Rousseau: The Declaration of the Rights of Term Paper

Rousseau: The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

This is a paper that argues and proves how Rousseau would have reacted to the Declaration of Rights in the light of the French Revolutionaries. It has 3 sources.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen produced by the French Revolutionaries is considered as one of the founding documents of the human rights tradition. This paper argues that the document accurately represents Rousseau concept of the "Social Contract" and that it had a foremost influence on the intellectual development of the French Revolution. The paper concludes that Rousseau would have agreed to most of the "Articles" in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, as it ensures both liberty and equality among men, two of the most fundamental concept in Rousseau's political philosophy.

Discussion

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was one of the prolific western thinkers who believed that human beings are inherently good and are capable of achieving the highest good. According to Rousseau man in his primitive age was innocent but he was made cruel, selfish and hedonist by the social structures. He believed that society's attempt to become civilized has actually made them worse in terms of injustice. He further argued that governments have become so strong and powerful that they have crushed individual liberty [Rousseau, 207-238]. He concluded that governments have not only crushed individual liberty but the unequal distribution of wealth among the population has also undermined sincere friendship between the people and the government.To resolve this problem Rousseau suggests through his the Social Contract that society should exist in harmony with everyone and individual freedom should be encouraged.

In his masterpiece "The Social Contract" Rousseau proposes solutions of the problems he diagnosed in his "Origins of Civil Society" and "Discourse on Inequality." With the famous phrase "man is born free, but he is everyone in chains," Rousseau states that the modern nations in which royal entities repress the freedom of the ordinary people are in actuality suppressing their natural rights and thus forsake their civil rights. According to Rousseau the only solution to the problems is to form a social contract, which is agreed upon by all the members of the society, whether rich or poor. Rousseau calls this collective grouping or the contract the "sovereign" and says that it is in many ways like a general will [Rousseau, 207-238]. This contract between the authorities and the governed is based on one basic principle and that is, the people agree to be ruled only so that their rights, property and happiness are protected by the government. If the rulers for some reason cease to fulfill their social contract agreement then the people can exert their rights and choose a different ruler. Thus for Rousseau the fundamental function of the government is to protect their rights, the right of life, liberty and happiness. Other than that the government has no real function.

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