Jean Jacques Rousseau

Jean Jacques Rousseau

Swiss-born political philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) was an influential French essayist, prominent liberal social theorist and a leading Enlightenment thinker. He argued that political and moral discourses could not be separated, and that the will of the majority was not always correct. Rousseau also critiqued the legitimacy of private property, and laid the groundwork for future political/social theorists such as Karl Marx. Rousseau declared that government's goal should be to provide freedom, equality and justice but noted that freedom often results in inequality.

Rousseau's most famous work was The Social Contract (1762), which supported a direct democracy based on a "general will" rather than republicanism such as that adopted 25 years later by the U.S. Constitution. In it, he further developed the concept of the "social contract" established by Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. Rousseau disapproved of categorical distinctions between social groups. He argued that a liberal conception of human equality should be the basis for human relationships.

Rousseau was critical of Catholicism along with other institutionalized forms of Christianity, believing that mankind would be better off with his idea of a civil religion wedded to the state.

See also

Secular Humanism