1. Jean Jacques Rousseau Some Major Works:  Discourse on the Arts and Sciences  Discourse on the Origin of Inequality Among Man  Emile, or On Education  The Social Contract

2. Discourse on the Arts and Sciences  Criticizes education: not progressing us to anything good  Education just makes us deceive ourselves and others – we try to fit in  Leads to individuality, makes us self interested consumers  Teaches us ‘reason’  Puts flowers on our chains – just hiding inequality

3.  Where ever science and math flourished, luxury and leisure flourish  They are born from our vices, and do nothing to improve the moral well being of society  Don’t contribute anything to love of country, friends, or the unfortunate  Science does not give any guidance for making people more virtuous citizens  We learn to hate ourselves because the masks we have to wear  To cope, we hate the people below us

4.  Science is based on a sense of a need for luxury  Science becomes a means for making our lives easier and more pleasurable, not morally better  Bacon and Descartes avoided this corruption

5. Discourse on the Origin of Inequality Among Man  He creates his own state of nature  Humans physically strong, but simple, very independent  Hobbes had it wrong, he tried to create the state of nature without stripping what humans have learned  All he did was strip laws  For us to understand the state of nature, there can be no laws, property, understanding of threat, minimal language skills

6.  Natural man is isolated, timid, peaceful, mute and without the foresight to worry  Humans have two principles – self interest, and empathy...But we have reason  We have adaptability – leads to progress i.e. fire  Humans forced to settle down, but roughly equal  Series of events move us from the ‘noble savage’  Organize into temporary groups – hunting  Very basic language  Next is small families based on love  If we stayed here, there would be no inequality

7.  But, agriculture and metallurgy change this  Crucial point develops – we start to make comparisons to others –develop self image and things become valuable  Division of labour, distinct social classes, workers, rulers: leads to invention of private property  Unnatural, but education teaches us its legit  Some people left out of property grab – see it as illegitimate  Great Deception – rich convince the poor private property needs to be protected  All accepted their chains

8. The Social Contract  Discussion on Government and Rights of the People  1 st step – make us all equal : give up the ‘natural right’ to property  Help us to distinguish between needs and wants, help us to resurrect empathy  Everyone has enough so they don’t have to sell ourselves  When we see each other as equals, we are able to see one another as citizens  We’ll look forward to what people say

9.  Outlines how governments could exist to protect equality of citizens  Concept of general will – difficult to interpret: based on the well being of the whole, protects the rights of all individuals  Protected by a sovereign, protects the public good  Not the collection of individual wills  Ultimately my will, and general will merges  Example – majority- collection of individual wills  If you have: lack of prosperity, no population growth, legislative body silent, disparity, religious faction – no social contract  If the one is being sacrificed by the many – no social contract