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Main points of Rousseau's beliefs:

• In the State of Nature, humans were good and moral - the ideal of  "the noble savage" - and lived free, simple and happy lives 

• Civilization/Society arose due to an increase in population causing interdependence but at the same time mutual comparison, private property and inequality

• We can't return to the State of Nature but in order to maximise freedom while maintaining law and order, society as a whole must become the Sovereign - called the General Will (equivalent to democracy)

• Children are born good and should have their natural curiosity cultivated leading to child-centred education

 

Videos:

The School of Life (7.5 minutes)

 

Social Contract Theory (16 min) - interesting especially for the arguments against Rousseau's Social Contract theory)

 

Who Was Rousseau? (9.5 minutes)

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