display all the ideas for this combination of texts
13 ideas
19791 | Natural mankind is too fragmented for states of peace, or of war and enmity [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: Men are not naturally enemies, for the simple reason that men living in their original state of independence do not have sufficiently constant relationships among themselves to bring about either a state of peace or a state of war. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], I.4) | |
A reaction: He sees people in a state of nature as more or less solitary, and certainly in groups any more organised than a small family. One might then be in a state of permanent feud, rather than war, but without settlements people can move away. |
20501 | Rousseau assumes that laws need a people united by custom and tradition [Rousseau, by Wolff,J] |
Full Idea: Rousseau assumes that there should already be bonds of custom and tradition uniting a people before it is fit to receive laws. | |
From: report of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762]) by Jonathan Wolff - An Introduction to Political Philosophy (Rev) 3 'Rousseau' | |
A reaction: In unusual circumstances, such as the arrival of a large population at a new colony, it might be that the laws would create the missing customs and traditions. |
7237 | The act of becoming 'a people' is the real foundation of society [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The act by which people become 'a people' is the real foundation of society. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], I.5) | |
A reaction: The difficulty with many older countries is that it is impossible to identify such an act. Mythologies are created to fictionalise such acts; in Britain we refer back to King Alfred, and to Magna Carta. I suspect 1660 is the key year. |
19792 | To overcome obstacles, people must unite their forces into a single unified power [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: Men have no other means of maintaining themselves but to form by aggregation a sum of forces that could gain the upper hand over the resistance of obstacles, so that their forces are directed by means of a single moving power and made to act in concert. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], I.6) | |
A reaction: I prefer the Aristotelian view, that men are naturally gregarious and social (like bees and ants), so this act of solidarity in superfluous. A human people is only broken up by violence or disaster, like kicking over an ants' nest. |
19812 | Human nature changes among a people, into a moral and partial existence [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The establisher of a people is in a position to change human nature, to transform each individual into a part of a larger whole from which the individual receives his life and being, to substitute a partial and moral existence for natural independence. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], II.07) | |
A reaction: The 'partial' part is obvious, in the compromises of society, but he says we only become moral in a people, and even more so when that people constitute a state. In the state of nature, morality seems to be unneeded, rather than absent. |
19814 | A state must be big enough to preserve itself, but small enough to be governable [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: Like a well-formed man, there are limits to the size a state can have, so as not to be too large to be capable of being well governed, nor too small to be capable of preserving itself on its own. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], II.09) | |
A reaction: Geneva was his model, and it is close to the size of a Greek polis. Presumably even Scotland would be thought ungovernable, never mind the United States. Luxembourg might be his ideal nowadays. Thousands of them! |
19815 | Too much land is a struggle, producing defensive war; too little makes dependence, and offensive war [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: Too much land makes its defence is onerous, its cultivation inadequate, and its yield surplus, which causes defensive wars. If there is not enough land, the state is at the discretion of its neighbours for what it needs as surplus, causing offensive wars. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], II.10) | |
A reaction: This sounds much too simplistic, like the causes of squabbles in a kindergarten. Certainly inequalities between nations (such as the USA and Mexico) produces frictions. Advances in agriculture technology have transformed this problem. |
19822 | If the state enlarges, the creators of the general will become less individually powerful [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: The ratio of the sovereign to the subject increases in proportion to the number of citizens. The larger the state becomes, the less liberty there is. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], III.01) | |
A reaction: This is because we remain equally subjected to the state whatever its size, but have less power to influence if there are more citizens. In modern states we all feel pathetically powerless, because of the numbers. |
19823 | If the population is larger, the government needs to be more powerful [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: In order to be good, the government must be relatively stronger in proportion as the populace is more numerous. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], III.01) | |
A reaction: This could either imply a larger government, or more powerful laws for a fairly small government. Rousseau implies an almost mathematical law (of ratios) which determines the size of the government. |
7232 | Man is born free, and he is everywhere in chains [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: Man is born free, and he is everywhere in chains. Those who think themselves the masters of others are indeed greater slaves than they. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], I.1) | |
A reaction: I've always liked the second sentence, though it may be wishful thinking. It is probably rather fun owning slaves. The idea that man is 'born free' strikes me as nonsense. Man is a highly social animal, which only flourishes if enmeshed in a culture. |
7234 | No man has any natural authority over his fellows [Rousseau] |
Full Idea: No man has any natural authority over his fellows. | |
From: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract (tr Cress) [1762], I.4) | |
A reaction: This is, of course, specifically denying that superior strength is the same as a natural right. 'Right' might be a better word than 'authority'. If strength doesn't bestow a natural right, then presumably neither does weakness. |
3774 | Rights are a matter of justice, not of benevolence [Mill] |
Full Idea: Wherever there is a right, the case is one of justice, and not of the virtue of benevolence. | |
From: John Stuart Mill (Utilitarianism [1861], Ch.5) |
3773 | No individual has the right to receive our benevolence [Mill] |
Full Idea: No one has a moral right to our generosity or beneficence, because we are not morally bound to practise those virtues towards any given individual. | |
From: John Stuart Mill (Utilitarianism [1861], Ch.5) |