The Moral Foundations of the Social Contract in the Thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Abstract

This dissertation is an attempt to elucidate Jean-Jacques Rousseau's answer to the question "why keep a promise?" with the aim of answering the more particular political question of why one should keep the social contract. I begin by explicating Rousseau's arguments against natural law in order to demonstrate why the theme of promises is so important for his political thought. Rousseau rejects the position that natural moral inequalities among people dictate who should rule and who should be ruled. Like other modern political thinkers, he maintains that political right derives from each citizen's signing of the social contract. But unlike some other modern thinkers, Rousseau denies that the self-interest of each individual is sufficient motivation for keeping that contract. Moreover, he argues that one who is merely self-interested and who makes promises "only for profit" will "set himself in contradiction with himself." I show the nature and causes of this contradiction in the soul. But although self-interested, deceitful promises cause one to come into contradiction with oneself, Rousseau does not believe that even awareness of this fact can sufficiently motivate people to give up the desire for what can be gained by deception. I therefore turn to the question of what can provide this motivation. I first examine Rousseau's understanding of moral freedom, virtue, and the conscience. I find that virtue is constituted by the commands of reason and the conscience, and that the conscience is formed out of well-ordered sentiments. Having these sentiments and the strength of soul necessary for virtue can make a person keep his promises and avoid coming into contradiction with himself. But most people lack this strength of soul, and therefore belief in a providential God is needed in order for them to be just. I then show how the faith of Rousseau's Savoyard Vicar is capable of providing sanctity to the social contract by allowing for the civic-minded appropriation of what Rousseau calls "the language of sign."