Rousseau was born in a watchmaker's family in Geneva, Switzerland on June 28th on 17 12. His mother died when he was a baby. He was raised by an aunt. /kloc-dropped out of school at the age of 0/2 and became an apprentice in all walks of life. Later, I moved to Paris to make a living by teaching, copying music or working as a secretary for powerful people. Rousseau's occupation and vagrancy, which were considered lowly at that time, made him personally realize the corrupt rule of French feudal autocracy, the extravagance of monks and nobles, and the misfortune and suffering of the people. The powerless position of the broad masses of the people, the growing dissatisfaction with the feudal dynasty and the hatred of the Catholic church had a deep influence on him, which made him protest against this society in his works later.
Rousseau likes learning since he was a child and has a wide range of interests. He studied music, mathematics, literature, astronomy, geography and history, and was influenced by the French philosopher Voltaire. In Paris, he met Diderot and wrote a musical manuscript for the encyclopedia hosted by Diderot.
1750, Dijon College published an article entitled "Is the revival of science and art conducive to changing customs? Rousseau wrote a paper on science and art to apply it. In his paper, he criticized the hypocritical civilization and frivolous art of feudal nobles, enthusiastically praised the simplicity and nature of working people, and showed his radical democratic thought. Rousseau won the prize for this paper, and he became famous all over the country.
1755, Rousseau once again submitted the public opinion of Dijon College, which is his important political and legal work "On the Origin and Foundation of Human Inequality". From 65438 to the early 1960s, Rousseau published three important papers and works almost at the same time: the novel Silk of New Arrow and the Contract of Civil Society (that is, Civil Contract and Emile). Because of his anti-monarchical thoughts and views on religion in his works, he was persecuted by the Paris church and the police station and was forced to flee to Switzerland and Prussia.
1766, he moved to England at the invitation of the British philosopher Hume. However, due to long-term persecution, the spirit is greatly stimulated and doubts often arise. Finally, I had to leave England for home, and took refuge all over the country. 1770 returned to Paris. Rousseau spent his old age in poverty and loneliness, and died on1July 2,778.
Rousseau's New Ai Luo Si Qi is an epistolary novel. Through the love tragedy of a couple of young people in France in the18th century, the author praised their ideal marriage based on sincere feelings, criticized the feudal marriage based on class prejudice and strongly protested the feudal hierarchy.
Emile (subtitled On Education) is a philosophical novel about education. Rousseau invented Emile, a noble son who grew up under his education. In view of the feudal hierarchy, luxurious and parasitic living habits and spiritual slavery, Rousseau educated Emil to have democratic thoughts, lofty rationality of self-reliance and self-reliance and independent thinking style. This fully shows Rousseau's educational thought and strong anti-feudal spirit.
On Social Contract and On the Origin and Foundation of Human Inequality are the main works of Rousseau's political and legal thoughts. In addition, there is a political economy paper written by 1755 for Encyclopedia. His works, with novel ideas, solid arguments, strong appeal and persuasion, make people fondle admiringly.
The Theory of Social Contract is one of the most famous classic documents in the history of political and legal thought. In this book, Rousseau systematically expounded his theory of state and law and put forward the idea of people's sovereignty. At the beginning of the book, two famous sayings were put forward: "People are born free, but they carry shackles everywhere", and "Once people can break the shackles … they will do better". This belief, which calls on the people to rise up to overthrow autocratic rule and establish a democratic and free system, runs through the whole Theory of Social Contract and all Rousseau's theoretical thoughts.
Rousseau, like other representatives of natural law school, believes that human beings are free and equal in the natural state of primitive society; Through social contract, it becomes a country, gives up natural rights and obtains agreed rights, so it is still free and equal. Rousseau argues that national sovereignty can only belong to the people, and law is the embodiment of the will of * * *. In his view, people lost their original freedom only because the government abused power, not because of the inevitability of social development. When the government abuses its position to usurp the supreme power, the social contract is destroyed, and when ordinary citizens are under violent rule, they have the legal right to restore their natural freedom.
Here, the difference between Rousseau's social contract theory and other representatives of natural law school lies in: Rousseau advocates people's sovereignty and establishes a democratic republic, while Locke and Montesquieu advocate the establishment of a constitutional monarchy, and Hobbes even advocates the establishment of an absolute monarchy; Rousseau advocated overthrowing tyranny by revolutionary means, while Hobbes opposed it.
Rousseau's theory reflects the most radical democratic thought of the emerging bourgeoisie, which is a fatal blow to the theocracy theory advocated by the feudal ruling class at that time that the state comes from God and the law is the will of God. His theory not only became a sharp weapon for the French bourgeoisie to oppose feudal rule, but also greatly inspired the revolutionary movements and progress of other countries. The famous Russian poet Pushkin once praised Rousseau as a "defender of freedom and rights".
However, social contract theory is contrary to objective practice. Marxism holds that the state is the irreconcilable product of class contradictions, and the law is the expression of the will of the ruling class and the tool of class rule. Rousseau described the state as the result of people concluding social contracts and the law as the embodiment of super-class will, which actually concealed the class nature of bourgeois state and law.
Rousseau emphasized in "On Social Contract" that people's sovereignty is inalienable and inseparable. He believes that the supreme power of the country can only be composed of the will of all members of the country, which has two characteristics. First of all, it is inalienable. The supreme power can only be exercised by all citizens, not by deputies, so the legislative power can only belong to the monarch. Rousseau deduced from the non-transferability of supreme power that the people's representative system must be abandoned and replaced by referendum system; Second, it is inseparable. Rousseau believes that the supreme power is the will of all citizens, and it is incorrect to divide it into legislative power, administrative power and judicial power. When criticizing Montesquieu's theory of separation of powers, he said humorously: "Our political critics (Montesquieu) can't distinguish sovereignty in principle, so they distinguish sovereignty from object: they divide sovereignty into strength and will, legislative power and administrative power, taxation power, judicial power and war power, internal power and diplomatic power ... They make sovereignty a fragmented monster; It seems that they use several people's limbs to form a person. One of them has eyes, the other has arms and the other has feet. There is no other part. "
Rousseau thinks that the mistake of Montesquieu's theory of separation of powers lies in that he fundamentally confuses the two concepts of national sovereignty and government. Engels once pointed out that Rousseau defeated Montesquieu, a constitutional monarchy, indirectly with his bourgeois * * * and socialist "On Social Contract".
"Freedom", "equality" and "rule of law" were once the battle slogans put forward by bourgeois enlightenment scholars. Rousseau's works also shine with the idea of freedom and equality. In On the Origin and Foundation of Human Inequality, he pointed out the process and reasons of human inequality from equality in the natural state into civilized society. First, the emergence of private ownership of land brought wealth inequality, and with the establishment of the state and power organs, it increased political inequality, which reached its peak during the autocratic monarchy.
Then, Rousseau bravely came to the conclusion that "violence supports tyrants and overthrows tyrants with violence". In On Social Contract, he pointed out that "man is the master and free" and the ultimate goal of law is to safeguard freedom and equality. He emphasized the need to distinguish between de jure equality and de facto equality. He fully recognizes legal equality, but he can't fully realize de facto equality, that is, equality of wealth. But he believes that it should at least reach the necessary level to ensure freedom.
The ideas of "natural human rights", "everyone is equal before the law" and "governing the country according to law" come from Rousseau and other enlightenment thinkers' views of freedom and equality. However, in the18th century, most enlightenment thinkers always took a contemptuous attitude towards the working people and did not get rid of the traditional prejudice of aristocratic families. Rousseau is very different from them. He has deep and sincere sympathy for the working people oppressed by decadent autocratic system and parasitic aristocratic rule. He saw that in addition to the contradiction between the feudal ruling class and the common people, there was a more important opposition, that is, the opposition between the rich and the poor. In his works, he shouted out the angry protests of the poor working people. "All doors are closed to the poor, even if they have the right to open them."
Rousseau's concept of freedom and equality played a positive and progressive role at that time, becoming the battle slogan of bourgeois radical Democrats in the French Revolution and the theoretical basis for the bourgeoisie to establish a country and a legal system. However, his thoughts can't go beyond the limitations of the times and classes. Although he believes that private property is the foundation of inequality and poverty, and advocates preventing private property from going to two extremes, he does not demand the fundamental abolition of private property, but declares that bourgeois ownership is one of the most basic human rights. His so-called equality and freedom are essentially nothing more than bourgeois equality, freedom and the inviolable rights of private property.