Political Science 2237E Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: French Revolution

• School: Western University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: Political Science 2237E
• Professor: Richard Vanderweetering

Document Summary

Louis xiv is a weak ruler, unsuccessful and expensive wars, louis the 16th was corrupted by wealth, which commenced the french revolution. Rousseau favored geneva, but he was exiled and his books were burned. Rousseau adopts hobbes and locke(cid:495)s language while challenging others reasonable, rousseau doesn(cid:495)t believe in the reasonable part because he still thinks. In terms of the state of nature, rousseau believes we are asocial. Rousseau agrees with locke that we are relatively peaceful because we are we are animals who are tempted. For rousseau, in the discourse of inequality there seems to be a clear difference between r1, r2, and r3. We choose leaders based on who is the strongest, but rousseau rejects this idea. He believes that the rule of the strong is not legitimate; he is concerned with legitimacy. Legitimacy =the moral justification used to create a power + to use a power. Hobbes (cid:494)commonwealth by institution(cid:495) but (cid:494)commonwealth by acquisition(cid:495)