Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78) Geneva born French moral and political philosopher, perhaps the principal intellectual influence upon the French Revolution. Rousseau was entirely self-taught. He moved to Paris in 1742, and became an intimate of leading members of the French Enlightenment, especially Diderot. His autobiography, Confessions (1770), examines his life with remarkable candour and demonstrates a willingness to expose his faults and weaknesses.
Rousseau’s writings, ranging over education, the arts, science, literature and philosophy, reflect a deep belief in the goodness of ‘natural man’ and corruption of ‘social man’. His political teaching, summarised in E´mile ([1762] 1978) and developed in Social Contract ([1762] 1969), advocates a radical form of democracy which has influenced liberal, socialist, anarchist and, some would argue, fascist thought. Rousseau departed from earlier social contract theories in being unwilling to separate free individuals from the process of government. He aimed to devise a form of authority to which the people can be subject without losing their freedom. He proposed that government be based upon the ‘general will’, reflecting the collective good of the community as opposed to the ‘particular’, and selfish, will of each citizen. Rousseau believed that freedom consists in political participation, obedience to the general will, meaning that he was prepared to argue that individuals can be ‘forced to be free’. Rousseau envisaged such a political system operating in small, relatively egalitarian communities united by a shared civil religion.
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