Nature, Nation-Building, and the Seasons of Justice in Rousseau's Political Thought

2006 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey A. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
Premature Death ◽  
Human Conduct ◽  
Natural Development ◽  
The Social ◽  
Special Relations

Examining the special relations between On the Social Contract and the Constitutional Project for Corsica, this essay argues that Rousseau conceives of constitutionalism on the basis of his understanding of the “natural development” of any state. What is “natural” is a certain order in which developmental periods best emerge, such that any state's disordered development will always result in its premature “death.” The essay explains four aspects of Rousseau's conception of properly ordered political development: the nature of a state's beginning; the relation between the two “great springs” of human conduct; the influence of external nature on human nature and justice; and the inevitable “end” of even the best state.

The Epicureans on Human Nature and its Social and Political Consequences

2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Jan Maximilian Robitzsch
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Contract Theory ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Social Contract Theory ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
The Social

Based on certain passages in Colotes, Hermarchus, and Horace, the Epicureans may be thought to defend a social contract theory that is roughly Hobbesian. According to such a view, human life without the social contract is solitary and brutish. This paper argues that such a reading is mistaken. It offers a systematic analysis of Lucretius’s culture story in On the Nature of Things v as well as the Epicurean passages that at first sight seem to contradict the Lucretian account. The conclusion of such an analysis is not only that all extant evidence is internally consistent, but also that Epicurean social contract theory relies on a ‘dynamic’ conception of human nature: On the Epicurean view, agents have very different psychological motivations when coming together to form societies and when coming together to form political and legal states.

Male Power and Contract Theory: Hobbes and Locke in Carole Pateman's The Sexual Contract

2003 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanne Boucher
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Contract Theory ◽  
Social Contract Theory ◽  
Classic Work ◽  
Sexual Contract ◽  
Male Power ◽  
The Social

This article critically analyzes Carole Pateman's novel and provocative reading of social contract theory in her now-classic work, The Sexual Contract. Pateman posits the existence of a sexual contract prior to the social contract which she argues has been suppressed in the tradition of Western political thought. The article indicates some of the potential weaknesses with constructing a gendered critique of contract theory through the lens of a sexual contract. The author specifically focuses on Pateman's re-interpretation of the patriarchalism of Hobbes and Locke to make this case.

scholarly journals A CONTROVERSA RELAÇÃO DE J.-J. ROUSSEAU COM A REPÚBLICA DE GENEBRA

Sapere Aude ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (19) ◽  
pp. 157-171
Author(s):  
Vital Francisco Celestino Alves
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Central Axis ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Republic

Na filosofia de Jean-Jacques Rousseau encontramos diversos elogios a modelos políticos oriundos da Antiguidade (Esparta e Roma), assim como outros elogios à República de Genebra. A esse último modelo, o pensador dedica a obra Discurso sobre a origem e os fundamentos da desigualdade entre os homens. Entretanto, até que ponto se pode afirmar que a ordenação política genebrina influenciou e contribuiu para a formação do pensamento político de Rousseau? Tendo essa questão como eixo central e objetivando produzir uma reflexão sobre a Genebra de Rousseau, o presente artigo pretende: primeiro, descrever como era a ordem política genebrina; segundo, tratar da relação entre Rousseau e Genebra; e, por último, correlacionar a posição que ocupa a cidade natal do autor com os seus escritos políticos apresentados na Dedicatória e no Contrato social e examinar a consistência das três principais linhas interpretativas que relacionam Genebra à filosofia política de Rousseau.PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Rousseau. República de Genebra. Relação.ABSTRACTIn the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau we find several compliments to political models coming from Antiquity (Sparta and Rome), as well as other compliments to the Republic of Geneva. To this last model, the thinker dedicates the work Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men. However, to what extent can one affirm that the political order of Geneva influenced and contributed to the formation of Rousseau's political thought? With this question as the central axis and aiming to produce a reflection on Rousseau's Geneva, the present article aims to: first, describe the Genevan political, second, deal with Rousseau's relationship with Geneva, and, finally, correlate the position the author's hometown occupies with his political writings presented in the Dedication and the Social Contract and examine the consistency of the three main interpretive lines relating Geneva to Rousseau's political philosophy.KEYWORDS: Rousseau. Republic of Geneva. Relationship.

scholarly journals An Overview of Violence as a Vice of Consent

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 158-164
Author(s):  
Loredana VLAD ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
The Other ◽  
Natural State ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Individual

People are considered bio-psycho-social beings. From the beginning of mankind, violence as part of human nature has manifested itself in relation to the other through the crime committed by Cain against his brother Abel. As time passed, it was found that a form of protection is needed to prolong the life of the individual, and thus by accepting the "social contract", man gave up his natural state in which freedom was absolute, in order to obey the law. In this paper I will bring to the fore a series of considerations with a focus on violence, emphasizing the idea of the vice of consent.

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 151-154
Author(s):  
Olivier Roy
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Public ◽  
Secular Culture ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Public Sphere

This concluding chapter discusses how values are returning today in the guise of dominant norms, both in the secular world and in religion. Today's crisis is not simply a crisis of values, but of referring to values at all. For what should values be founded on? On one hand, religions, which are no longer in sync with Europe's dominant cultures, are returning to the public sphere on behalf of a normative demand. On the other hand, the secular culture that professes freedom and rights is coming to a head in a burst of normative production. This is a normativity toward all forms of religion and religiosity, of course, but also normativity with respect to its own foundation, the social contract, and human nature, that of the desiring subject. Ultimately, the chapter argues that it is time to re-examine the question of values, to restore the particular cultural and social aspects of norms and to reinject them into society. In the face of globalization, the issue is at once to be more in touch with society and to act as a counterweight to other influences in the world: only Europe can meet these two objectives.

Thomas Hobbes's Materialism, Language, and the Possibility of Politics

2008 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 190-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Dungey
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
First Principles ◽  
Thomas Hobbes ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Obligation ◽  
English Civil War ◽  
The Social

AbstractThomas Hobbes sought a reconstruction of philosophy, ethics, and politics that would end, once and for all, the bitter disputes that led to the English Civil War. This reconstruction begins with the first principles of matter and motion and extends to a unique account of consent and political obligation. Hobbes intended to produce a unified philosophical system linking his materialist account of human nature to his moral and political theory. However, his materialism gives rise to a set of perceptions, imagination, and desires that contribute to the chaos of the state of nature. The sort of person that emerges from Hobbes's materialist anthropology is unlikely to be able to make the necessary agreements about common meaning and language that constitute the ground of the social contract. Therefore, Hobbes's materialism frustrates the very purpose for which it is conceived.

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