Rousseau
... a community that exists for mutual preservation. In entering into civil society, people sacrifice the physical freedom of being able to do whatever they please, but they gain the civil freedom of being able to think and act rationally and morally. Rousseau calls the collective grouping of all citizens the "sovereign” and claims that it should be considered in many ways to be like an individual person. While each individual has a particular will that aims for his own best interest, the sovereign expresses the general will that aims for the common good. The sovereign only has authority over matters that are of public concern, but in this domain, its authority is absolute. I agree with Rousseau’s ideas of government. I feel that man cannot be given total freedom and that man should not live under a repressive government. The beliefs of Rousseau also disagree with such a government. The link of the people to the government with a social contract that Rousseau suggests, and his thought that peop...