Jean Jacques Rousseau’s concept of freedom and equality in the Social Contract
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-3173.2023.v46n2.p305Parole chiave:
Civil society, Equality, Freedom, Rousseau, The social contract, The state of natureAbstract
One of the common characteristics of early modern Western European philosophers is the emphasis on freedom and equality. Philosophers of this period looked for answers to “what is freedom and equality?” and realized freedom and equality into fundamental human rights. From John Locke to Montesquieu and Jean Jacques Rousseau, all consider freedom and equality as natural rights of human beings. Rousseau’s concept of freedom and equality is reflected in The Social Contract. At the beginning of this work, he commented with a famous opening line, “Man is born free, but is everywhere in chains.” That is the fundamental argument to give a unique view of freedom and equality. Within the scope of the article, the author focuses on analyzing his views on freedom and equality in many different aspects – freedom and equality in the state of nature, freedom and equality in civil society, and how to achieve freedom and equality – thereby presenting the values and limitations of his views on freedom and equality.
Riferimenti bibliografici
AFFELDT, S. G. The Force of Freedom: Rousseau on Forcing to Be Free. Political Theory, v. 27, n. 3, p. 299-333, 1999. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/192311. Accessed on: Jan. 18th, 2022.
BERTRAM, C. Jean Jacques Rousseau. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2017. Available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rousseau/. Accessed on: Jan. 18th, 2022.
BLUHM, W. T. Freedom in The Social Contract: Rousseau's "Legitimate Chains". Polity, v.16, n. 3, p. 359-383, 1984. https://doi.org/10.2307/3234555.
BOK, H. Baron de Montesquieu, Charles-Louis de Secondat. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2014. Available at: ttps://plato.stanford.edu/entries/montesquieu/#1). Accessed on: Jan. 18th, 2022.
BOVENS, L.; BEISBART, C. Factions in Rousseau's Du Contrat Social and Federal Representation. Analysis, v. 67, n. 1, p. 12-20, 2007. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25597768. Accessed on: Jan. 20th, 2022.
CURTIS-WENDLANDT, L.; GIBBARD, P.; GREEN, K. (ed.). Political ideas of enlightenment women: virtue and citizenship. London: Routledge, 2016. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315601199.
DAGGER, R. Understanding the General Will. The Western Political Quarterly, v. 34, n. 3, p. 359-371, 1981. https://doi.org/10.2307/447216.
DENT, N. J. H. Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In: EMMANUEL, S. M. (Ed.). The Blackwell Guide to the Modern Philosophers: From Descartes to Nietzsche. p. 201-222, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405164856.ch10.
DIGGS, B. J. The Common Good as Reason for Political Action. Ethics, v. 83, n. 4, p. 283-293, 1973. https://doi.org/10.1086/291887.
DINH, N. T. On “Freedom": As a Category of Social Philosophy. Philosophical Review, n. 2, 2004.
DINH, N. T.; DOAN, C. History of Western Philosophy: From Ancient Philosophy to Classical German Philosophy. Hanoi: National Political, 2018.
DUIKER, W. J.; SPIELVOGEL, J. J. World history - Volume II: Since 1500. 8th ed. Stanford: Cengage Learning, 2016.
FARR, J.; WILLIAMS, D. L. The General Will in Rousseau. In: FARR, J.; WILLIAMS, D. L. (Ed.). The General Will: The Evolution of a Concept. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. p. 217-330. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107297982.
FENNELL, J. M. Rousseau and Political Piety. Journal of Thought, v. 34, n. 2, p. 49-61, 1999. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/42589576. Accessed on: Feb. 21st. 2022.
HALL, M. The Declaration of Independence and Modern Education. The Journal of Education, v. 98, n. 14 (2450), p. 370-372, 1923. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/i40104662. Accessed on: Feb. 21st. 2022.
HEILBRONNER, O. Long Live Liberty, Equality, Fraternity and Dynamite: The German Bourgeoisie and the Constructing of Popular Liberal and National-Socialist Subcultures in Marginal Germany. Journal of Social History, v. 39, n. 1, p. 181-220, 2005. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3790535. Accessed on: Feb. 15th, 2022.
HILEY, D. R. The Individual and the General Will: Rousseau Reconsidered. History of Philosophy Quarterly, v. 7, n. 2, p. 159-178, 1990. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27743929. Accessed on: Apr. 21st, 2022.
HODGSON, L. P. Kant on the Right to Freedom: A Defense. Ethics, v. 120, n. 4, p. 791-819, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1086/653687.
HUSSAIN, W. The Common Good. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2018. Available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/common-good/). Accessed on: Jan 21st, 2022.
JANIS, M. W. The Declaration of Independence, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, and the Bill of Rights. Human Rights Quarterly, v. 14, n. 4, p. 478-484, 1992. https://doi.org/10.2307/762314.
KAIN, P. J. Rousseau, the General Will, and Individual Liberty. History of Philosophy Quarterly, v. 7, n. 3, p. 315-334, 1990. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27743941. Accessed on: Feb. 15th, 2022.
KAVKA, G. S. Hobbes's War of All Against All. Ethics, v. 93, n. 2, p. 291-310, 1983. https://doi.org/10.1086/292435.
KOSKENNIEMI, M. To the Uttermost Parts of the Earth: Legal Imagination and International Power 1300–1870. Cambridge University Press, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781139019774.
LUDWIKOWSKI, R. R. The French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen and the American Constitutional Development. The American Journal of Comparative Law, v. 38, p. 445-462, 1990. https://doi.org/10.2307/840552.
LUND, N. Rousseau and Direct Democracy (with a Note on the Supreme Court's Term Limits Decision). Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues, v. 13, n. 2, p. 459-510, 2003. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.442061
MARX, K.; ENGELS, F. Complete works. Hanoi: National Political, 1995.
MAURIZI, M. Marxism and Animal Rights. In: MAURIZI, M. Beyond Nature: Animal Liberation, Marxism, and Critical Theory. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2021. cap. 4, p. 87-110. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004466654_006.
NGUYEN, C. H. The concept of freedom as a basic human right in Rousseau and Tocqueville's thought. Journal of Human Studies, v. 2, n. 77, 2015.
NGUYEN, T. N. Philosophical Anthology. Hanoi: National Truth, 2019.
NGUYEN, T. T. H. Rousseau's thought on human rights. Philosophical Review, v. 6, n. 277, 2014.
OPITZ-BELAKHAL, C. Civil Society Theory: Rousseau. In: ANHEIER, H. K. e TOEPLER, S. (Ed.). International Encyclopedia of Civil Society. Springer US, p. 443-445, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-93996-4_526.
ROSSELLO, D. Hobbes and the Wolf-Man: Melancholy and Animality in Modern Sovereignty. New Literary History, v. 43, n. 2, p. 255-279, 2012. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23259375. Accessed on: Feb. 4th, 2022.
ROUSSEAU, J.-J. The Social Contract. Tradução de C. Betts. Reading, Berkshire: Oxford University Press, 1999.
ROUSSEAU, J.-J. The Social Contract & Discourses. Tradução de G. D. H. Cole. Woodstock, Ontario: Devoted, 2016.
ROUSSEAU, J.-J. On the Social Contract. Tradução de T. D. Hoang. Hanoi: World, 2018.
SIMPSON, M. A Paradox of Sovereignty in Rousseau's Social Contract. Journal of Moral Philosophy, v. 3, n. 1, p. 45-56, 2006. https://doi.org/10.1177/1740468106063282.
STOER, S. R.; MAGALHÃES, A. M. The Reconfiguration of the Modern Social Contract: New Forms of Citizenship and Education. European Educational Research Journal, v. 1, n. 4, p. 692-704, 2002. Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.2304/eerj.2002.1.4.7. Accessed on: May 15th, 2022.
STROMBERG, R. N. The Philosophes and the French Revolution: Reflections on Some Recent Research. The History Teacher, v. 21, n. 3, p. 321-339, 1988. https://doi.org/10.2307/492999.
TANGIAN, A. Analytical Theory of Democracy: History, Mathematics and Applications. Cham: Springer International, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39691-6.
WALDRON, J. Rights and majorities: Rousseau revisited. In: JOHN, W. C. e ALAN, W. (Ed.). Majorities and Minorities: Nomos XXXII. New York University Press, p. 44-76, 1990. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24219405. Accessed on: Feb. 15th, 2022.
WARMAN, C. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, 1789. In: CAROLINE WARMAN, e. a. (Ed.). Tolerance: The Beacon of the Enlightenment. 1. ed. Open Book, p. 11-13, 2016. https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0088.
WILLIAMS, D. L. Rousseau's Platonic Enlightenment. University Park, PA: Penn State Press, 2010. Available at: https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-02997-9.html. Accessed on: Feb. 24th, 2022.
Received: 10/03/2022
Approved: 24/08/2022
Pubblicato
Fascicolo
Sezione
Licenza
Copyright (c) 2023 TRANS/FORM/AÇÃO: Revista de Filosofia
Questo volume è pubblicato con la licenza Creative Commons Attribuzione 4.0 Internazionale.
Este é um artigo publicado em acesso aberto sob uma licença Creative Commons.
Este é um artigo de acesso aberto distribuído sob os termos da Creative Commons Attribution License.