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Rosy Hastir, Lovely Professional University
Amandeep Singh, Lovely Professional University
Unit 8: Jean Jacques Rousseau

Unit 8: Jean Jacques Rousseau Notes

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
8.1 Life Sketch
8.2 Enlightenment
8.3 Rousseau’s Political Philosophy
8.4 Social Contract
8.5 Analysis of Inequality
8.6 Institution of Private Property
8.7 Civil Society
8.8 General Will and Individual Freedom
8.9 Role of the Legislator
8.10 Critique of Liberal Representative Government
8.11 Federation of Nations for World Peace
8.12 Women and Family
8.13 Summary
8.14 Key-Words
8.15 Review Questions
8.16 Further Readings
Objectives

After studying this unit students will be able to:
Examine critique by civil society.
Discuss the Rousseau’s theory of general will
Describe Rousseau’s life and his work.
Explain social contract of Rousseau.

Introduction

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) was the greatest thinker that the French produced. In the entire
history of political theory, he was the most exciting and most provocative. By the very magic of his
style, no other political thinker could come anywhere near him. He was a genius and a keen
moralist who was ruthless in his criticism of eighteenth-century French society. He was one of the
most controversial thinkers, as evident from the conflicting, contradictory and often diametrically
opposite interpretations that existed of the nature and importance of his ideas.
“His philosophy is highly personal, an expression of his own fierce insistence on independence
and liberty, but at the same time, paradoxical and complex”. Pointing to the volatile implications
of his prescriptions, Madame de Stael commented that his new ideas set everything ablaze.
... Rousseau ... who was the first of the modern intellectuals, their archetype and in
many ways the most influential of them all. Older men like Voltaire had started the
work of demolishing the altars and enthroning reason. But Rousseau was the first to

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