goes to the extent
 of suggesting that men should be forced to be free. It means if
anyone does not obey the laws of the state, State should have
power to punish. It is for this reason it is said that general will is
hobbesian leviathan with his head chopped off.
Types of sovereignty:
1. Legal sovereignty – it comes in Hobbes theory. According to it,
Supreme Power to make laws lies with the state. In hobbes, state
is a third party which means beneficiary.
2. Political sovereignty – it comes in the works of John Locke.
According to Locke, sovereignty of state is actually exercised by the
people who formed the government.
3. Popular sovereignty – it is a philosophical notion. It suggest that
sovereignty lies with the people but is a very philosophical view.

“Rousseau’s general will is Hobbes leviathan with his head chopped

off.” In Hobbes, state is the third party and the beneficiary. State is like
the crown / monarch. In Rousseau, there is no head. Power is disposed
throughout the body politic. However, in effect general will as well as
leviathan both have absolute powers. If Hobbes gives Monopoly over the
use of coercive to leviathan Rousseau also suggests that man can be
forced to be free.
Hence it is said that there is not much difference except morphological
difference. However, it would be unfair if we compare leviathan and
general will and believe that they are same. Rousseau was actually the
greatest exponent of direct democracy. He was impressed by the system
of direct democracy which was prevailing in Switzerland even at that
time. We should not overlook the fact that according to him the only way
general will emerge is when people go for direct participation in law
making. Thus, Rousseau is a champion of not only participatory
democracy but also deliberative democracy. Though his ideas are
subjected to the manipulation by the totalitarian justifying state
totalitarianism yet we should not forget that Rousseau is one of the
greatest champion of democracy. With Rousseau also starts the idea of
positive Liberty when he says that man is free only when he obeys the
state. Another term for positive Liberty is moral freedom.
How private property originated according to Rousseau? The person
who has demarcated a particular land and claimed that land belongs to
him laid the foundation of private property. Once private property
comes into existence, the feeling of mine and thine started. This has
destroyed the original goodness of human nature. In the words of
Rousseau, Noble Savage got degraded into depraved animal. According
to him, thinking man is a depraved animal. It means man earlier was a
free man who was acting according to his free will but now thinking man
has become an animal whose appetite is never satisfied.