Social Contract Theory PDF

SUBJECT: POLITICAL SCIENCE I COURSE: BA LLB SEMESTER I LECTURER: MS. DEEPIKA GAHATRAJ MODULE: MODULE IV, THEORIES OF THE ORIGIN OF STATE SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORY III. JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU (1712 - 1778): CONCEPTION OF SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORY Jean Ja...

SUBJECT: POLITICAL SCIENCE I COURSE: BA LLB SEMESTER I LECTURER: MS. DEEPIKA GAHATRAJ MODULE: MODULE IV, THEORIES OF THE ORIGIN OF STATE SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORY III. JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU (1712 - 1778): CONCEPTION OF SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORY Jean Jacques Rousseau is described as a champion of 'Popular Sovereignty'. His political philosophy constitutes the concepts of 'Popular Democracy' and the General Will. As his father, who was a watchmaker, deserted him at an early age, he did not have any formal education. He lived the life of a vagabond without any fixed profession. From his writings we can infer that he lived l i e a 'man in revolt'. In 1749, he took part in an essay competition and expressed his views on the deterioration of the standards of moral ever since the abandonment of the unscientific state of nature. Rousseau won a prize for his priceless essay and thereby drew the attention of the intellects. Rousseau is much more than a political theorist. He published many books on various subjects like society, nature, education, politics, etc. His important works on political philosophy include, Discourse of the Origin of Inequality (1744); the Emile (1762); and Social Contract (1762). Yet everything he wrote is, in one way or another, related to his social and political philosophy. In his work Social Contract he emphasized the freedom of an individual and maintained that man is born free but is chained everywhere. He is one of the most self-affected by his personal difficulties, eccentricities, and hatreds. The central aim of his political philosophy is to reconstruct state and society in which it would liberate man and restore to him all his natural liberty. Rousseau's social contract is considered to be the very nucleus and keystone to the whole structure of his political fabric. (a) HumanNature Rousseau assumed that over and above self-interest men has an innate revulsion against suffering of others. The common basis of sociability is not reason but feeling. According to him, men are naturally good. Rousseau held that man by birth had no evil tendencies, but it was the result of wrong social actions that made him evil. 1 Rousseau stated that men by nature are innocent and peace loving and prefer to lead a contended life. Their life is healthy, free, honest and happy. Though they are not born with reason, they develop it at later stage to resolve any conflicts. Hence, they are born with two primary instincts, namely, self-preservation and sympathy. For Rousseau, inequality is the original evil, the one that endangers all others. He further stated that nature established the equality among men, but men have instituted the inequality. What Rousseau intended to underline here is that all the evils are created for man by life in society, by private property, and by social inequality. So, he concluded that private property and social inequalities are the causes of social problems that are faced by human beings. (b) STATE OF NATURE Rousseau discussed in detail the state of nature in his work A Discourse on the Origin and Foundation of the inequality of Mankind. He held that state of nature is both pre-social and pre-political. There was society, may be a primitive one, but there was no state. He talked about the life of man in the state of nature because he did not agree with Hobbes and Locke as regards the nature of man and man's place in the state of nature. He arrived at the crucial views on state of nature as he felt that it is important to understand the nature of man. He held that the primitive man led a solitary, free, simple, healthy, honest and happy life. They appeared with a moral instinct. Basically, he is guided by two instincts, namely, self-interest, and pity. Man in the state of nature did not know how to speak and dress. Men were treated as equal and were independent, self-sufficient and led a simple and solitary life as noble savages. Rousseau assumed that in the state of nature all men lived an isolated life and had neither ties of obligation nor duties. Man was free, self-contented and unknown to social good, evil or fear. He was not even afraid of death and had no fear of loss of property or family, because he had neither property nor family. The activity of man in the state of nature was neither moral nor immoral, but amoral or non- moral. Rousseau called the primitive man a 'noble savage'. The concept of morality was unknown to man because he did not know the virtue or vice, right or wrong, good or bad. Man's life is very close to nature and he enjoyed perfect liberty and equality. He is concerned only with his immediate basic needs as he is not greedy or possessive. Man never indulged in the accumulation of property. Rousseau believed that for long man could not lead a solitary life. His social instinct compelled him to live in groups. Social institutions began to gradually develop. Then, reason began to operate on man. His instinct of self-love began to shape itself into pride and man began to think in terms of having private property. The growth of private property put him under jealousy, and also there is progress in their civilization. Therefore, he imagined that when population increased man began to feel the scarcity and tension grew in society. It 2 leads to competition among them. Man tried to cut down other's share, where by man lost his paradise. The institution of property came into existence. This sense of privatisation created fixed homes and established families. He held that this institution of private property, which entered the society, disturbed the whole atmosphere of pre-civil state. "It came as a serpent and bit all. It brought misery, sorrow and evil in the minds of men who were otherwise good and evil.” It destroyed peace and harmony among themselves. There was absence of safety both for rich and Poor. According to Rousseau, the state of nature is golden and men lived a very peaceful life. But economic inequality and privatisation of property disturbed the peace of society and created tension and terror. This loss of peace made it necessary to establish a civil society by social contract. The change from the state of nature to that of civil society is abrupt. According to Rousseau, the function of a civil society is to protect or safeguard the property of a single individual or a group. 3 REFERENCES : - https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/193715/4/chapter%202.pdf - https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/1349/7/07_chapter2.pdf - https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/1349/8/08_chapter3.pdf - https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/1349/9/09_chapter4.pdf - h t t p s : / / w w w. r e s e a r c h g a t e. n e t / p u b l i c a t i o n / 261181816_Summary_of_Social_Contract_Theory_by_Hobbes_Locke_and_Rousseau/link/ 59eb253baca272cddddba694/download 4