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Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed that society was a corrupted establishment. It is ill advised for a government or a constitution to place sanctions on humanity and its natural freedom. But no matter how evil government is, it is a necessary one. Rousseau tried to find the harmony between the individual and society in The Social Contract, in which he stated that with the right kind of politics, the true freedom of people would shine through. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was indeed the kind of constitution that met Rousseau’s requirements, although the introduction clearly disagrees with Rousseau’s lifelong theory of humanity being corrupted by government. Rousseau spent most of his life fighting for the freedom of man. In his novel The New Heloise he tells a story of a girl who gave up love to marry into the standards of society. In Emile, Rousseau tells of a young boy who was individually trained and taught to develop an “independent way of thinking.” (Hunt, 694) Rousseau expanded the theme from Emile to The Social Contract, thereby calling for individuality, as long as it is within the confines of the general will.
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