Rousseau’s “Social contract” and the concept of alienation

The article actualizes the problem of the possibilities of achieving freedom in civil society. The authors consider this problem through the analysis of the conceptual essence of the phenomenon of “social contract” in its relationship with the concept of alienation. Purpose of the article: to analyze the concept of alienation in versatile historical interpretations of historical and socio-philosophical thought. The article examines the views of Rousseau on the relationship between citizens and the state. The texts of Hobbes, Locke, Hegel and Marx, which considered the concept of alienation, are analyzed. The article substantiates the escalation significance of the socio-philosophical understanding of the state of “civil” freedom, analyzes the essence of the general logic of legal consciousness, identifies the main positions of Rousseau’s concept, which defines a social contract as a dialectical unity of alienated potentials that form a dynamic whole “political machine”. The article also details the positions of Hobbes, Locke, Hegel and Marx, given in comparison with the views of Rousseau. The category of “alienation” is analyzed in the context of specific relations between the subject and his definite function, arising as a result of the loss of the initial integrity/unity and being a predictor of the impoverishment of the nature of the subject itself, leading to the transformation of the function itself. The article concludes about the relevance of Rousseau’s theory of alienation for socio-philosophical knowledge. The authors come to the conclusion that the concept of alienation in versatile historical interpretations makes a full turn before returning to its most “balanced” interpretation - Rousseau’s “social contract”. These provisions remain relevant today. The social contract destroys the “natural” generic quality of a person - to be free, alienating her arbitrary, and often just random gifts in favor of a voluntary association that rationally uses all possible and ultimate values of this ideal and real state of a person burdened with social duty.

social contract, Rousseau’s concept, alienation, civil society