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What did Rousseau mean by ‘liberty’?
Member rating: No Rating | Words: | Submitted: Fri Mar 31 2006
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What did Rousseau mean by 'liberty'? Liberty, by definition, is the 'immunity from arbitrary exercise of authority; political independence.'1 However Rousseau distinguishes two specific types of liberty, natural liberty and civil or moral liberty. Natural liberty, Rousseau states, is the freedom to pursue one's own desires whereas civil liberty is the freedom to pursue the general will. The general will is a key concept in Rousseau's The Social Contract; Rousseau defines the general will as the majority opinion of what is most beneficial to the common interest without any influence from private interest. Freedom and liberty for the individual were hugely popular topics during the time that Rousseau was writing. However where Rousseau stood apart from the other major political and philosophical thinkers of the time was in the manner that he laid out the problem of loss of liberty in society, and the way he went about trying to find the...
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