Essay Instructions: The sources that are to be cited are: Jacques Rosseau''s essay, "THE SOCIAL CONTRACT" and "THE DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN AND CITIZEN". The declaration can be found on the internet.
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First Paper Assignment (Due before lecture lecture Wednesday, April 16th) - It has been argued that the nineteenth century, beginning with the French Revolution of 1789, put into practice those principles that the Enlightenment set forth in theory. Carefully read The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (Lualdi 51), the most important statement of the Revolution?s ideals, and write a short essay (2 pages) on the following topic: how would Jean-Jacques Rousseau have reacted to this document? With what would he have agreed/disagreed, and why?
TAKE A LOOK AT ROSSEAU''S ESSAY THE SOCIAL CONTRACT AND ALSO HIS BASIC PHILOSOPHIES. His text social contract can also be found on the internet.
Thesis: Because this paper is meant to be concise, your paper should avoid meandering introductions and jump right in with a specific thesis statement that sums up your entire argument. Your thesis should present an argument to be proved, not a simple statement of fact or a regurgitation of the question. It should also be as specific as possible, avoiding exaggerations, generalizations, improvable assertions, and unnecessary value judgments.
Structure: Every persuasive piece of writing uses signposts to inform the reader what it will say, what it is saying, and what it has said. Include in your thesis statement a summary of main points, or plan of action. Then follow this plan of action in order. Each of your main points should directly support your thesis. You should strive to connect your main points through effective transitions. End with a summarizing conclusion that tells us the significance.
Evidence: You must support your thesis with evidence from the primary texts. Please do not look to your text, your lecture notes, the net, or other resources for anything more than a factual verification. Any analytical point that you make should be your own. Use quotations and examples from the text to support your points, but don?t expect the reader to understand why you?ve chosen a certain quotation or a specific example. Explain the significance of any quotation or example of which you make use. Because we?ll all be using the same limited number of sources, I?d like you to use parenthetical notation for this paper. The format for parenthetical notation is really easy: Just identify the author?s last name and the page number in parentheses, at the end of the sentence that contains the quotation but before the period. Page 53 of The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen should be cited as (National Assembly 53), while page 182 from Rousseau should be cited as (Rousseau 182).
Grammar and Style: Use proper grammar throughout your paper. That means you should not only run spell-check and grammar check, but you should also proofread your paper (and have someone else proofread it!). Type your paper in double-spaced, 12-point, Times New Roman font with one-inch margins.
THIS MAY HELP: These are some things I found on the internet, do not use it word for word but it may help to bring up some ideas.
Rousseau''s
ideas of a social contract, which states that the general will
and the people were sovereign, and if a king abuses the
liberty of the people they have a right and a duty to dissolve
the current government and create a new one (McKay,
581), were central to both documents.
Rousseau''s new government would group people together into one large society. "The individual member alienates himself totally to the whole community together with all his rights." People had to commit themselves fully to the society, and if they refused, they would be forced to comply by the body politic.15 Rousseau advocated governments by and for the general will, which was the common interest of the society. Also, this system called for a pure democracy with no representation because Rousseau believed that representation would cause the general will to be lost.
One hundred years later a revolution based on the philosophy of Rousseau began in France, and a French bill of rights was written. The Declaration on the Rights of Man and Citizen was greatly influenced by Rousseau''s Social Contract, especially with the acknowledgement of the general will. The document also stated that "the exercise of the natural rights of each man had no limits except those that secure to the other members of society the enjoyment of these same rights."19 This was very similar to Rousseau''s secular use of the golden rule. Man was also given the right to free speech and a say in how taxes were to be spent and collected.
The Declaration of the Rights of Man is not only built
on the social contract, but also on Rousseau''s idea of
general will of the people. He defines the general will as
being, "Sacred and absolute, reflecting the common
interests of the people, who have displaced the monarch as
the holder of the sovereign powers. (McKay, 581)"
Passing and enforcing arbitrary laws are considered to be
an act of tyranny and a substantial reason, according to
Rousseau, to declare the current government void and
establish a new one.
Notes:
[*] This translation of the Declaration appears in John Hal Stewart''s Documentary Survey of the French Revolution (New York: Macmillan, 1951), 113-115. [Transcription by John Dzerkacz]
[1] Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in the opening paragraphs of his Discours sur l?origine de l?in?galit?, destroyed the notion of Natural Rights, believing that previous theorists of the State of Nature had imported a notion (rights) that belonged only to the State of Civilization. Despite the obvious Rousseauesque rhetoric (see esp. Articles One through Three), Rousseau would have found the suggestion of ?natural? rights profoundly disturbing.
[2] Later versions of the Declaration would, of course, contain prescribed duties for citizens, but in this, the first, version no such duties are enumerated.
[3] This is the most misunderstood notion in Rousseau''s ?uvre. In Du contrat social the Genevan philosopher states that the General Will is both the expression of all citizens and always for the good of all citizens. If something is not for the good of all, then it is not an expression of the General Will. Rousseau, in other words, was no totalitarian, and he would likely have found Robespierre a false prophet; he was a radical historicist, believing that governments could come in any form, so long as they acknowledged popular sovereignty.
It ought not go unmentioned that the above definition was a widely accepted meaning of the notion of the General Will. For evidence that this was so, see Diderot and d''Alembert''s Encyclop?die under this term.
[4] Rousseau stated clearly in his second Discours (first paragraph of part two) that the invention of property was the very act that created civil society; thus, it was impossible for any natural right to property to exist. For Rousseau, property itself created the problem of civilization, and one received the right to property only when one began to engage in politics; needless to say, solitary man could not engage in politics
