Jean Jacques Rousseau Essays (Examples)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Section From Confessions

The primary confession that Jean Jacques Rousseau makes in this excerpt from his work of literature entitled Confessions is the fact that he was inadvertently responsible for the death of his mother. Evidently, his mother died during or shortly thereafter giving birth to him, because the author writes, "I was born, a poor and sickly child, and cost my mother her life. So my birth was the first of my misfortunes" (Rousseau 167). This confession is extremely deserving of the reader's sympathy, and the author certainly inspires sympathy in me after making this revelation. It is extremely difficult for children to lose their mother; I believe that it is even worse for children to grow up without ever having a mother. This difficulty is inherently exacerbated by seeing other children's mothers, and seeing how valuable they are to the lives of their children, and realizing…

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Personal ackground

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born on June 28th 1712, in Geneva, a French-speaking city-state within Switzerland. He received little formal education and, in 1728, left Geneva to live an unsettled existence, travelling throughout Europe. Although mainly self-taught, Rousseau became a respected novelist, composer, musicologist, and botanist, in addition to his most commonly recognized contribution, as a moral, political and educational philosopher. He first came to prominence as a writer when his essay, Discourse on the Sciences and Arts, was awarded first prize in a competition set by the Academy of Dijon in 1750. He followed this, in 1755, with his Discourse on Inequality and, in 1762, with both Emile, which stated his philosophy on education, and the Social Contract, which remains one of the most influential works of political theory ever to have been written (McLean, 1996).

Main Idea

At the core of Rousseau's philosophy is his…

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Rousseau on Political Representation, Democracy, Law, and the Need for Legislators:

In Book II, Chapter 3, Rousseau expresses the position that a representative form of democratic government undermines a true democracy where each individual maintains his own point-of-view without aligning himself with any sub-group or political party, because:

when factions arise, and partial associations are formed at the expense of the great association, the will of each of these associations becomes general in relation to its members, while it remains particular in relation to the State: it may then be said that there are no longer as many votes as there are men, but only as many as there are associations.... It is therefore essential, if the general will is to be able to express itself, that there should be no partial society within the State, and that each citizen should think only his own thoughts... "

On the…

Jean-Jacques Rousseau is one of the European theorists who has been cited as an inspiration for the Founding Fathers as they wrote the U.S. Constitution and created the American form of government. In some ways, however, they were using what Rousseau wrote as a beginning point and then finding a governmental form to refute some of Rousseau's concerns for what representative government might become if not controlled. The authors of The Federalist Papers answered certain of these concerns, especially regarding concerns about factions and the effect of differences of opinion on the sovereign.

Property in its broadest sense was a concern for Rousseau, as it was for the Founding Fathers. Rousseau believed that the individual in effect own's him or herself, for he states that "no man has a natural authority over his fellow man" (Rousseau, The Basic Political ritings 144). All children are born free:

Their liberty belongs to…

Martin Luther King can also allude to Rousseau in the formation of the concept of civil disobedience. As Scott notes, "Rousseau argues that civil society is based on a contractual arrangement of rights and duties which applies equally to all people, whereby natural liberty is exchanged for civil liberty, and whereby natural rights are exchanged for legal rights." Legal rights are a natural extension of natural human rights. If any law is unjust, then that same law is invalid.

Rousseau seems to be strongly pessimistic about the role of society as a whole and not just government ("ROUSSEAU, Jean-Jacques (1712-78)"). This is because human beings make sacrifices that compromise their natural state of being, which is pure joy. henever a person sacrifices what they want to do for a job or for another person, that act potentially creates unhappiness. At worst, the person acts selfishly and with total disregard to…

For Smith, however, the development of a commercial and economic society leads to the existence of a social structure. This social structure is furthermore divided into three classes - the landowners, the capitalists and the laborers. This is considered by Smith to be the three great constituent that exist in every single civilized society. For him, the introduction of social structures like government and economic classes are the major causes of aggression and war.

The idea that economic progress leads to a need to develop dominance over the less privileged in terms of skills or money by the more privileged is not new. Smith, through his writings and concepts, helps to bring an understanding of the connection between economics and human behavior this insightful and illuminating on a variety of levels. However, what Smith fails to acknowledge is that human beings have choices, and those choices are not solely based…

jean-Jacques rousseau Confessions and others and Frederick Douglas Narrative of the Life

Upon first impression, few similarities appear between Confessions, the autobiography of Jean Jacques Rousseau, and The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. The former is written by a Caucasian European in the 18th century; the latter by an African-American who lived in the 19th century. However, upon examining these works of literature more acutely, a number of similarities between the authors, their lives, and their works of literature emerge. Both men spent a portion of their lives enslaved. Both reveal a number of less than desirable elements of their lives within their manuscripts. Both experienced revelatory moments upon learning to read and write, and went on to engage in careers that were tempered by politics. In retrospect, a close examination of these books reveals that each author had to overcome similar circumstances in life in order to…

Jean Jacques ousseau: An Interesting Mdaman, p .2, the author presents the argument that Jean Jacques ousseau was the most influential of modern intellectuals.

easons

"He popularized and to some extent invented the cult of nature, the taste for the open air, the quest for freshness, spontaneity, the invigorating and the natural" (ousseau 3).

"Second, and linked to his revaluation of nature, ousseau taught distrust of the progressive, gradual improvements brought about by the slow march of materialist culture…" (ousseau 3)

"It was the simple, direct, powerful, indeed passionate, manner in which ousseau wrote which made his notions seem so vivid and fresh, so that they came to men and women with the shock of a revelation" (ousseau 4).

I think the author's argument has this form:

The argument is that ousseau is the most influential of all the modern intellectuals who disavow the church as a source of authority.…

To impart knowledge and to make a child invulnerable to harshness of the world, it was important to connect him to nature and make him an active learner through natural means. The author maintains that "The [rapport] of nature does not depend on us... The one of things depends on us only to some extent...the one of men is the only one of which we are the masters" (Emile 247). He combined nature and education claiming:

What is [the] aim of [education]? It is [the aim] of nature itself.... Since the participation of the three educations is necessary... one must direct the other two toward [nature] about which we can do nothing" (Emile 247)

The few things I truly admire about this theory include the use of nature for familiarizing the child with various objects. I feel that while exposing a child to harshness of nature is synonymous with cruelty,…

Rwandan genocide a philosophical theory (Jean-Jacques Rousseau's theodicy). How philosophy successful

Philosophical Healing

It is extremely interesting to note how much relevance philosophy -- and in particular that which was propagated by Jean-Jacques Roussueau -- has with very pragmatic and lethal matters of reality such as the Rwandan genocide. Many of the very ideas and notions that were of extreme importance to Rousseau factored quite substantially into the reasons for the systematic killing of the Tutsis at the hand of the Hutus. The relationship between the social and political needs for power, dominance, and self-preservation that inspired this ethnic cleansing are merely manifestations of what Rousseau termed self-love in two principle forms, that known as amour de soi and that known as amour propre. An analysis of the different attributes of each of these types of self-love helps to facilitate an understanding of the lurid actions that took place within…

Sovereignty however, as pointed out by ousseau has an internal component as well. It is primarily this component that enables the state to exercise sovereignty at the international level. Although ousseau mentions sovereignty as internal, in the 20th century the issue of sovereignty was much debated in terms of attributes of state at the international level. In terms of ousseau's beliefs, the sovereign, which was usually the head of state, monarch, prince, or emperor had the actual key of the common good. This implied a certain knowledge of what was necessary and important. Automatically, the issue of sovereign became more an aspect of power and submission of the society. However, even so, sovereignty implies freedom of choice at the level of the individual, society, and state. As presented in ousseau's views, the will cannot be transmitted, it can be represented. Thus, the sovereign represents the common will of the individuals.…

He based his theories and ideas on these laws and his property related theories also related to the same ideals. ousseau differed with Locke in his perception of the ideal government. His work 'Social Contract' dealt with the issues related to governments, society, people and property. "ousseau was one of the first modern writers to seriously attack the institution of private property, and therefore is sometimes considered a forebear of modern socialism and communism. ousseau also questioned the assumption that majority will is always correct. He argued that the goal of government should be to secure freedom, equality, and justice for all within the state, regardless of the will of the majority" ('Jean-Jacques ousseau').

If God were considered the supreme lawgiver, then ousseau's sovereign power in this world would be a person who is assigned the task of implementing those laws to construct a livable society. This man would help…

Social Contract by Jean Jacques Rousseau

In The Social Contract, Jean Jacques Rousseau addresses the problem of political obligation and individual freedom. The work consists of four books, each comprising a number of sections that address the above-mentioned issue from several angles. The first book then deals with the troublesome aspect of a human being's apparent perpetual slavery. ook II concerns the issue of sovereignty. Rousseau now shifts his focus from the individual to the human relationship with the State. In ook III there is another shift of focus to government itself, and the various forms that government may take. Finally ook IV draws redresses the issue of the human relationship with the state in the light of the exposition given in the first three books. It is also in this book that he explains the ideal of the social contract, and how the state should work together with its…

In so giving each grants the same rights to others over himself that he is in turn granted by them over them. Each member gains the equivalent of everything he loses, and a greater amount of force to protect what he has. Given these conditions, Rousseau is ready to make his argument:

If therefore one eliminates from the social compact whatever is not essential to it, one will find that it is reducible to the following terms. Each of use places his person and all his power in common under the supreme direction of the general will, and as one we receive each member as an indivisible part of the whole."

By locating the binding force of the state in this concept of a general will, Rousseau thinks he has formulated a source for legitimate power. Of course, how he constructs the state comes to be crucial. The devil, as…

philosophical questions about, Jean Jacque Rousseau, John Dewey, Michel Foucault and Marin Luther King, Jr. It has 4 sources.

Rousseau and Nature"

We are born weak, we need strength; helpless, we need aid; foolish, we need reason. All that we lack at birth, all that we need when we come to man's estate, is the gift of education. This education comes to us from nature, from men, or from things."[Rousseau 143].

According to Rousseau out of the three factors involved in a child's development, Nature, is totally uncontrollable. "Nature, we are told, is merely habit."[20] Habits are a product of positive or negative conditioning. As a child grows in reason he uses judgment to modify his natural tendencies but often this process becomes warped due to already embedded habits. Harmony within is affected when natural tendencies conflict with what a child learns at the hands of society and other men.…

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Here, urke argued that revolution in general, and the French Revolution in particular, must be matched with reason and a reluctance to completely give up to radical thinking.

Rousseau gave in directly to the revolution, arguing that it is a direct result of man's socialization, but urke was much more cautious: Revolution is not automatically good for urke, nor is it intrinsic to man.

Given urke's record as a strong supporter of American independence and as a fighter against royalism in England, many readers and thinkers were taken aback when urke published his Reflections on the Revolution in France in 1790. With this work, urke suddenly went on to became one of the earliest and most passionate English critics of the French Revolution, which he interpreted not as movement towards a representative, constitutional democracy but instead as a violent rebellion against tradition and justified authority and as an experiment…

. . while defending these institutions themselves" (1034-1035). Peled further argues that Rousseau was not able to solve this paradox and it was one of the reasons why he became increasingly pessimistic about modernity. But Rousseau's attempts to reconcile the contradiction in his approach are worth looking at in details.

Although Rousseau abhorred inequality that rose out of private property, he did not hold any illusions about modernity. He believed that private property became an essential component of the modern bourgeois society and economic relations in the modern era could not be free from errors and corruption. So, Rousseau thought that the best solution to modern inequality was to allow private property in limited amounts and regulate it through the state that represents the common will. In a perfect society imagined by Rousseau, the state would honor the right to possess private property but at the same time would retain…

Kant and Rousseau

Reducing Conflicts Between States

The Theories of the Great Philosophers Rousseau and Kant

The great philosophers of the 18th century were the first of their kind to fully encapsulate what it meant to be an ethnocentric state, rather than a simple nation or territory, and also were the first philosophers able to address the question of war between states as not merely individual struggles for dominance, but rather persistent frictions present in the system of states themselves. The formal idea of statehood came of age in the Peace of estphalia in 1648, which ended the Thirty Year's ar, and affirmed the domination of the central government of each state as the supreme power of the land, rather than any religious or social power. At this time, every state was essentially a dictatorship, and the world was divided into fiefdoms. The peace reached at estphalia created the conditions…

- these actions are not punished by the law because, while immoral according to many, they do not cause injury to the rights of others.

Adam Smith further emphasizes the centrality of property rights. For Smith, the ownership and acquisition of private property is an essential right that contributes to and maintains individual well-being. Individuals who do not own property are individuals with no real say in their own affairs, and no voice in their government. Smith cites the case of the plebeians in the Roman Empire as an example of a class of people who were purposely kept from ownership of the land as a means of keeping power in the hands of the patricians.

He also makes reference to the slaves of his own day, and to residents of nations where a king may, at his own discretion, dispose of his subjects' property, as examples of conditions under…

Rousseau offers a mix of philosophical notions of liberty with advice and opinions on how to structure a government that promotes equality and liberty, but not excessively so, that the will of the majority or strong overcomes the will or the rights of the minority. as, unlike the founders of America, Rousseau was not concerned with a real, live, specific historical situation he could to some extent afford to be more theoretical in his orientation. The philosopher Immanuel Kant was even more concerned with the philosophical notions of liberty, but he detached them from their functioning in government and instead was concerned about human being's innate liberty to do morally good or evil actions. Kant saw morality as existing not as something that could be constructed at will by human beings, but as something that existed for all time, and to be commensurate with the categorical imperative, people must act…

Hobbes and Rousseau

The notion of the social contract -- the concept that human society is fundamentally a human construct -- originated in seventeenth-century European thought and was developed throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, receiving perhaps its most dramatic and influential expressions in Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan, published in 1651, and Jean-Jacque Rousseau's The Social Contract, published in 1762. The notion of the social contract itself arises from a conception of the condition of humanity before the contract was established, the so-called 'state of nature', and each of these works embodies a contrasting view of the state of nature from which human society has arisen.

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) believed that politics was a science kin to geometry, and that political institutions could be understood using scientific principles. He perceived humans as objects pushed back and forth by powerful forces similar to those that acted upon objects in the physical universe,…

Wollstonecraft & J.J. Rousseau

The influence of humanity and reason in the works of Mary Wollstonecraft and Jean Jacques Rousseau on education and women

The age of Enlightenment put forth the importance of humanism and reason, concepts that creates a balance between humanity's innate tendency to experience emotions while at the same time, cultivating a rational view of experiencing sensations and interactions around him/her. Indeed, discourses that were created and published in the 18th century reflected the use of reason in order to elucidate the nature of human beings. 'Enlightenment discourses,' in effect, provide an important insight into the humanism and reason that dwells inside the human mind.

These important concepts of the Enlightenment were shown in the works of Mary Wollstonecraft and Jean Jacques Rousseau. oth being proponents and believers of the principles reflective of the Enlightenment, they expressed their views of how humanism and reason influenced their position…

The difference resides in the use of the vocabulary. Values can not be decided upon in an arbitrary manner.

In his Two Treatises of government, Locke states that it is people's very own nature which endows them with rights. Under these circumstances, civil society can be considered to exist before the birth of the state. It is society which guarantees the legitimacy of the state and which guarantees a principle of order. The state is a mere instrument through which justice is being done.

When agreeing to the social contract people endow a single authority with an overwhelming power. This authority will make sure that everybody benefits from an impartial justice. Life, liberty and property are the most important rights that the new authority has to protect. In case of a conflict, people will have to make sure that the just principles win.

The role of the government for example…

d.).

Hewett (2006) stated Locke believed that merely facts from abstract ideas are eternal "as the existence of things is to be known only from experience," this moreover emphasize his line of reasoning that related to morality for he added that "the truth and certainty of moral discourses abstracts from the lives of men, and the existence of those values in the world, whereof they treat." Locke believed in inquiring everything and denying the authority either of the past or of the clergy for he desired everyone to depend on their own judgment and reasoning which is exactly the he created an contention to defend believing in God, and made sure to rebut the thought that reason is different to faith, saying that faith can never sway us of anything that opposes our knowledge and disagreeing that, apart from in the instance of divine revelation, people must constantly look first…

1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Rousseau stated in his Social Contract that “Man is born free—and everywhere he is in chains.”[footnoteRef:2] The insistence on man’s nature right of freedom from the Enlightenment Era philosopher helped pave the way for the French Revolution with its insistence on liberty, fraternity and equality. A century and a half later, those same ideals would still hold significant appeal for the Western nations, especially following two World Wars in the 20th century that decimated Europe and parts of Asia. Liberalism was the main driver of the UN’s declaration of human rights—but the coming Cold War, the onset of which was very much in the minds of world leaders immediately following the carve-up of Europe between the unlikely Allies (capitalists in the West, Communists in the East), also played a part in the declaration: the West was anxious to promote itself as the standard bearer…

Jean Jacques Rousseau and Karl Marx are famous political philosophers, whose ideas in many ways had influenced the development of social formation in modern times, and what is most interesting is that ideas of both were realized in certain ways on practice. Jean Jacques Rousseau prophesied modern democratic institutions that laid into the fundamental of many modern nations; his ideas of "social contract" are the main principles of modern democracy, parliamentary political systems and relations between nation and state. On the other hand the ideas of Karl Marx, who explained an "unavoidable crash" of society with capitalist relations, into a new formation governed by the "dictatorship of proletariat" or a state with no private property, failed to be effective instrument of political and social regulation and did not meet the expectations, probably because the societies where those ideas were tested were not ready at all for radical changes. As both…

His quarrel was not with the Supreme Being as such, but with the over-dogmatic Catholicism that inspired him with a sense of awe because of its idolatry and its blind submission to the dogmas: "I had that particular aversion our city entertains for Catholicism, which is represented there as the most monstrous idolatry, and whose clergy are painted in the blackest colors."(Rousseau, 49) Rousseau feels entrapped by the strict code of Catholicism. The witty comparison that he makes between the bells that called him to mass and those that called him to breakfast, i.e. To partake of the pleasures of life, is very telling: "If the bells of the viaticum alarmed me, the chiming for mass or vespers called me to a breakfast, a collation, to the pleasure of regaling on fresh butter, fruits, or milk."(Rousseau, 52) the author feels more comfortable with his own religion, Protestantism, than with Catholicism…

Locke and Rousseau on the Question of Inequality

John Locke's Second Treatise of Government argues that "men are naturally free" (55). In other words, Locke believed that humans, in their natural state, and prior to the creation of civil society, would have been a kind of sovereign entity, possessing a set of natural rights prescribed by God and nature, and those rights would have afforded individuals the opportunity to protect themselves against the transgressions of others. Societies, for their part, were set up in order to avoid civil, interpersonal, or foreign wars -- wars that might have occurred over a dispute, for example, about property. Locke believed that in the early stages of evolution, humans would have lived with one another as co-owners of the earth and its resources, and given this type of communal existence, humans were all equal. In the natural world, a natural set of laws took…

Social Contract, Rousseau argues that we are all born free and equal, yet do not live either freely or equally. Rousseau then goes on to argue that the construction of the General Will is the means by which people can achieve freedom. The General Will is the social contract where all members of society agree to obey the General Will to be part of society. Rousseau argues that by this General Will, the separate wills of each member of society converge into one. Freedom is achieved because every citizen is equal, each being a single unit of the General Will and having the same amount of influence over it. Rousseau argues that this General Will is the way individuals in society retain their equality and find freedom. Further consideration of the implications of the General Will and the social contract will show that Rousseau's version of freedom and equality may…

Firmin / Gobineau etc.

Is race a construct of the Enlightenment? Obviously the European encounter with a racially-constructed "other" begins a long time before the Enlightenment, with Montaigne's cannibals and Shakespeare's Caliban. But the Enlightenment facilitated a kind of scientism in thought that not only gave rise to new disciplines (like anthropology) but also permitted pseudo-science, like the so-called "scientific racism" of the Comte de Gobineau. I would like to examine how the question of race is first framed by Enlightenment thinkers, but then is later transformed in the twentieth century by thinkers like .E.B. DuBois. If indeed DuBois was correct that "the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line," I will also show how those in the Negritude movement sought to overturn the assumptions of racism while essentially upholding the abstract values of the Enlightenment.

Diderot's Encyclopedie and Rousseau's Discours are both central documents…

Progress

Jean-Jacques ousseau on the Origin of Inequality

There are apparent relations that exist between human beings and nature and also among themselves. In these relations also exists differences especially among human beings which attract a lot of attention and need explanations since if all are human beings then why the differences that exist among them. If all mankind have the same will and are from the same source, be it the evolutionary or the supernatural source, then there should be equal opportunities that would make man have equal chances and hence same lifestyle within the community, however, this is not the situation hence the need to get an explanation as to why these differences and discrepancies that exist between people. There have been various attempts to explain what brings the differences between people and among the philosophers that have given famous and renowned explanations is Jean-Jacques ousseau in his…

" [EU: I.III, 3]

Locke consistently favored the role played by parents in early childhood education for he argued that children learn best when they are exposed to knowledge from an early age by their parents. Nurturing by adults was thus an essential component of Locke's education philosophy.

However ousseau did not agree with such intervention. He felt that a child could develop his mental capacities best when allowed to use his own reason without supervision of a guide. The role of nature is more important in ousseau's education philosophy and hence he opposed Locke's views on nurturing. ousseau felt a child had the natural capacity to make sense of his surroundings, gain knowledge from it on his own and hence self-educate himself. He thus doesn't need to depend on adults but rather only on his own reasoning faculty. He thus encouraged freedom and non-habitual learning: He explained that a…

There are others though that believes that learners are born with certain innate capabilities that are then shaped and formed from the outside (Montessori theory, 2011)

No matter which theory one looks at though the bottom line is that each philosophy is based on the idea that everything possible should be done to encourage as much learning as possible. All philosophies are based on the fact that education should be about learning and that no matter how the learning takes place, what environment is takes place in or under what circumstances the edn result should be something was learned. Educational philosophy in general believes that in order for people to be successful and productive they must learn as much as possible and that this should be done by way of formal education.

eferences

Chinn, C. (2012). Epistemological Beliefs. etrieved from http://www.education.com/reference/article/epistemological-beliefs/

Evers, W.M. (2012). How Progressive Education Gets it Wrong.…

John Stuart Mill and the idea of equality

Society typically views the triad nexus of politicians, bureaucracies and the financial elite suspiciously, believing they breach the common man’s rights, and, consequently, strives to ensure they behave as it desires. Mills argues, “the government, whether completely responsible to the people or not, will often attempt to control the expression of opinion, except when in doing so it makes itself the organ of the general intolerance of the public (pg. 376).”

The above societal attitude is understandable as this triad nexus has violated people’s will and freedom. As a result, democracies were created in which the common man is allowed to take part in national decision-making. However, in a democratic system the community will govern governmental decisions, giving rise to a self-governing nation. However, Mills warns and asserts that in democratic systems, public opinion (i.e., the majority’s opinion) quells the minority’s views…

Reconciliation of the Liberties

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a philosopher in the eighteenth century who wrote about topics as varied as religion and politics. He famously worked on a treatise with respect to government that attempted to explain what government should be. His thoughts, called "On the Social Contract," were an attempt to reconcile the liberties of the ancients and the moderns (as they were called being, as yet, modern to Rousseau). His belief was that actual government should be as close to true human nature as is possible. This nature, he said, was such that it wanted no government, but that it needed to be a part of a collective to receive both protection and goods. He related that there were ancient societies which tried to do this, and that the liberty of the moderns was much the same because people did not change. The general nature of man had…

ealist, Liberal, Critical Theorist

ousseau: ealist, Liberal, Critical Theorist?

What is ousseau's real Philosophical identity?

There are several questions and ideas to be addressed and analyzed in this paper. One: Is Jean-Jacques ousseau a realist -- can it be said from the assigned essay, without equivocation that his views follow those of classic realism? (ealism: the doctrine that puts forth the idea that universals only exist outside one's mind; the insistence that all things in the empirical world should be explained in terms of the "real world" and not in terms of abstractions or perceptions.)

Based on this essay, is ousseau a liberal in the tradition sense -- not today's "liberal" in the popular juxtaposition of "liberal" and "conservative" -- and do his views follow that thread throughout his extensive narrative? (Liberalism: a moral philosophy that emphasizes religious toleration, personal freedom, governments being led by consent of the governed, economic…

He had an opportunity to utilize his theories when he became head of the Florentine militia and helped overthrow the de Medici family rulers. His byword was "force and prudence," and he believed that demonstrating a combination of these two things is the mark of an effective leader. Kotter may agree that prudence is a valuable characteristic in a leader, but disagrees with the outdated principle of force, saying that change cannot be forced, it must be incorporated into one's life and future:

Change sticks only when it becomes "the way we do things around here," when it seeps into the very bloodstream of the work unit or corporate body. Until new behaviors are rooted in social norms and shared values, they are always subject to degradation as soon as the pressures associated with a change effort are removed (Kotter, 1996, 14).

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was an influential philosopher, artist and…

Enlightenment on the French evolution

evolutionary changes in the leadership of 18th Century France did not occur overnight or with some sudden spark of defiance by citizens. The events and ideals which led to the French evolution were part of a gradual yet dramatic trend toward individualism, freedom, liberty, self-determination and self-reliance which had been evolving over years in Europe, and which would be called The Enlightenment. This paper examines and analyses the dynamics of The Enlightenment - and also, those individuals who contributed to the growth of The Enlightenment and to the ultimate demise of the Monarchy - in terms of what affect it had on the French evolution.

Introduction to the French evolution

When the legitimate question is raised as to what role, if any, The Enlightenment played in the French evolution, the best evidence from credible historic sources is that The Enlightenment did indeed play an important…

Classic Liberalism Tradition

Classical liberalism tradition comes from a tradition of thinkers who developed an ideology, rather than a political system. Although many say that classical liberalism stopped after the nineteenth century, libertarians argue that is no interruption in the classical liberal tradition. Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Karl Marx offer a critique of various aspects of the Classical Liberal Tradition argument.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was somewhat supportive of the liberalism tradition, which argues that society exists in order to protect the basic inalienable rights of its citizens. However, he also disagreed with the tradition.

According to Rousseau" "Man is born free and yet we see him everywhere in chains. Those who believe themselves the masters of other ceases not to be even greater slaves than the people they govern. How this happens, I am ignorant but I believe it may be in my power to resolve the question." (p. 205)…

This is one of the major aspects of Romanticism, a notion that was entirely missing from raising children up to this point.
ook II of Emile describes the educational framework of a child's formative years, most likely from the approximate ages of seven to eleven or twelve, within Rousseau's philosophy. In this theory, education in this stage should take place within the context of personal experiences and interactions with the outside world. The emphasis should be on developing the senses and drawing inferences from them. ook III has the child successfully integrated with the physical world and ready to make a decision regarding his trade, which Rousseau believed was necessary in order for him to search out the appropriate role models and focus on the necessary skills.
ook IV is the section that interests this writer the most. The child is now physically strong and able to carefully observe and…

civilized societies develop rules and laws that its members are expected to follow. The rules are in place for the purpose of cohesive living among the community and for the most part they have a positive impact on the society that they govern. In this scenario the rules and laws are not followed and in fact are completely disobeyed, yet the person who violates the societal norm not only gets away with it, but he is rewarded for his actions by being elected as a leader and ruling in power for the remainder of his life. Two well-known philosophers bring to light some understanding about how this could have happened.

In the scenario a man named John murders a mean and ruthless person who has lied and cheated his way to the top. The victim is so rich that others in the community are forced to go hungry while he…

(Ng, 1994, p. 93)

The philosophy of Confucius was based essentially on that of human relationships expanded to the sphere of the state, and even beyond into the cosmos. ight conduct and proper action among individuals and groups would result in an ordered universe, one that operated according to the proper laws. By cultivating these believes and following these rules one could hope to produce a society that was perfectly ordered and self-perpetuating. The Confucian ideal of leadership has endured today among many, not only in China, but in many parts of East Asia, and has even attracted followers in the West, for it addresses the issue of responsibility as a metaphor for virtue and harmony.

Far less idealistic were the ideas of the enaissance thinker, Niccolo Machiavelli. Machiavelli lived in Italy at a time when its various princes were contending for power. The region was riven by war and…

noble savage..." etc.

The Noble, Savage Age of Revolution

When Europeans first came to America, they discovered that their providentially discovered "New World" was already inhabited by millions of native peoples they casually labeled the "savages." In time, Europeans would decimate this population, killing between 95-99% of the 12 million plus inhabitants of the Northern Continent, and as many in the south. efore this genocide was complete, however, the culture of the natives would significantly influence the philosophy and politics of the nations that conquered them. The native societies, with their egalitarian social structures, natural absence of disease, communal sharing of resources, and their lifestyles in which work was easily balanced with art and play, seemed like something Europeans had lost when Adam and Eve left Eden. "Native societies, especially in America, reminded Europeans of imagined golden worlds known to them only in folk history. . . Created of European…

The Sovereign can only demand from the citizens those services that serve for the purpose of the community (ousseau, 15).

ousseau explains why the general will "is always in the right" in a civil society (idem). The society is always conditioned by "the true principle of equity" (idem) that should guide its laws. A civil society binds its citizens under the same conditions and gives them the same rights. The absolute power of the body politic, that is, the Sovereign, is legitimate in making an act of sovereignty because "it is based on the social contract, and equitable, because common to all" (idem, 16).

The civil society provides its members a "better and more secure life" than what they had before uniting in forming it (idem, 16). The civil society gives its citizens liberty in exchange for their natural independence, security, in exchange for the right to harm others and…

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Chomsky warns of ideological motivations of some scientific paradigms, just as with the aforementioned racial emphasis of early anthropology. Here, Russell espouses a Platonic episteme by enunciating the expectations of behavior between different classes. While Plato philosophized that persons are born with the characteristics fitting of their caste, Russell envisages a society in which "ordinary" men and women are expected to be collectivized and, therefore, devoid of individual expression.

Jean Jacques Rousseau paid his respects to the philosophy of Plato, although he thought it impractical, citing the decayed state of society. This sort of romanticism has been downplayed by the modern scientific establishment, who denounce the noble savage theory of human nature. Humans are not born purely good, modern science maintains. Instead, evolutionary traits are promoted at the biological level, thereby giving rise to how people are. It is not society that corrupts, but rather an interrelationship between…

Philosophy

The Greek philosopher Plato's concept of justice in "The Republic" demonstrates his belief in the path towards rationality of the individual and society. In his discourse, he talks about the rational individual as a just individual and is guided by the pursuit of the common good. The philosopher demonstrates this by justifying that in one's pursuit to achieve self-discovery and self-realization, it is inevitable that one should interact with his/her society. Once the individual realizes his/her fullest potential and demonstrates this by committing just acts, then society in effect becomes influenced by this act of justice. However, Plato also clarifies that a just and unjust individual may pursue different paths and goals in life, but in the end, both individuals contribute to the coherence and harmony in the society. The just individual showed what behavior is desirable because it is beneficial for the society, while the unjust individual becomes…

He believed that if people join together and make a social contract they can both preserve their nation and remain free (Rousseau 93).

The French Revolution (1789-1799) was a ten-year period of upheaval in France as it was throughout Europe during the period which followed the American Revolution. In France, the political climate changed from a monarchy with aristocrats and much influence by the Catholic Church to a democracy. Citizens formulated their desires for rights and privileges equal to the aristocracy and, fighting for this ideal, won it.

The preamble to the French Constitution is a "Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen." The Declaration of Rights says that "No one shall be disturbed for his opinions, even religious, provided their manifestation does not disturb the public order established by law" (Knight 2).

The Constitution of the United States also has a preamble that declares that the…

history of human civilization, the Scientific evolution emerged during the 17th century, which happened right after the enaissance Period. The Scientific evolution is the period in history wherein scientific methods and results where arrived at using experimentation and the use of scientific instruments such as the telescope, microscope, and thermometer (Microsoft Encarta 2002). The Scientific evolution is attributed to Galileo Galilei, who proposed that the universe and its elements can be explained mathematically, while subsisting to the fact the Sun is the center of the solar system. During the enaissance Period, Nicolaus Copernicus had declared that the Sun is the center of the solar system, but his declaration is only descriptive, while Galileo's declaration is verified through experimentation and the scientific method. This important distinction is the main reason why Galileo's time was considered the Scientific evolution, primarily because it uses the scientific method of research and experimentation.

Studies and…

Pleasure Garden

In the eighteenth century, the concept of pleasure gardens flourished in Britain, a trend that could be traced partly to the relatively stable democratic government coupled with the international trade that thrived at that time in London. Vauxhall Gardens was perhaps the most famous pleasure garden according to the lectures. Founded in 1661, it reached the peak of popularity during the early years of the nineteenth century. It became a model for several other pleasure gardens in Europe, like the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen. Historians believed it was arguably the first modern amusement park. Some of the most popular entertainments offered in Vauxhall were firework displays, theatre shows, theatrical entertainments as well as dancing floors and drinking booths. Both Vauxhall and Tivoli Gardens were so popular that they became generic names for all pleasure gardens in both Europe and the United States (UoS 2015). According to the course,…

Role of Democracy in the Middle East

There has recently been a wave of democratic uprisings sweeping across the Middle East. Starting in Tunisia, the call for democratic reforms spread through Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Jordan, Syria, Iran and many other nations. Many have likened these uprisings to the social unrest of 1848, which gave rise to the Communist Revolution of 1917, but they do so wrongly. hile the popular uprisings that continue to inflame the Middle East may have some of the same causes as in 1848, rising food prices and high unemployment, the current unrest lacks the ideological component. The protestors do not want to destroy their government, they want to reform it. In this way the uprisings of 2011 are more akin toward the establishment of a Rousseau-inspired representative republic in that the people were demanding, not a complete social restructuring, but a representative form of government that…

Introduction
The Central Question
How important is it that IR (International Relations) scholars reflect on the relationship between power and knowledge? From a feminist theory perspective, it is critical for IR scholars to highlight the relationship between power and knowledge in order to uncover the gender dynamics of power and knowledge in an IR setting. Feminism is more than simply a theory about women—it also provides a framework for understanding gender and gender constructs and how these constructs impact international relations.[footnoteRef:2] In order for IR scholars to excel in their work and more fully understand the parameters of IR, they have to be attentive to the socio-political implications of the political structures within which they work. [2: Christine Sylvester, “The Contributions of Feminist Theory to International Relations,” International Theory: positivism and beyond (1996), 254.]
Key Terms
Feminist IR theory proceeds from Critical theory, which is based on past fundamentally disruptive theories…

Americans: Environmental Collapse and the End of Civilization" by Jared Diamond.

With a BA from Harvard University and PhD from Cambridge University, as well as a vast amount of works published, professor Diamond uses his extensive knowledge as well as his equally extensive field work and research to put on the table what he found disturbing about the fall by self-destruction of ancient civilizations, among which, he focuses on that of the Mayas.

The author opens his essay with Percy Shelly's poem, Ozymandias, using poetry to appeal to the reader's sensibilities. By creating a sad, hopeless atmosphere, he is setting the tone in anticipation of the rest of the essay. His choice for the poem of an incurable romantic as Shelley, may seem odd for the opening of an essay about the environment. However, it strikes several cords and thus opens the reader's heart instead of just one's mind. This…

Robespierre had Danton and his followers arrested, convicted, and beheaded.

A movie produced on Danton by Poland's Andrzej Wajda in 1983 clearly showed the zeal of the revolutionaries against this Rule of Terror (Weiss). The movie argues that Robespierre was so concerned with keeping his own power, he destroyed the principles on which the revolution was founded. In a scene of the film, the onvention realizes Robespierre's intentions, and someone yells, "Down with the dictator!" Robespierre destroys the revolution by using violence to enforce democratic ideals. During the trial Danton sums up what Robespierre has done: "Revolutionary principles have made you forget the revolution."

The Enlightenment ended after the devastation of the French Revolution and Napoleonic era, rise of a religious revival and growth of the Industrial Revolution and business class. However, much of the philosophies of this time continue today through constitutions of countries including the U.S.'

France was…

In the period between the evolution and the drafting of the Constitution, Jefferson noted that the eventual existence of a dictator in place of a king in Ancient ome clearly indicated the existence of real failings within the oman system:

dictator is entirely antithetical to republicanism's "fundamental principle...that the state shall be governed as a commonwealth," that there be majority rule, and no prerogative, no "exercise of [any] powers undefined by the laws." "Powers of governing...in a plurality of hands." (Zuckert, 1996, p. 214)

As a result, Jefferson, like the philosophes before him (and the Iroquois) would turn to ideas that would balance the necessary evils of government power with the rights of the people. James Madison agreed wholeheartedly, and urged in "Government of the United States" that a constitutional government based on separation of powers was the only sure way of preventing the country from taking the "high road…

American evolution Was Modeled After evolutions in France and England

The American quest for freedom, modeled after reform movements in England and France, has resulted in the most revered democratic society in the world. We are free of the religious and political tyranny that plagued Europe in the 18th Century and early colonialists would approve of our government in 2002.

While the American evolution and the quest for freedom was modeled after revolutions in France and England, the United States has done something that its European relatives admire - it achieved a stable democracy free of aristocratic and religious tyranny - and this was accomplished in a relatively bloodless fashion.

Our success would meet with accolades from European philosophers and historians including Jean-Jacques ousseau, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Thomas Paine and Francois Furet. However, our success has also many developing nations and Middle East nations to regard us as arrogant…

ith a new suit of clothes, Adams implies, on a body that has no more power and mystery than a manikin, you have the phoniness of an education in the 19th Century. Adams' Preface sets the reader up brilliantly for this journey (to follow) into his rant against the mechanical replacing the spiritual.

In conclusion, another critic, Louis Kronenberger, writes in The New Republic (Kronenberger, 1939) that Adams' "most responsive readers" were those following orld ar I who had "reason to believe that American life had failed them." And to those intellectuals in America who "still retained...vestiges of the American moralist," Adams "grim citation of a century's crimes and blunders helped explain the plight of the modern world."

hen looking objectively at the beak condition of the American moral landscape today, in 2006, and seeing how little respect the European community - and much of the rest of the world…

eligious Liberty as Stated in the First Amendment

eligious Liberty

The practical and legal ramifications of religious liberty are not difficult to determine, for they follow from the theological implications of the concept of religious liberty. The idea of religious truth, such as defined by the North Carolina state government in 1776 which forbade anyone from serving who denied the truth of the Protestant religion, has no place in a country that holds religious liberty as law. Yet, religious liberty has not always been practiced, as North Carolina and Maryland (which was officially declared an Anglican state in 1692) both show. Today, the first amendment has been ratified to make such claims untenable. Nonetheless, many scholars question whether religious liberty itself is defensible. By acknowledging the right of religions to be exercised publicly, the U.S. constitution sets the stage for a massive fight between various and contending religious beliefs, which…

History of Crime and Punishment in Europe 17C-18C

This paper traces the history crime and punishment in Europe. It looks at the influences of that time the social and philosophical movements and how they affected the whole evolution of treatment of crime and the thought behind punishment. The paper details about the neoclassical period its forbearers and how they regarded the issue of crime and punishment and their assumptions regarding the problem.

Crime is as old as civilization itself and where you find groups of people, you will consistently find some shape of criminal activity. You will also find punishment. The criminal has always been seen as undermining the values and, even, the very fabric of the society she or he deceives. Accordingly, those found out or found culpable have often been dealt with unsympathetically. Again, the Jewish Mythology will spring to the Western mind with its mantra of an…

Montessori & High Scope

In order for students understand the contemporary curriculum, it is important that they be able to connect it to themselves in a meaningful way. This is particularly true in the modern classroom that is more diverse than ever before. Connection involves drawing on prior knowledge and experience in order to relate to the text. In this way, the students become participants in the story and are apt to be engaged in the reading process. There are a number of approaches to early-childhood education that range in nature and focus. The HighScope program was developed using the work of both John Dewey and Jean Piaget, as well as the constructivist approach to classroom learning from educational philosopher Lev. Vygotsky. The basic presumption is taking the child's development at present and helping them build upon it continually, pushing the "zone of development" up through a series of steps…

One can run up against the barriers of entrenched social class, or perhaps lack certain required distinctions or certifications that readily confer status. hile few modern nations claim to possess hereditary classes, most do possess groups of individuals who control vast amounts of family wealth, and the power that goes with it. Many other individuals, by virtue of the social status of their families possess at least the resources to obtain college degrees, or open businesses of their own - all things that will improve their social status. Others lack these things and seem, despite socio-political theories to the contrary, to be condemned to a life as low status individuals. As in the past, inequality exists today, even in a supposedly equal society.

orks Cited

http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98676781

Angle, John. "The Surplus Theory of Social Stratification and the Size Distribution of Personal ealth." Social Forces 65.2 (1986): 293-326.

A www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=109779547

Maisels, Charles…