1001Philosophers

Jean-Jacques Rousseau vs John Locke

Locke and Rousseau are the two great social contract theorists who, despite agreeing on the contractarian framework, reach very different conclusions about freedom, property, and political legitimacy.

At a glance

Jean-Jacques RousseauJohn Locke
Dates1712 – 17781632 – 1704
NationalityGenevanEnglish
EraModernModern
Movements Enlightenment, Social Contract Empiricism, Enlightenment, Social Contract
Profile Jean-Jacques Rousseau → John Locke →

Where they agree

Both held that legitimate political authority is grounded in the consent of the governed, both rejected the divine right of kings, and both made the protection of natural freedom central to political philosophy. Both shaped the political vocabulary of the American and French revolutions.

Where they disagree

Locke held that property in things one has labored on is a natural right that exists prior to government and is one of the principal things government exists to protect. Rousseau held that the introduction of private property is the origin of inequality and a corrupting force in human society. Locke's free citizen is the property-owning individual; Rousseau's is the citizen-participant in the general will. Their disagreement on property is the seed of nineteenth- and twentieth-century disagreements between liberal and communitarian political thought.

Representative quotes

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  • “Let's go dance under the elms: Step lively, young lassies. Let's go dance under the elms: Gallants, take up your pipes.”

    Le devin du village (1752)

  • “Le devin du village (1752)”

    Let's go dance under the elms: Step lively, young lassies. Let's go dance under the elms: Gallants, take up your pipes.

  • “All that time is lost which might be better employed.”

    As quoted in A Dictionary of Quotations in Most Frequent Use: Taken Chiefly from the Latin and French, but comprising many from the Greek, Spanish, and Italian Languages, translated into English (1809) by David Evans Macdonnel

John Locke

  • “No man's knowledge here can go beyond his experience.”

    Book II, Ch. 1, sec. 19

  • “All mankind being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.”

    Second Treatise of Government , Ch. II, sec. 6

  • “The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom.”

    Second Treatise of Government , Ch. VI, sec. 57

Continue reading