A Comparative Study of the Ideas of Jean Jacques Rousseau and John Stuart Mill regarding the Concept of Freedom

Freedom is one of the most valuable words that have existed in human minds up to now. Freedom is the most important index of human dignity and nobility. Many of the political thinkers believe that enjoying a value and identity called freedom is the greatest index of human dignity and identity and lack of access to freedom is the major feature of animal identity of man. This is why Rousseau, the French thinker, has considered the slavery and colonialism to be against human nature and has equaled the lack of freedom to the lack of humanity. Rousseau`s is often associated with the irrational idealism of pure and savage nature as well as the primary nature of human being. However, beyond all features, he is a complicated political philosopher who has offered a determinate form of government which is the prerequisite of human freedom within the framework of a modern society. He insists that man is a man when he is free since this freedom provides the ground for his perfection. John Stuart Mill is another western thinker claiming that the lack of freedom is equal to the lack of reason. Hence, he states that there is a close relationship between the freedom and rationality. He regards the lack of freedom as the lack of reason.