JeanJacques Rousseau Essay Research Paper Jean Jacques

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Essay, Research Paper

Jean Jacques RousseauRousseau, Jean-Jacques, was born on June 28, 1712 in Geneva, Switzerland. Since his mother passed away three days after he was born he began his life with one of his aunts and his father. Rousseau was forced to move from home to home, living with various people. This constant moving caused him to lead a very unsettled life. He literary career didn’t begin until he finally followed his own path of directions. In 1750 Rousseau’s novel, Discours sur les sciences et les arts, was published. He won a prize for this novel at the Academy of Dijon. From this time on Rousseau continued writing and released many new novels. In 1755 Discours sur l’origine de l’inegalite was published. During this time Rousseau was still traveling around from place to place, with no specific destination ahead. In 1756 he ended up going to a small country home called The Hermitage. There he wrote five new novels. These novels being: Lettre a d’Alembert sur les spectacles (1758), Julie, ou la Nouvelle Heloise (1761), Emile (1762), Contrat social (1762), and Lettre a M. de Beaumont (1763). In 1767 Rousseau fled to France. He was very panic-stricken and therefore he traveled around from place to place trying to find a peaceful home. In 1770 he ended up in Paris “on the estate of the marquis de Girardin at Ermenonville”. A couple months after reaching this estate Rousseau passed away, on July 2, 1778. Rousseau had written other novels throughout his traveling days. A couple of these novels that dealt with the government included: Projet de constitutio pour la Corse (1765), and Consideratios sur le gouvernement de las Pologne (between 1770-1771).Rousseau’s ThoughtsRousseau was a very open-minded man. He believed that every man has his own personality and therefore they are all equal. Due to these feelings Rousseau tried to come up with a new form of government. He expressed these feelings throughout his book, The Social Contract. In this book Rousseau stated to the reader that there should be no laws passed unless the citizens signed this law one-hundred percent. These ideas of Rousseau got the French people thinking and analyzing their government. These thoughts were a major reason the French Revolution began almost thirty years later (America Online). Rousseau also believed that man is taken away from his original nature and real self. Man falls away from his amour de sot (self-love) due to the many different people around him. This leads towards man being more concerned with amour-propre (pride) rather than themselves (The Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He believed that man should be himself and exist according to his own nature rather than someone else’s.Rousseau released many of his personal emotions throughout his work. This was very enlightening for the people in Germany, France and England for they were not used to this type of author. He believed that children should be given more freedom to indulge every piece of life . These feelings are expressed in his novel Emile. Rousseau thought that children should be able to run their life at their own pace, and do as they so choose. He also thought that parents should teach the children at home, and set good examples for them (America Online). Rousseau was a man with many new ideas arising. These new ideas were for his own life, and of course the lives of others. He was always willing to ponder awhile and come up with new actions. For these reasons he was seen as a philosopher, an a splendid one at that.Quotes from Rousseau’s Original Works”All justice comes from God, he alone is the source of it; but could we receive it direct from so lofty a source, we should need neither government nor laws. Without doubt there is a universal justice emanating from reason alone; but this justice, in order to be admitted among us, should be reciprocal.” —- “The General Will And The Law”"Liberty is not one of those fruits that thrive in just any climate. It is not, therefore, to be plucked by just any people.” —-”The Social Contract” (Book Three, Chapter VIII)”Nature wants children to be children before being men…Childhood has its own ways of seeing, thinking and feeling.” —-”Emile”"Public opinion is a particular kind of law, and the censor, as its minister, merely applies it to the specific cases–in the same way as the prince applies the other kinds. Thus the censorial tribunal, far from being the arbiter of public opinion, is merely its spokesman. Whenever its decisions are at avariance with public opinion, they are null and void.” —-”The Social Contract” (Book Four,Chapter VII)”As nature gives every man an absolute power over all his limbs, the social pact gives the body politic and absolute power over all its members; and it is this same power which when directed by the general will, bears the name of sovereignty.” —-”The General Will And The Law”

Analysis of Rousseau’s PhilosophyRousseau appears to be man that is willing to try anything, no matter what the outcome may be. This relates more to his belief on children, and children’s rights as human beings. I believe that children are humans and they should be able to choose many of their future plans, but they should not be able to wander and go where they so choose. They should attend school and not be able to go when they want to, they should have to go until a certain age or until they have completed so many years. Rousseau seems to believe that