GOV 312L Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Body Politic
13 Feb 2017
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Agenda: rousseau, state of nature (from rousseau"s second discourse, agreement as the basis of authority, the social contract: solution and paradox, the private will vs. the general will, rights and morality as convention. Many concepts are also similar to locke. Criticized liberalism: lead to isolation of people rather than participation of people in political life, needs uniformity. Much more positive than hobbes or locke. We had everything we needed from nature: nature is just fine, not the problem, society is what corrupted humans. We began to live with each other. Started putting up fences to claim things for ourselves. Locke says this is good, especially if you put labor into something. Rousseau says locke and hobbes had the wrong understanding because they started looking at history from a point at which humans were already corrupted. If you go back all the way, you will see that nature is good and pure.
