scholarly journals The Damned Neighbors Problem: Rousseau’s Civil Religion Revisited

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 349
Author(s):  
Micah Watson
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
American Politics ◽  
Civil Religion ◽  
Political Community ◽  
The Social ◽  
Politics And Culture ◽  
New Religion

Near the conclusion of The Social Contract, Jean-Jacques Rousseau starkly proclaims that no state has been founded without a religious basis, and thus if he is right, every political community must grapple with the tension between the conflicting claims of the divine and the mundane. Because Christianity cannot solve this tension, Rousseau calls for a new religion, a civil religion. Whereas most of the academic treatment of civil religion follows various paths beginning with Robert Bellah’s original 1967 article, this essay explores more deeply the contours of Rousseau’s original articulation of the problem to which civil religion is his proposed solution. The essay concludes by suggesting that we can find important elements of Rousseau’s approach still alive and well in American politics and culture today.

scholarly journals Tacit consent and costs of non-entry into the political community

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (19) ◽  
pp. 125-133
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Savanović
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
Contract Theory ◽  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Social Contract Theory ◽  
Political Community ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Social ◽  
Tacit Consent ◽  
Claiming Discrimination ◽  
Practical Sense

This paper offers an analysis of an issue related to the social contract theory The issue concerned is disagreement in the form of tacit consent. Namely, if we accept the model of tacit consent, then an issue of costs of this disagreement is raised. These costs cannot be treated in the same way as in the case of express consent. The reason is that, in the case of tacit consent, a person does not have same chances and opportunities as others. This offers a possibility of claiming discrimination, especially if we accept the fact that these costs can be so high so that they deny the possibility of choice. At least in a practical sense and de facto. So, this topic must be understood properly if we want the social contract theory to function well. In this paper, we will try to do that through a logical and semantic analysis of basic terms: tacit consent, disagreement, and costs of contract.

scholarly journals Rousseau's Conception of Government in the work Discourse on Political Economy

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-61
Author(s):  
Petar Jakopec
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Political Community ◽  
The Political ◽  
General Will ◽  
Major Work ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Government ◽  
Political Right

In this article the author problematizes Rousseau’s Discourse on Political Economy and his conception of government in the political community. Rousseau’s Discourse on Political Economy was chronologically written seven years before his major work The Social Contract or Principles of Political Right. Regardless of the fact that the Discourse on Political Economy was published earlier, it left a remarkable trace in Rousseau‘s philosophical opus. In this work, which was published as part of the fifth volume of Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment, Rousseau indicated his direction in political philosophy. This philosophical and political direction began with the Discourse on Political Economy and culminated in the philosophical and political conception of republicanism, elaborated in detail in The Social Contract. In this article the author uses critical analysis and reconstruction to establish Rousseau‘s fundamental ideas about his political philosophy present in the Discourse on Political Economy, with a focus on observing and studying the role of a sovereign and the public economy in the function of the government by general will within the political community.

scholarly journals Dismembered: Citizen Sacrifice in Rousseau's “The Levite of Ephraïm”

2019 ◽  
Vol 81 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-253
Author(s):  
Arthur Bradley
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Civil Religion ◽  
The State ◽  
Prose Poem ◽  
Positive Law ◽  
The Social

AbstractThis essay seeks to explore the position of citizen sacrifice in Rousseau's political theology fromThe Social Contractto “The Levite of Ephraïm.” To summarize, I contend that Rousseau's political theology starts out by seeking to prohibit religious sacrifice as something inimical to both natural and positive law, but ends up attempting to appropriate or internalize this sacrificial economy within his theory of citizenship. If Rousseau presents his theory of civil religion as a means of neutralizing the violence of sectarian religions, for example, I contend that this civil profession of faith is itself a species of sacrificial theology which is explicitly designed to create a citizen who is capable of sacrificing their life to the state. In “The Levite of Ephraïm”—a prose poem which begins and ends with the dismemberment of a woman—Rousseau's political theology of citizen sacrifice assumes its most graphic allegorical form.

scholarly journals Phenomena of freedom and justice in the interpretations of T. Hobbes and J. Locke

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (42) ◽  
pp. 255-263
Author(s):  
Yevgen Borinshtein ◽  
Oleksandr Stovpets ◽  
Olga Kukshinova ◽  
Anton Kisse ◽  
Natalia Kucherenko
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Political Anthropology ◽  
Equal Opportunities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Principle Of Justice ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Ethical Basis

This study gives a possible representation of T. Hobbes and J. Locke's visions of the essence of 'freedom' and 'justice' phenomena. The philosophic-historical analysis performed in the article made it possible to reveal the fundamental ideological conflict between statism and liberalism, between the utilitarian, entirely pragmatic understanding the nature of the social contract (in Hobbes's political philosophy), and moral-ethical accents on the essential foundations of a state-organized society (in Locke's political thoughts). Hobbes generally ignores the moral and ethical preconditions inherent to human nature, reducing the social contract ontology to purely utilitarian aspects. The freedom of the individual loses its absolute character, as each member of this socio-political community gives up a part of his freedom in favor of 'Leviathan' (i.e. the sovereign, the state). Beginning from this moment it is fair for each individual to comply with the terms of that universally binding social contract, and its violation by someone within the community deemed to be unjust. On the contrary, Locke forms an idea of the ethical basis of the human community. Locke's political anthropology is based on the close relationship between the principle of justice and the imperatives of reason. The latter ones approach the universal ethical and legal requirements to ensure equal opportunities in the implementation and protection of freedoms and interests of the individual living in society. Under such conditions, justice means that a person acquires the maximum opportunities to fulfill his own freedoms (in all its diversity), without violating the freedoms of others.

scholarly journals Rousseauist foundations of Schmitt's concept of (total) state

Sociologija ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 225-236
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Molnar
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Political Community ◽  
The Political ◽  
General Will ◽  
Historical Society ◽  
The Social ◽  
Methodological Tool ◽  
Total State

In this paper the author discusses Carl Schmitt's concept of 'the political' (das Politische), and his constitutional teaching (Verfassungslehre). He is trying to explain that the logic of Schmitt's argument against liberal democracy and in favor of populist democracy follows all the important conclusions made by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his Social Contract, with only one exception. Schmitt was, namely, reluctant to accept that the social contract ever occurred in any historical society and he believed that it could not be used even as a methodological tool, because it has no meaning in the very foundations of political community. Rousseau's statements on 'general will', 'people', and immediate democracy Schmitt found more attractive for his purposes of designing the model of total state.

scholarly journals CONSIDERAÇÕES DE ARENDT SOBRE O CONCEITO DE VONTADE GERAL DE ROUSSEAU

Sapere Aude ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (19) ◽  
pp. 172-183
Author(s):  
José João Neves Barbosa Vicente
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Life Forms ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Fundamental Concept ◽  
The Political ◽  
General Will ◽  
Political Thinking ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
The Social

A vontade geral é um conceito fundamental no pensamento político de Rousseau; é através desse conceito que Rousseau pensa a comunidade política “legítima”, como descrita em Do contrato social, em que a liberdade de cada indivíduo é protegida e preservada. Arendt, no entanto, não compartilha dessa ideia e considera o conceito de vontade geral como descrito por Rousseau uma ameaça à política; ele a enfraquece e a destrói, uma vez que não permite a manifestação da liberdade através de ação e do debate de opiniões entre iguais. Não se pode admitir e nem aceitar ideias ou práticas políticas que tentam homogeneizar as formas de vida humana, que tentam excluir ou controlar a diversidade de opiniões. Defender a ideia de um povo homogêneo que compartilha de uma vontade geral como descrita em Do contrato social, não significa fortalecer a política, mas sim atentar contra a pluralidade humana que dá sentido à comunidade política. A proposta do presente artigo é discutir o posicionamento crítico de Arendt em relação ao conceito de vontade geral de RousseauPALAVRAS- CHAVE: Vontade geral. Rousseau. Pluralidade humana. Liberdade. Arendt. ABSTRACTThe general will is a fundamental concept in Rousseau's political thinking; It is through this concept that Rousseau thinks the "legitimate" political community, where each individual's freedom is protected and preserved. Arendt, however, does not share this idea and considers the concept of general will as described by Rousseau, a threat to politics; it weakens and destroys it, since it does not allow the manifestation of freedom through action and the debate of opinions between equals. Political ideas and practices that attempt to homogenize human life forms that try to exclude or control diversity of opinion can not be accepted or accepted. Defending the idea of a homogenous people that shares a general will as described in The social contract does not mean to strengthen politics, but to attack the human plurality that gives meaning to the political community. The proposal of this article is to discuss this critical positioning of Arendt in relation to the concept of general will of Rousseau.KEYWORDS: General will. Rousseau. Human plurality. Freedom.Arendt.

D?r al-?arb as the Motherland? The Muslim Tatars of (the Grand Duchy of) Lithuania and Social Contract

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-177
Author(s):  
Egdūnas Račius
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
Nation State ◽  
The Social ◽  
State And Society ◽  
Muslim Minority ◽  
Grand Duchy Of Lithuania ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
Grand Duchy

Muslim presence in Lithuania, though already addressed from many angles, has not hitherto been approached from either the perspective of the social contract theories or of the compliance with Muslim jurisprudence. The author argues that through choice of non-Muslim Grand Duchy of Lithuania as their adopted Motherland, Muslim Tatars effectively entered into a unique (yet, from the point of Hanafi fiqh, arguably Islamically valid) social contract with the non-Muslim state and society. The article follows the development of this social contract since its inception in the fourteenth century all the way into the nation-state of Lithuania that emerged in the beginning of the twentieth century and continues until the present. The epitome of the social contract under investigation is the official granting in 1995 to Muslim Tatars of a status of one of the nine traditional faiths in Lithuania with all the ensuing political, legal and social consequences for both the Muslim minority and the state.

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