Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Despite a tragic upbringing and delinquent adolescence, Rousseau found himself on a colorful journey to knowledge. What we know about this figure is a life of hard knocks. Rousseau was quoted as having said, “Man is born free and yet we see hum everywhere in chains.” This was intended to speak out about government control and give power back to the people but there are many alternative explanations for this. I consider his thoughts and others like it to be Redemption-esque. Moving forward, what are things we can change about ourselves, our culture?

Another interesting perspective from Jean-Jacques Rousseau was one of personal feeling as a motivator for action. This means that we often discount the importance of our feelings. This position may have been heavily influenced by his personal outsider experience with the church and their mandates that seem to not take human nature into consideration. Many of his closest colleagues were religious, and he once falsely entered the Catholic church to receive benefits from the church. The idea of appealing to one anothers sensitive side is mildly reminiscent of redemption to me also because, although he may have intended to be pointing out a flaw in humanity, we can draw a lot from this as counselors and psychologists. The bright albeit cynical philosopher Rousseau gave light to a perspective on how people should conduct themselves and how we should relate to one another with compassion and understanding.
One personal reflection I would like to submit relates to anxiety and social phobias. These are a metaphorical example of the “chains” brought on by ourselves. Fear is something very fictitious from the outside looking in, yet is real and impossible to the one experiencing it. The humanistic perspective is one that identifies personal experience as a truth and suggests that we always consider one anothers feelings.