Paper Example on Jean-Jacques Rousseau: The Father of Political Theories

Introduction

Years before the eighteenth century, people thought that the clerics were the leading intellectuals in all parts of the world. The following years have seen secular intellectuals replacing the clerics rising to power who are not bound by their faith but only their brain power. Jean-Jacques Rousseau is appreciated as one of the modern day intelligent people who is acknowledged for influencing reasoning in five key regions. He is also recognized with came up with multiple ideas in the field of education, which still are being employed in the most academic organizations. Rousseau's work has also helped people in changing the way they analyze nature as he started the process of checking into the inner self as well as argued that man is classically selfish, something that resulted in his criticizing of capitalism. This was one of his significant achievements in the psychological world, and he did not like the idea of private property as well as competition. Thus, this paper will seek to offer critical thoughts on Rousseau as a great intellect the world has ever seen based on the information offered on him in the book Intellectuals by Paul Johnson.

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Rousseau raised to fame when he was registered to an essay competition and won a composition at the Dijon Academy of Letters that was held in 1749 (Griffin, 1990). Rousseau's essay was ranked as the best during the eighteenth century, which proved that he had great intellectual capacity. He was born in 1712 and died in 1778, and became a socialist mystic and an anti-semantic Voltaire which are most of the time believed to be the core reason for the deadliest French revolution (Griffin, 1990). The profane revolution started the open countrywide murder of the enemies of the people in all parts of the nation. Thus, it can be argued that his work resulted in the rise of two significant figures of the Enlightenment that were very different in the end. Voltaire was the main irreligious humanist type that resulted in the rise of the freedom to worship, which in turn caused secular healing in the world at that time but not during a mythical moment in the future (Erina, 2018). Rousseau, as an intellectual person, did not positively take in the dry as well as the unemotional thinking rather than using feelings. Rousseau used a romantic point of view in a manner that was accepted in nature together with the mob democracy that was highly embraced during his time.

Application of Rousseau's Ideas

Most of Rousseau's reasoning is currently being utilized by the modern day humanist movements, which are religious by taking Voltaire's cruel doubt as well as elitism against the conventional values as well as Christianity. This has been promoted by the humanist groups using his "general will" as well as a mystical socialist view of the human nature. Rousseau's book Emile was one of the most important ones in the field of education after the one written by the Plato Republic, and his other materials had a significant impact on the development of political approaches as well as practice (Erina, 2018). Rousseau had one of the tough youthful life that had no form of formal education present. He was not a great educator at all. He was not able to raise his children which resulted in him committing his sons and daughters to a home soon after they were born. It is incredible that he was a socialist yet he found it hard to live in harmony with other people in the community (Griffin, 1990). He liked the solitary life over the communal one. The thing is people should not look at his personal life but should check on the impact of his work on their lives. Rousseau's work is drawn from a broader spectrum of traditions comprising of botany, philosophy, as well as music. This is the primary reason his work has significantly affected most areas in education over the decades.

Political Effects of Jean-Jacques Rousseau Intellectual Thoughts

Rousseau's reasoning resulted in the start of the French Revolution as well as the secular mass killing, communism, and the failure of the modern day academic standards. This is because of his belief that knowledge is not very important, but feelings are vital in everything that people do in the world today. Rousseau's work is great even though he never received formal education. Some of his excellent ideas was that false beliefs were emotionally satisfying as compared to the reason themselves, which implies that his work had some strong background, which helped people in getting to know of his central ideas and apply them to their lives (Griffin, 1990). For instance, his concepts about education have a more significant impact on the modern educational theory by lowering the significance of book learning and claims that the emotions of the young people must be educated before embarking on teaching them on how best they can reason. Thus, it can be argued that Rousseau believed one learned better by observing what others do in their daily lives, which implies that the educators, parents, and other members of the society have a significant effect on the growth of the child. For example, the parents and teachers must show the functional model to the children at all times so that they can grow to be better people in the future. Autonomous racist's individuals think that children from minority societies do not have the potential of taking in the book knowledge like math and science, as compared to those from elite families (Griffin, 1990). Thus, it is essential that Rousseau was right in claiming that it is better to enhance the sense of self-esteem in children rather than permitting them to gain a real education. The young people from minority race have financial problems that are adversely affecting their ability to acquire higher education which will imply that it will not be helping the youth entirely.

Effects of Rousseau's Work on Current Political Views and Theories

Rousseau's work helped in changing the political views and theories that were being used at that time. The claim that liberal civilizations is highly exaggerated and generates several evils is as biased as the liberalism itself. Rousseau supported it by believing that there is a need to do everything to alter the issues in the past that were causing more damage to the community than good (Erina, 2018). The idea that embracing recent changes in the society will spoil the community still applies in the modern setting such as in environmental campaigners who believe that the recent ecological changes are a result of increased industrialization. The reasoning was based on his statement that people were born free but end up facing issues in all spheres of life. In saying that Rousseau meant that there are no problems when people are born but the same people are ones who are the source of problems experienced in the world. Thus, the community is corrupted by the people themselves, which individuals realize a communal "general will" (Erina, 2018). The general will is thought to have the common good of all the people, and it is something that the community members must come together to fight all the evils in the society. Everyone has a part to take in creating the common good even if it means going against their interests. Thus, it is essential for citizens to wage war against heavy taxation even if the ruling party is one that they highly support. In doing this, they will be helping in eliminating some of the issues that are negatively affecting the lives of the people. Most of the criticism of these thoughts are tied to the problems that Rousseau had in the society. For instance, he had a poor upbringing as shown by him missing the care of his parents who fled the nation when he was ten years of age (Erina, 2018). It must be noted that this age Rousseau had not attained proper cognitive growth in his life, which explains why he suffered psychologically and emotionally (Johnson, 2014). Thus, he is genuinely one of the intellects the world has ever seen as he had mental health problems, but his work still left a lot of insight in the world today.

Experience helps people in understanding why it is crucial for them to embrace change in everything that they are doing in the society. For instance, Rousseau thought that a competent person must put his ambitions last and others first was developed from what he observed while growing up in the community. For example, the government wanted to incarcerate his father for a minor mistake something that resulted in him fleeing Geneva (Erina, 2018). If the government were not corrupt or biased in doing everything in the society, then Rousseau and the minorities would not suffer at the expense of the majority of races. On the same note, the same experience helped in building his works as seen by the way he claimed that minority children find it difficult in getting the formal education (Johnson, 2014). The children have a lot to handle, thus if taught how to deal with life or relate with other people who are intelligent. This will undoubtedly help them gain more as compared to learning from books.

Furthermore, Rousseau's insights can be found in almost all the aspects of the modern day philosophy. His common philosophy has played a critical role in personal emotion mostly in cases with the clear humanist thinking that was dominant during the French Enlightenment period. He also thought that people are inherently ethical but the modern civilization is full of evil, and primitiveness is critical for the creation of happiness (Griffin, 1990). This implies that the people should do everything to protect their current ways of life that create happiness rather than trying to embrace new ones that will cause more harm than good. For instance, in taking in the original form of education or culture, the people might not understand the evils associated with each, which might cause more trouble to the lives of people than good it was intended to create. This also explains why Rousseau perceived the community as a modern and evil and that enhancement of the social causes more issues to the people (Erina, 2018). The same idea can be applied in fighting the destruction of the environment in the world today, which has been caused by the increased industrialization and urbanization in the society. These innovations are the source of unhappiness for people in the community as the effects of environmental pollution are devastating. In his article, "Discourse on the Arts and Sciences" Rousseau made a baseless claim that the rise of science had a deleterious effect on the life of every mortal on the face of the Earth (Griffin, 1990). The information had made the government very powerful, which in turn resulted in the destruction of freedom for every person in the society. The claims were made based on the idea that most people do not take time to think about the negative influence of different innovation on their lives, which results in them launching plans that adversely impact all people's lives.

Conclusion

All in all, Rousseau is genuinely one of the well-known intellects whose work has positively influenced change in multiple areas such as in politics, education, and social life. His job was excellent because of the experiences that he faced during his life as a child. He suggested that children need to be taught on how best they can deal with their self-esteem rather than focusing on the formal education. This was to help the disadvantaged groups in the community to gain from teaching as it the case the wealthy people's children. Rousseau also taught people to take care of all the modifications that they wish to make to their daily life activities as they might cause more unhappiness to the people as compared to the desired good. Thus, people can learn from his work to ap...