General will, in political theory, a collectively held will that aims at the common good or common interest. In Du Contrat social (1762; The Social Contract), Rousseau argued that freedom and authority are not contradictory, since legitimate laws are founded on the general will of the citizens.

Rousseau argued that the general will of the people could not be decided by elected representatives. He believed in a direct democracy in which everyone voted to express the general will and to make the laws of the land. Rousseau had in mind a democracy on a small scale, a city-state like his native Geneva.

Summary Summary. With the famous phrase, “man is born free, but he is everywhere in chains,” Rousseau asserts that modern states repress the physical freedom that is our birthright, and do nothing to secure the civil freedom for the sake of which we enter into civil society.

The Social Contract aims to set out an alternative to this dystopia, an alternative in which, Rousseau claims, each person will enjoy the protection of the common force whilst remaining as free as they were in the state of nature.

Social contract. Initially proposed by Socrates, this was an agreement between people of a society to abide by laws and accept punishment (if you live in a society, you agree to follow the rules). People agree to sacrifice some liberty in order to gain more protection. You just studied 6 terms!

Specifically for law enforcement, social contract theory is important to justify the power that law enforcement can exert over the population as a whole (Evans and MacMillan, 2014). The power imbalance, held by law enforcement, is part of the contract that society has agreed upon in exchange for security.

Rousseau s theory of education emphasized the importance of expression to produce a well-balanced, freethinking child. He believed that if children are allowed to develop naturally without constraints imposed on them by society they will develop towards their fullest potential, both educationally and morally.

Methods of teaching Rousseau has suggested the following methods for teaching: 1 Example is better than perception 2 Social knowledge should be imparted through social participation. 3 Individual instruction should be given. 4 Heuristic method should be applied. 5 Direct experience should be given.

Important Scientific Research and Open Questions

For Locke, no collective agreement is necessary for the creation of private property as reason itself vindicates and affirms this right. Labor endows property with its legitimacy. Rousseau, on the other hand, finds nothing natural in the institution of private ownership.

Social contract theory, nearly as old as philosophy itself, is the view that persons’ moral and/or political obligations are dependent upon a contract or agreement among them to form the society in which they live.

A social contract protects rights in exchange for the people accepting obligations to both their fellow man and to the institutions of society and government.

Social contracts can be explicit, such as laws, or implicit, such as raising one’s hand in class to speak. The U.S. Constitution is often cited as an explicit example of part of America’s social contract. It sets out what the government can and cannot do.

Laws help to make sure people have rights and that their rights are protected. One kind of social contract is a constitution. A constitution says how decisions are made, and sets limits on the powers of leaders and other people who have authority. Rousseau wrote a book called The Social Contract.

The theory of social contract is still relevant in our contemporary political philosophy regarding the issue of the political authority legitimization.

Contractarians often present a scenario in which no moral or political principles have been accepted yet, and we need to find some of those principles. The contractarian argues that the principles we would accept in the scenario they present are those we should accept in the real world.

The social contract was introduced by early modern thinkers—Hugo Grotius, Thomas Hobbes, Samuel Pufendorf, and John Locke the most well-known among them—as an account of two things: the historical origins of sovereign power and the moral origins of the principles that make sovereign power just and/or legitimate.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Hobbes defines contract as “the mutual transferring of right.” In the state of nature, everyone has the right to everything – there are no limits to the right of natural liberty. The social contract is the agreement by which individuals mutually transfer their natural right.

The social contract is the idea that people get together and agree to give up some of their freedoms in order to have the government protect their truly important freedoms. This idea is strongly reflected in the Declaration of Independence.