Mill and Rousseau on Political and Social Equality

Excerpts from the Paper

Mill and Rousseau on Political and Social Equality
The object of this essay is to compare the reflections of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Stuart Mill on the subject of political and social equality. Within the history of Western Culture, the profound considerations of equality developed by Rousseau and Mill mark a decisive break from earlier political philosophies. While their most famous predecessors, principally Hobbes and Machiavelli, formulated political life in terms of sovereign authority, cunning and the amoral struggle between individual actors, Rousseau and Mill are indebted to the revelations of the enlightenment. Within the contentious milieu of a democratized Europe, where political life was suddenly determined by the demos,...

.....uart, and Oskar Piest. Utilitarianism. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1957. Print.
Mill, John Stuart, and W. J. Ashley. Principles of Political Economy, with Some of Their Applications to Social Philosophy. New York: A. M. Kelley, eller, 1965. Print.
Mill, John Stuart. Considerations on Representative Government. New York: Liberal Arts, 1958. Print.
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, and Donald A. Cress. On the Social Contract ; Discourse on the Origin of Inequality ; Discourse on Political Economy. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 1983. Print.
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Roger D. Masters, and Judith R. Masters. The First and Second Discourses. New York: St. Martin's, 1964. Print.
Ten, C. L. Mill on Liberty. Oxford: Clarendon, 1980. Print.