Rousseau\'s Social Contract Theory Man

Rousseau's Social Contract Theory

Man is born free, but everywhere, he is in chains. Jean Jacque Rousseau's famous opening lines in The Social Contract conveys how individuals voluntarily give up their personal freedoms in order to reap the benefits of being part of a social order.

This paper discusses how this social contract develops, and how the contract continues to ensure moral order in our time.

Like his predecessor Thomas Hobbes, Rousseau believed that the general state of nature was not conducive to the development of a cooperative society. Hobbes believed that people only obey the rule of order due to "fear of death." Hobbes further believed that the Laws of Nature clearly show that life is "nasty, brutish and short."

People are constantly engaged in a state of war over scarce resources such as food. Reasonable people will therefore strive to seize what they need, in order to survive. This bleak scenario, according to Hobbes, represented the state of nature, in which humans must somehow survive.

However, Rousseau differed significantly from his predecessor regarding how to survive in this state of nature. Hobbes believed that the answer lies in a leader who was "arbitrary and awful," a leviathan. Rousseau, however, argued for the possibility of a more stable and cooperative state of nature. Two things would need to happen for Rousseau's vision to be achieved. First, people must agree not to harm one another. After all, cooperation would not be possible if people constantly feared theft, attacks or worse. Second, since cooperative society necessitates a division of labor, people must abide by their agreements. They must fulfill obligations made to one another.

What would guarantee that people would not harm one another and fulfill their obligations? After all, people may be tempted to steal another person's food or to renege on promises when it is in their interests to do so. Rousseau believes that the reason majority of society members abide by these two rules is the Social Contract. People enter into a social contract with one another, and with the rest of society, to escape the bleakness characterizing the state of nature.

Rousseau's implication is that a significant change takes place inside a person when he or she enters into the social contract.

A person becomes a very different creature, often agreeing to leave his or her natural state towards self-interest behind. A person who enters into such civilized relations loses his or her natural liberty, which Rousseau characterizes as "the absolute right to anything that tempts him."

Thus, a person must learn to stifle the natural inclination to steal what one needs from another human being.

In return, however, a person gains a "voice of duty." This voice allows a civilized person to put aside his or her self-interest, in order to uphold an abstract "general good." A person who has accepted the social contract therefore puts aside the anti-social natural inclinations described by Hobbes. In their place, a person agrees to abide by the rules of society and the social order. In a sense, the acceptance of the social contract makes society possible.

At first, it may seem that people lose a significant amount of their natural liberties when they enter into the social contract. However, how much liberty can there be in the bleak state of nature, where one constantly fears attack from other humans?

Rousseau-based analysis would locate more important freedoms in the fact that a cooperative society would ensure greater personal freedoms for all. There is much to be gained by voluntarily chaining one's natural freedoms, in order to gain the advantages of being in society.

Rousseau's writings continue to be relevant today, as social contract theorists see morality as a set of rules. For these theorists, these rules govern how people should treat one another. These rules place restrictions on individual behavior, and all rational people accept these rules because it is to everyone's benefit to ensure order. Corollary to this, the rational people who abide by these rules have a right to expect others to do so as well. In the United States, for example, Americans are required to give up a significant portion of their incomes to pay for federal and state income taxes. In return, however, they get services such as public schools, Medicare, interstate highway systems and sanitation services.