ROUSSEAU ON WILL AND MORALITY

Rousseau was one of the leading figures in the so-called 'Romantic Reaction' which followed the 'Age of Enlightenment'. The latter was the name given to the period from about 1650 till late in the eighteenth century when the leading thinkers of both England and France were inspired by a faith in the power of human reason to achieve a final understanding of the universe and to provide a rational guide for human conduct. It is generally agreed that the central theme of Rousseau's Social Contract - man's loss of his natural liberties in the modern state played no small part in fanning the flames of discontent which culminated in the French Revolution. Rousseau argues that the social contract provides the solution to this fundamental problem. By this he means that a society founded upon a social contract, will provide its members with both the freedom of the state of nature and the advantages of civil law and order.