Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-78)

Swiss/French Philosopher, member of the philosophes who influenced the French Revolution

Key text: Social Contract (1762)

Self-determination- The people governing themselves to create laws and principles which reflect their understanding of common good

Human Nature

-people are rational beings who desire their own freedom

-Will form a social contract with state

The Nation and the State

-allegiance to the nation will hold people together

-The basis of any legitimate state has to be the nation. The nation is the vehicle for self-determination

-Poland an example of states held together by patriotism, reinforced by education and establishing a democratic form of representative government rather than allegiance to a monarch.

-influenced the third clause in the French post-revolutionary clause: the source of all sovereignty is in the nation; no individual can exercise authority that does no proceed from it in plain terms.

-responsible for the universal compulsory force which makes people give up a portion of power, goods and liberty in order to benefit the greater community. A very vague term

Society

-Political society must be base on national self-determination

-Nationalism, Freedom and good government go hand in hand

-’general will’ and interpreted by Fascists to mean the spirit of the nation which allowed them to argue it could not be expressed in conventional democracy but an all powerful individual

Equality

-individual and collective freedom

culture and tradition

-as a revolutionary he rejected tradition but valued highly French culture

Emotional sentiment

-For the people of France