Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the natural law foundation of the political order

Abstract

The thematic interest of this paper is the understanding of the role of natural law, as an aspect of Rousseau's practical thought. For the sake of a more general review, the paper first talks about the presence of the jus-naturalistic paradigm in the history of philosophy, and gives a general insight into its specificities in the New Century. One of these specificities is taking the original human nature as the basis for the legitimation of various social contract theories. The paper will, therefore, give an insight into Rousseau's anthropological assumptions, as well as their contrast with the understandings of Hobbes and Grotius. As this will show, man is characterized by his original innocence, freedom and perfection. Consequently; understanding man as originally free, Rousseau advocates the idea of ​​the people as the bearer of sovereignty. This further introduces this paper into the recapitulation of concepts and institutes of Rousseau's political thought, such as the General Will and the will of all, the idea of ​​the legislator, the Social Contract, and into the question of the legitimacy of government. In the end, the paper will show that Rousseau, despite starting from a hypothetical anthropological construction, still opens up problems that remain philosophically and practically current.