rOUSSEAU

Does Rousseau Solve the Main Problem which Occupies him
in the Social Contract?

Introduction

Jean Jacques Rousseau first became famous for his answer to the
question set by the Academy of Dijon, "Whether the Restoration of the
Arts and Sciences has had the effect of purifying or corrupting
morals". Rousseau, of course, answered with a resounding no, for which
he won the prize, and thus began his life as a political philosopher.
From the initial essay, and the subsequent clarification of it required
by numerous criticisms, Rousseau developed the Discourse on the Origins
of Inequality. Hampsher-Monk sees the Discourse as a natural
development from the first essay, for in his view the Discourse seeks
to deal with the question "implicit in his earlier criticism of
contemporary culture - if modern society is false and artificial, what
would it be to be true and natural?". Here we have the essence of the
Social Contract - Rousseau's desire to design a...