Essay - Civil Society and the Rights of Individuals Introduction Through the...

Civil Society and the Rights of Individuals

Introduction

Through ***** years, civil society and the rights of man have come to know *****y things. Many philosophers have helped lay the groundwork for how we govern ourselves today. We have words like democracy, autocracy, dictatorship, ***** other ways of defining a society and rules that determine what the ***** ***** individuals will be. It was in the h*****s of ***** like Rousseau and Burke who began the discussions concerning ***** governs a society. These philosophers studied ***** ***** defined very particular beliefs ***** social, political, and economic ideas that *****re present in society. These ***** tackled questions such as what the state ***** Man actually is, social regimes, religion, and o*****r forms of nature. Rousseau and Burke were philosophers with conflicting views on man and civil society. This paper will discuss their beliefs ***** how they are seemingly trying to teach the same thing, while contradicting one another.

Rousseau

Un***** *****, Rousseau did not ***** from a ***** b*****ckground. He saw himself as unique with a valuable contribution to make to modern thought and society. He ***** not a member of the cliques ***** domin*****ted eighteenth century European ***** and he made his home traveling from ***** society ***** anot*****r. He believed himself to be fully conscious at a very young age and took advantage ***** t***** s*****ate by writing about his ***** at a young age. His political *****liefs stemmed from the romantic enlightenment strand of thought. This foundation was ***** basis for his beliefs on civil society.

Rousseau believed that all rights ***** conventional. Life, liberty, and the pursuit ***** happiness ***** those basic rights of man are the result of an agreement or ***** contract between ***** and government. These rights therefore depend on the will of government. "What government grants, government can take away." (Rousseau, 26) In Rousseau's mind, then, rights do not extend bey*****d the hand of *****. But he does believe strongly about what ***** should be granted to *****.

***** text, T***** Social Contract, reflected this train of thought regarding civil *****. It ***** ***** this influential text that he *****gan ***** be thought of as a totalitarian, one interested in individual rights. It was *****n ***** many that Rousseau was uncomfortable in civil society. ***** simply could not find his place anywhere and was disgusted with ***** ***** society was defined in his time. Civil *****, *****, *****, had a positive effect on humanity, they were "transformed from a stupid ********** to an intelligent being *****d a man," (Rousseau, 19).

However, in ***** opini*****, civil society was not organized in the right way; ***** disorganization, he thought, ***** ***** root of injustice. ***** his view, "***** social organization had removed 'natural' rights from people but ***** not yet instilled civil liberty." (*****, 31) In nature, humans are free, but in civil society, humans are at the mercy of the government and the rules of which they impose. According to Rousseau, society creates artificial