Rousseau on forced freedom. A brief overview

Essay from the year 2020 in the subject Philosophy - Philosophy of the 17th and 18th Centuries, grade: Upper Second, 68, London School of Economics, language: English, abstract: This essay argues that Rousseau fails to fully justify his claim that one can be forced to be free. Rousseau tries to argue that the general will can force citizens to be free, and while the positive notion of freedom manages to reasonably combine force and freedom on an individual level, it does not apply to society as a whole. This is because Rousseau fails to justify that restrictions imposed by the general will are ultimately self-imposed by all citizens.