Jean-Jacques Rousseau had a theory of human nature that differed from
all others. The way we started, grew as a society, and live now, are totally
different than what we have already learned this semester. He thought of what
is called a Social Contract Theory. This theory will be discussed in this paper,
especially in the aspects of personal freedom, the role of the intellect, human
social and/or spiritual relations, and the nature of the self.
How much personal freedom does a person have? Well, Rousseau would
say that humans do have personal freedom, but that freedom is hard to keep. He
would say that, “Humans are born free, and everywhere they are in
chains.”(notes 11/4/99) To some, this would be hard to grasp at first. To put it simply, we, as humans, are not living the ways that we are supposed to.
Somewhere along the line we got off on a tangent with our development that
changed how we are supposed to live. Everything around us is a burden.
Rousseau then discusses what the original way of living is. He would say that there is an inequality in how we live, because we are born free and that is taken away from us. The chains that led from the inequality are subjugation, dominance, and oppression. These chains are artificial, because we are born free. Humans acquired the chains, Rousseau would argue. He will go on to say that because humans began to rationalize these chains were caused. Thinking rationally creates generalities , and along with the generalities comes labeling people. We began to use reason to get things that we would ca ...