New Research On Rousseau's Thought Of Freedom

Freedom, which is an ancient and forever young problem, runs through the whole development of human society. Rousseau is a great thinker in human history, and his philosophical ideas have influenced the entire world. Rousseau become the most controversial thinker in the history of human thought when he encountered the freedom. his freedom thought was argued by people since its birth,and has continued to modern.Approaching to Rousseau, we can't help being puzzled deeply by the contradictions in his life: He was one of the leaders of the Enlightenment, but he believed that science was not conducive to social customs depuration; he was a well-known dramatist and musician, but he thought that the arts were immoral to social customs; he was a well-known educators, but he sent his five children to the orphanage; his "new love Lois" was called love book, but he said that there was no love between Deris who has a long-term cohabitation with him; the most important thing is that he proposed the shocking freedom thought and has led to long-term academic debate. Some scholars called Rousseau as the"modern democratic Father", and the more scholars thought he was the founder of totalitarianism, although he hold high the banner of freedom throughout his life. Why was this happening? Was Rousseau misunderstood?Was this the problem about Rousseau himself? Or was limited by era? Then, contradictions in Rousseau's thought reflected the deep-rooted problems of the reality precisely? This article attempts to make serious analysis on Rousseau's Freedom Thought in order to deepen our understanding of freedom thought.This article is divided into three main parts:Part I: Analysis the origin and logical thinking of Rousseau's freedom thought. The concept of Freedom have been from the beginning of mankind philosophy, and throughout the development of human society. Ancient philosophers made significant contribution to the development of freedom of thought. Their freedom thought intended to reveal the value of life, or gave the directions and guidances to study on freedom thought for future generations, or accessed to the core values of modern liberalism giftly. To the modern times, freedom thought emerged enormous development; Hobbes and Rousseau were the representatives. Freedom thought began to develop towards two directions from Hobbes and Locke a direction was represented by Hobbes, they claimed all the freedom and power should put to the absolute authority , the people must obey unconditionally, this moved toward the authoritarian inevitably; other direction is Locke's liberalism. They thought freedom was escaping from restrictions of external forces, emphasized on personal freedom, They advocated transferring part of freedom to country and retained the most freedom. And separating powers to limit the powers of the state in order to protect personal freedom. Rousseau love freedom lifetime, democracy, he objected strongly to the Hobbes'authoritarian which deprived of people's freedom, he thought that was extremely absurd. Similarly, Rousseau was also not satisfied with the Lockerbie-style liberalism. He thougt the approach which restricted the powers of country in order to protect individual freedom from the restrictions of external forces was very passive. In order to avoid the defect the direction of Hobbes and Locke, Rousseau proposed his freedom thought, and the thought has opened up a new direction for liberalism.Part II: Detailed discussion and analysis on Rousseau's freedom thought. In Rousseau, the people of Freedom can be divided into three different levels: natural freedom, society freedom, moral freedom. The three levels shew a low-level to high- level development. The three freedoms involved in the two states of human society, that is the natural status and social status. The development of freedom from the natural to the social and then to moral formed the concept of Rousseau freedom from low to high in three stages. Rousseau's Freedom Thought embodied his basic political orientation, also embodied his thought process about politics.Part III:Analysis of influence of Rousseau's freedom thought on freedom thought of the future, and revelation about individual in general, individual rights and state power and other major questions of philosophy. Rousseau freedom thought influenced on the West, especially Kant, Hegel, Marx and other great masters of Western thought. Rousseau's Freedom Thought digested the absolute opposition in general and individual unified them in general will and the community. Rousseau opened up a new direction for a better understanding of the problem of the individual and general. Rousseau was completely different from other philosophers in dealing with individual issues. In the problem of individual rights and state power, Rousseau stressed the importance of the unity of individual and state power, and protection individual freedom in the Community was able to achieve. Locke Rousseau amended the "negative freedom" avoiding tyranny and oppression and shift to the"positive freedom"for the requirements of the National action. Rousseau's "positive freedom" concept eliminated the opposition of the individual and the society which were in Lockerbie's thought.Today, China, whose economy and politics develop in a high-speed, is at an important period of transformation, and has a lot of imperfect details in institution. It is necessary to further study the relationship between individual rights and state power. Rousseau's freedom thought will give us significant insight. Rousseau's freedom thought, purposing in the people achieving equality and freedom, focusing on eliminating the economic dependence and psychological dependence, still there is no lack of insight, although it is limited by time. When we are facing with the reality of Chinese society, Rousseau's political philosophy is no doubt to give us a profound source of enlightenment and a wealth of inspiration.