HIST 121 Lecture 2: Rousseau Lecture 2
Document Summary
A war of all against all without government. People were red in tooth and claw without government. He"s a materialist; people are simply atoms interacting with each other. Men are equal in their abilities to kill each other. Everyone has the right to use power for self-preservation; right to life. Peace only comes when a contract to lay down arms is: the social contract: created. Hobbes, locke, rousseau: see humans in a different way: a hypothetical pre-political past. A new adam (man); rousseau believed he was innocent. The artificiality of human politics; we create politics, not god. It is the mutual agreement to surrender rights to create a sovereignty. Contract is not between the people and the sovereign; rather is among to the people to create a government; the only right you have left is self-preservation. Hobbes liked absolutism; makes people dislike him. He is considered an enlightenment thinker because he creates rights, contracts, and an artificial sovereign.
