Problem
A. Why aren't states that use force against the populace to gain power legitimate?
B. Outline his view of the social contract. Why would one choose to join in the social contract?
C. Why is Rousseau such an advocate for personal freedom and liberty? What's his view of despotic leaders? Does he think people can ever intentionally and rationally hand over their freedom?
D. From what does legitimate authority over others arise? Can it ever occur naturally? What does he mean when he says that all forms of majority rule are artificial?
E. Explain this essential quote: "To find a form of association which defends and protects with the whole force of the community the person and goods of every associate, and by means of which each, uniting with all, nevertheless obeys only himself, and remains as free as before".
F. According to Rousseau, what does one gain in joining a commonwealth? What does he leave behind? In handing over one's rights to the commonwealth, how can one become freer from doing this?
G. Explain the following from the outline/reading: Thus, whoever refuses to submit to the general will shall be forced to and shall be ". . .forced to be free; for such is the condition which, giving each Citizen to his Fatherland, guarantees him from all personal dependence, a condition that makes up the spark and interplay of the political mechanism, and alone renders legitimate civil engagements, which, without it, would be absurd and tyrannical, and subject to the most enormous abuse". What does he mean that people must be forced to be free in certain cases?
H. How are we to make sense of the inconsistency between what Rousseau had to say about the state of nature in Discourse on the Origin of Inequalityin contrast to what he has to say in parts of Of the Social Contract? For example he states that membership in a commonwealth: ". . .transformed him from a stupid and ignorant animal into an intelligent being and a man".
I. What does Rousseau mean when he states: "If, then, the people promises simply to obey, it dissolves itself by that act, it loses its quality as a people; at that instant that there is a master, there is no longer a Sovereign, and forthwith the body politic is destroyed". What is he saying about the nature of the legitimate Sovereign?
J. Why does Rousseau have some reservations about creating various functions and departments of the Sovereign? What is his primary worry about what this could lead to? Why does he worry about the creation of factions within a state?
K. What does Rousseau means in relation to the act of legislation when he states: ". . .in a word, no function that relates to an individual object belongs to the legislative power"? Why does he state that all legitimate forms of governments are Republics?
L. Explain Rousseau's view of legislators. Why does he think they need to be such superior people?
M. What are the two goals, according to Rousseau, of legislation? How do legislators bring about equality in the commonwealth?