Social Contract Theory of Jean-Jacques Rousseau through a Methodological Approach

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Assist Prof. of Shiraz University

Abstract

 
 
The social contract theory of Jean-Jacques Rousseau has been one of the main foundations of modern democracies and has inspired the Declaration of Human Rights. This article attempts to study the foundations of ontology, epistemology and anthropology of this theory through a descriptive-analytical method and a fundamental methodological approach and also investigates the relationship between these foundations and Rousseau's social contract theory. Based on the results of this article, ontology, subjectivity and the change in the relation between man and the world as well as secularism have led him to the social contract. Also, epistemologically, the essential bases of the social contract theory include pre-romanticism, separation from the sacred intellect and the replacement of the natural religion and official civil religion for Christianity. Likewise, in terms of anthropology, the belief in the intrinsic goodness of man is considered to be an important principle in Rousseau’s view of social contract. Rousseau is a philosopher of the modern era. Although from an epistemological point of view, he emphasizes emotion rather than reason, and in terms of anthropology, the emphasis is on the primitive man, free from the corruptions of science and civilization, these views do not exclude him from the framework of the Enlightenment.
 
 

Keywords

References

 
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