Rousseau and Burke on Property

Abstract: Edmund Burke and Jean Jacques Rousseau were contemporaries during the period of the French revolution who were on opposite sides of the philosophical battleground concerning the system of titled property that had been at the foundation of the revolt. Burke favored monarchy and defended established religion. His belief in property was based on the assumption that perpetuating property through the aristocratic families was the best way to perpetuate society. Rousseau was not a much an advocate of the Revolution as a believer that the individual had inalienable rights that entitled him to acquire property through personal endeavor, and that the inherent compassion of human nature would serve to regulate the evils thought, by Burke, to gain ascendancy if the current system should fall. This 7 page paper examines the positions each man took on the issue of property. Rousseau's position can be found within his Discourse On The Origins Of Inequality, while Burke presents his argument in his Reflections On The Revolution In France. No additional sources are listed.

Filename: KTpropty.wps

Pages: 7

---

Catagory: Philosophy Of Religion, God'S Existence & Freewill

Subcatagory: Philosophy

---