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Social Contract: Rousseau And Ralph Waldo Emerson

291 Words2 Pages

For Rousseau and Hobbes, the social contract is something inevitable and essential to social order. Despite both having contrasting views regarding how free people are under the social contract, both suggest it might be necessary to ensure that the harmony is not endangered (Rousseau 9). But Rousseau and Hobbes are not the only ones to offer an opinion on this matter: Ralph Waldo Emerson, the first American philosopher, also addresses the relationship between the individual and the whole in Self-reliance.
Rousseau and Emerson both believe that men are more free in their natural state (Emerson 11), but their views on the social contract, while similar in foundation, differ in specifics. While both deem the social contract harmful to individual

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