Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau  was born in 28 June 1712 in Geneva into a Protestant family.  His mother died shortly after his birth.  His family would have to move from their more comfortable upper middle class lodgings into a neighbourhood of skilled craftsmen.  Later upon moving to Savoy he would adopt Catholicism.

In 1742 he moved to Paris.  He moved through several poor paying jobs.  He did however make friends with Diderot and penned several articles for his Encyclopédie.  He wrote an essay entitled Discourse on the Arts and Sciences for a writing competition which mentioned how the arts and science had corrupted the essentially noble nature of human beings.  He did however compose an opera which was performed to Louis XV.  The King was so enraptured by it he offered Rousseau a pension only for the Swiss to turn it down.

Rousseau returned to Geneva and once again re-joined the Protestant faith of his youth.  It was here that he wrote the Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men.  He would expand on these themes in his work Of the Social Contract, Principles of Political Right. In these works and his novel Emile: or, On Education he would postulate that formal Christian religious practices were not compatible with the modern era as they demanded submission and weighed down man with original sin.  His works were roundly condemned by religious leaders and his books burnt.  He would have to flee Switzerland and then France landing in Britain in 1765.

He would be allowed to return to Paris in 1770 although this was on condition that he did not publish anything.  In 1774 he died at the age of 66.  His initial burial place Ermenonville on the Ile des Peupliers would become a place of pilgrimage to his many admirers.  His remains were removed in 1794 and placed in the Panthéon in 1794.

Rousseau on slavery.  Taken from The Social Contract or Principles of Political Right, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Wordsworth Classics of World Literature, London (1998) p12

Thus, in whatever way we regard things, the right of slavery is invalid, not only because it is illegitimate, but because it is absurd and meaningless.  These terms, slavery and right, are contradictory and mutually exclusive.  Whether addressed by a man to a man, or by a man to a nation, such a speech as this will always be equally foolish: “I make an agreement with you wholly at your expense and wholly for my benefit, and I shall observe it as long as I please, while you also shall observe it as long as I please.

Rousseau on the use of control.  Taken from The Social Contract or Principles of Political Right, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Wordsworth Classics of World Literature, London (1998) p18

In order, then, that the social pact may not be a vain formulary, it tacitly includes this engagement, which can alone give force to the others, -that whoever refuses to obey the general will shall be constrained to do so by the whole body; which means nothing else than that he shall be forced to be free; for such is the condition which, uniting every citizen to his native land, guarantees him from all personal dependence, a condition that ensures the control and working of the political machine, and alone renders legitimate civil engagements, which, without it, would be absurd and tyrannical, and subject to the most enormous abuses.

Rousseau on kings.  Taken from The Social Contract or Principles of Political Right, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Wordsworth Classics of World Literature, London (1998) p76

If according to Plato, a king by nature is so rare a personage, how many times will nature and fortune conspire to crown him?  And if the royal education necessarily corrupts those who receive it, what should be expected from such a succession of men trained to rule?  It is, then, voluntary self-deception to confuse royal government with that of a good king.  To see what this government is in itself; we must consider it under incapable or wicked princes: for such will come to the throne, or the throne will make them such.