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Jean-Jacques Rousseau: The Social Contract

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Does Rousseau’s Du Contrat Social signal the advent of modern democratic republicanism? Or does it represent a dangerous recipe for the suppression of individual human freedom?

“Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains” is almost definitely Rousseau’s most well known quotation (I chp I, Rousseau cited in Keens- Soper, 1988, p.173). However, Rousseau’s ‘Du Contrat Social’ would not necessarily end this phenomena through modern democratic republicanism but may indeed represent a dangerous recipe for the suppression of human freedom. This essay will examine these possibilities with reference to Keen-Soper’s chapter ‘Jean-Jacques Rousseau: The Social Contract’. The essay will examine the social contract paying particular attention to …show more content…

The essay will then conclude by linking these areas to the question of whether Rousseau’s Du Contrat Social signals the advent of modern democratic republicanism or a could serve to suppress individual human freedom and the importance of remembering the context of when Rousseau’s Du Contrat Social was written.

Freedom according to Rousseau
Although Rousseau believes that men did indeed have natural human freedom, he does not believe that men can simply regain their ‘natural freedom’. The reason for this remains unexplained in ‘Du Contrat Social’. However Rousseau believes they must “voluntarily agree to the creation of a social order, which though not ‘natural’ is, or has become, indispensable” (Keens- Soper, 1988, p.175). Rousseau’s aim in creating Du Contrat Social was not to allow men to regain their natural freedom, his aim was to “ find a form of association which will defend the person and

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