Autonomy and Happiness in Rousseau's Justification of the State
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5771043 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ruqaiya Hasan (0000-0002-2846-0004, corresponding author), Rafeeq Hasan |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 78 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 391-417 |
| Publication date | 2016-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Review of Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0034-6705 • E-ISSN: 1748-6858 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0034670516000267 |
| OpenAlex | W2468455142 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 6 |
Recent interpretations of Rousseau suggest that autonomy is the master concept by which to understand his justification of the state. The Rousseauian state is legitimate insofar as it enables individuals to obey only their own wills and thus to be free. Autonomy-based interpretations cannot adequately account for Rousseau's remarks on the role of the state in securing a collective form of happiness through political community. These interpretations incorrectly construe collective happiness as pertaining only to how civic-minded citizens might be psychologically motivated to obey the state's dictates, rather than to what makes the state legitimate. By contrast, I offer a new interpretation according to which the Rousseauian state is justified because it enables a mutually constitutive relationship between the autonomy of individuals and the happiness that stems from participation in political community
European Political History Analysis · Political Theory and Influence · Rousseau and Enlightenment Thought
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2025 (2) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |