Debate on Rousseau's Statement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Debate on Rousseau's Statement - Essay Example One of the answers to Jean Jacques Rousseau’s thinking is elated to his ideology of how necessary freedom is to the lives of people. Jean Jacques Rousseau uses nature to explain how much freedom is valued in the field of politics. He talks about how physically the free man is, nit bound y any repressive state of other men. He also talks about how man is spiritually and psychologically free (Christopher, 18). Man is not forced to live with artificial needs. If anything, it is these artificial needs that have brought societal injustices such as exploitation, domination of the poor, depression and low self-esteem. Jean Jacques Rousseau believed that an effective government only comes into existence when its citizens are guaranteed freedom. Property and law are what constrain the freedom of people (Cladis, 22). Nature for Jean Jacques Rousseau was a focal point in determining the independence of an individual and the unity of many. According to Rousseau, the â€Å"state of nature† has been made impure in modern society due to creations of law, property and moral inequality (Cladis, 26). Rousseau acknowledges that mankind cannot return to the original state of nature that he was once born in. However, humanity can try to understand how essential the state of nature is so as to bring out more natural goodness (Christopher, 23). The state of nature is compared by Rousseau to modern society by the use of human need as an element of human life. The state of nature requires that man desires the basic necessities that ensure survival such as sleep, food and sex. However, modern society has constantly grown incorporation and division of labour (Christopher, 35). The result is an increase in the needs of men to include many unnecessary requirements such as entertainment, friends and luxury goods. Such needs may be gratifying and pleasurable but have had the effect of making men slaves to such superfluous needs (Cladis, 29).