Final Discussion Questions on Rousseau

1. What does Rousseau take liberty in society to be? How is liberty within a society governed by the social contract different from liberty in the state of nature? Why are they both called liberty? Doesn't the subjection of private wills to the general will greatly limit (or even completely destroy) liberty?

2. According to Kant, the fundamental principle of morality is the categorical imperative, which says roughly that one should act in accordance only with principles that one could legislate to be universal laws binding on all rational agents. Think about the comparisons between this view and Rousseau's view of the effect of leaving the state of nature for civil society (for example on pages 150-51).

3. In what ways is Rousseau an egalitarian?