Rousseau and Duty to the State Essay -- Philosophy

It is generally agreed that the great philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the artist Jacques-Louis David had played a great role in serving and supporting the French Revolution, in addition to, showing their devotion to their state and explore the notion of duty to the state each one by his own special way. The great philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau had inspired the revolution by his argument and ideas that was based on Reason. He played a great role in exploring the notion of duty to the state by providing the public with his argument in the social contract,which was frequently quoted and referred to during the early stages of the Revolution. The social contract was concerned to establish whether or not the authority of the state is legitimate. His fundamental problem is to find a way in which we can live in a state and yet remain as free as before. He explained that, this only could be achieved if the general will of the individual always coincide with the will of the state. Therefore, he had recourse to the concept of the general will, which is defined as "the general will of a group taken as a whole rather than as a collection of individuals." He tried to convince us of this by describing the difference between the state of nature and the civil state, and in effect, asking which we think is better. To be in the state of nature, would be to act on appetite and so be slavish and bad. To be in the civil state, is to act according to reason and so be noble and good. We ought constantly to bless the moment that we moved in to the civil state because this gives us the chance to be noble and good .So,says Rousseau it is in each of our interests to choose the general will .Therefore, if we think according t... ... and dimmed color of Brutus giving a broad tonal range,this tends to sharpen the impact of dramatic contrast. It seems that the formal elements of this painting are conspiring to focus our attention toward the grieved women,and to show us how brave is Brutus' decision,that he even neglect his family's sorrow and even turn his back away from his sons' bodies .He commit his decision unhesitatingly,raising the voice of duty to the state over everything else even his own flesh and blood . Finally, we can conclude and detect a lots of similarities between the ways in which Rousseau and David did explore the notion of duty to the state .Both of them believed in the great role of philosophy and art in educating the public, therefore,they used their profession successfully to express their devotion to state and serve their country,each one by his own way .