Jean Jacques Rousseau
• 1712-1778
• French Contemporary
of Voltaire
• Believed that man is
naturally good
• Under the rule of Louis
XV and XVI
Rousseau's Basic Philosophy
• Man is naturally good and insisted that only
the institutions of human civilization, such as
property and commerce, corrupt man's innate
goodness
• He was interested in the "natural man" what
he called the "Noble Savage"
• Rousseau believed that the man in a state of
nature and without the influences of civilization
would be free of vice and problems that come
along with it.
Theory of Natural Man
"The first man who, having fenced in a piece of land,
said "This is mine," and found people naïve enough
to believe him, that man was the true founder of civil
society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders,
from how many horrors and misfortunes might not
any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the
stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his
fellows: Beware of listening to this impostor; you are
undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth
belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody.'
--Discourse on Inequality
Voltaire on Rousseau...?
• What would Voltaire have thought of
Rousseau's ideas?
• Where may we see man living in a state of
nature in Candide?
• What is the result of man living in such
conditions?
Thomas Hobbes
• 1588-1679
• English
• Believed man to be
mostly corrupt and in
need of a strong
government to keep him
in line
Hobbes and the English Civil War
• Broke out in 1642
• Led to ascension of Oliver Cromwell in 1649
• The State, it now seemed to Hobbes, might be
regarded as a great artificial man or monster
(Leviathan), composed of men, with a life that
might be traced from its creation under pressure of
human needs to its dissolution through civil strife
proceeding from human passions: i.e. Revolution
Leviathan: One
• In Leviathan, Hobbes set out his doctrine of
the foundation of states and legitimate
governments – based on social contact
theories.
• Leviathan was written during the English Civil
War; much of the book is occupied with
demonstrating the necessity of a strong
central authority to avoid the evil of discord
and civil war.
Leviathan: Two
• Beginning from a Mechanistic understanding of
human beings and the passions, Hobbes
postulates what life would be like without
government, a condition which he calls the State of
Nature.
• In that state, each person would have a right, or
license, to everything in the world. This, Hobbes
argues, would lead to a "war of all against all" and
thus lives that are "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish,
and short"
Leviathan: Three
• To escape this state of war, men in the state of
nature accede to a Social Contract and
establish a Civil Society.
• According to Hobbes, society is a population
beneath a Sovereign Authority (Supreme
and Independent), to whom all individuals in
that society cede their natural rights for the
sake of protection.
Leviathan: Four
• Any abuses of power by this authority are to
be accepted as the price of peace.
• In particular, the doctrine of separation of
powers is rejected: the sovereign must control
civil, military, judicial and ecclesiastical
powers.
Voltaire and Hobbes
• What would Voltaire think of the Ideas of
Hobbes?
• Where do we see instances of Hobbesian
Theory and practice?
• Which do you prefer? Rousseau or Hobbes?
Or rather, which is the most realistic?
Our Own "Social Contract"
• Whose ideas (Hobbes' or Rousseau's)
seem to most reflect the ideas found in our
own system of government?