Introduction
Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s The Basic Political Writings is a collection of his perspectives on political philosophy, including executive organization and human freedoms. As an 18th-century philosopher, Rousseau was highly skilled in governmental issues due to his sporadic but intense love of studying in libraries. Thus, he offers three major works considering how human roles change within governmental rule. These radical masterpieces elaborate on the sciences’ restoration, property division, and ownership that force humans to terminate harmonious lives with their natures.
Discourse on the Sciences and Arts
Rousseau’s first Discourse on The Sciences and Arts is his reflections on the effect of the sciences and arts on human morals. His argument evolves around the comparison of barbarians and civilized peoples. A few centuries ago, Europe was immensely absorbed by ignorance but with more natural and rustic mores. This condition was replaced by enlightened letters that turned nations into civilized peoples with more vices (Rousseau 3).
Rousseau speculates that the more individuals become educated and voluptuous, the more they are trapped in dissolution and slavery. He concludes that science and virtue conflict causes people to be insatiable and forces politicians to think more about money and domination than virtue (Rousseau 11). Rousseau becomes concerned with the decline of morality and increasing inequality after the corruption of human minds, which luxury had enervated.
Discourse on the Origin
The following work, Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality among Men, considers the argumentation around the hypothetical equal state of nature. He believes that humans constructed all social inequality, while before its establishment, everyone was guided by instinct and wanted freedom from early birth (Rousseau 26). However, once people felt the necessity of land cultivation, they started to claim ownership – the origin of justice issues (Rousseau 66). It did not only cause some people to be financially stable but fostered moral changes with more egocentrism and envy. Thus, Rousseau concludes that establishing property results in the abuse of political societies and inequality, which was initially nonexistent in human nature.
Discourse on Political Economy
Rousseau’s final remarks appear in the Discourse on Political Economy. He highlights that the economy is the lawful government aiming for the family’s common good, but this specificity lost its essence in the last decades (Rousseau 122). Everybody should agree to the established economic management as it targets the social community. It resembles Rousseau’s idea in the Social Contract – that people willingly agree to create and obey a government (Rousseau 155). In this case, the community’s liberty must match the sovereign power (Rousseau 157). That is why he supports a democratic system focusing on citizens’ wills as the authority’s ultimate source.
Conclusion
To conclude, these three philosophical masterpieces in “The Basic Political Writings” bring Rousseau international recognition and fame. While Discourse on the Sciences and Arts urges the audience to reevaluate their priorities, focusing on compassion and happiness instead of pursuing knowledge, another work notes that social inequality is human-constructed. Meanwhile, the last works emphasize that governments and economics should preserve human nature, forcing people to acknowledge their instincts and mores.
Work Cited
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Basic Political Writings. Translated by Donald Cress, Hackett, 2012.