PHIL 4230 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Positive Liberty, Communitarianism, Totalitarianism
Document Summary
Rights are not pre-political (they do not exist prior to the social contract) Different view of the state of nature than either locke and hobbes. Different reasons for the necessity of social contract than either locke and hobbes because of social ills resulting from private property. Different view of human nature: as empathetic fundamentally sympathetic to others. Freedom is only possible within a social contract. Freedom as positive liberty, made possible by the public institution of right. Suggestion that outside of the social contract that you do not have rights. Note that defends of the idea of humans rights or natural rights would probably reject the idea that rights have their origin in social contract. Rousseau does not believe that rights are natural at all. On the origin of inequality - rousseau"s book. There was a fall from grace from this state of nature. As soon as someone claims something, it starts a process of decay.