Similarities Between Rousseau And Thomas Hobbes

John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Thomas Hobbes were significant figures during the Enlightenment, a European intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition. These philosophers agree on some points, however they contradict each other on other ideas. In today’s society, capital punishment is a very controversial topic. “Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is a legal sentence to die for criminal behavior”. The death penalty is a controversial topic because some crimes are so odious that the perpetrator deserves to die and another view is that the authority makes mistakes and capital punishment cannot be reversed, once the convict is dead, he can not be brought back
According to Rousseau, the purpose of government is to bring people into harmony and to unite them under the “General Will”. Rousseau uses the concept of General Will as a means by which a group of people get involved in a social contract. The General Will is the separate wills, rights and desires of each member of a society brought together as a one. In the derivation of the General Will, Rousseau stresses that every man is free. Therefore, every subject is equal and has no more power or influence on the General Will than any other citizen in the society. Rousseau would approve of death as a punishment because “People surrender individual rights for protection. In order for the system of government to work, they must follow the will of the majority. If they fail to do so they must be punished, for they are not complying with the consent they gave to the system. If it is in the best interest of all to use the death penalty as a punishment, Rousseau’s theory would give a sovereign entity allowance to do so.” Therefore in terms of Rousseau’s ideology, he would put a person on death row if they conflict with the will of the