Reflections of the social contract Rousseau as our contemporary philosopher

Abstract

In this paper the author attempts to analyze Rousseau's theory of social contract, elaborated in Rousseau's work with the same title. In order to understand this issue, it was necessary to compare the most important theories of contract - Grotius, Hobbes and Locke, in order to fully understand Rousseau's point of view. The work consists of two parts. The first part analyzes the chronology of concept of natural law, natural status and common features of new era contract theories - from the ancient times until the Rousseau himself. The second part is fully dedicated to Rousseau's idea of contract. In this segment of the paper, the author elaborates on issues of social and historical circumstances that had the major impact on the creation of Rousseau's theory, his understanding of the natural status, creation of civil society and origin of inequality, idea of contract, problem of law, freedom and status of the executive power on in the ideal state.

Keywords

• j.j. rousseau
• natural law
• natural status
• theory of social contract
• civil society
• origin of inequality
• social contract
• law
• freedom