People are born free and are everywhere in chains.

"People are born free, but they are everywhere in chains. He who thinks he is the master of everything else is a slave more than anything else. " [1] This is Rousseau's overall judgment on people's living conditions in his social era. On the one hand, he affirmed in principle that freedom is human's innate endowment and right, and it is human nature; On the other hand, it is pointed out that people in reality live in a state of non-freedom and suffer from all kinds of slavery. Man is in the contradiction between principle and fact because he can't dominate himself. If people want to be free, they must distinguish and resist all kinds of shackles and inequalities imposed on others. In short, people abide by their agreed laws in social life and listen to the call of conscience in moral life. Rousseau called such people citizens, and he believed that only citizens deserved freedom. From Rousseau's general judgment, we can analyze the following meaning of freedom: freedom is autonomy, freedom is not to do whatever you want, but to obey the laws made by yourself. In order to find these laws, people must know themselves to distinguish themselves from their unconscious state.

Rousseau divided freedom into three types: natural freedom, social freedom and moral freedom. In the natural state, natural people (primitive people) obey the laws of nature: self-love and self-pity Natural people have low intelligence, their reason has not yet come out, they lack self-awareness and let their emotions act. The freedom of nature is embodied in the arbitrariness of sensibility. Indulge in the natural self, without the desire and consciousness to be a master. The freedom possessed by primitive people is not equal to autonomy, let alone self-knowledge. Their freedom refers to the equal state of harmonious coexistence between people and between people and nature without private ownership. Under social conditions, people's own rationality has been developed and continuously improved. Faced with all kinds of political, economic and even spiritual inequalities in real life, people strongly demand to overthrow the autocratic monarchy, abolish the social contract that was forced to sign because of deception, and establish a new social contract on the basis of equality for all. The new social contract makes abstract public will override individual will, and public will is embodied in law. People abide by the law, for the first time consciously assume obligations and enjoy the rights endowed by law. "We must find a form of integration so that it can defend and protect the person and wealth of everyone who is integrated with the whole, and because of this combination, every individual who is integrated with the whole only obeys himself and remains as free as before." [2] This combination form is the social contract, which appears in the form of law. Rousseau's social freedom is actually equal to social equality, and the realization of social freedom needs to eliminate all kinds of inequalities, and social freedom is guaranteed by law.

Social freedom makes people the masters of the country, but it is far from making people their own masters. "Only moral freedom can make human beings truly become their own masters; Because only the impulse of lust is slavery, and only obeying the laws prescribed by people themselves is freedom. " [3] Rousseau called the moral law established by people's own legislation conscience. He believes that conscience is the fundamental source of all good deeds, justice and virtue, while desire is the root of all evil deeds. Only when people distinguish themselves from evil desires in nature, understand good with reason and follow the guidance of conscience to do good, can they shoulder the moral responsibility to mankind. Since then, people have become the masters of their own actions, and they should bear unshirkable responsibilities for the consequences, values and influences of their actions. God, church, monks and worship are no longer the deciders of people's moral behavior. "The real heart is the real temple of God." [4] The foundation of human moral behavior has been pulled back from heaven to earth. Religion, as the authority of morality and belief, no longer enjoys absolute rights, and belief becomes personal feelings and beliefs. As the masters of the country, people's behavior is just, while as their own masters, their behavior is moral, which is what a citizen must have. Therefore, moral freedom is the continuous deepening and improvement of social freedom.

Rousseau divided freedom into three types. Natural freedom is intended to show that freedom is a natural human right, innate and inalienable. As a mirror, natural freedom can identify various inequalities and moral corruption in social reality. The realization of social freedom is actually a dynamic historical process of overcoming the degradation of human nature and sublating social alienation, while the realization of moral freedom is the consciousness of this historical process, that is, the process of perfecting human nature itself.

Rousseau divided people into natural people and social people, which is the first kind of self-differentiation, which is consistent with the course from natural freedom to social freedom. The second kind of human self-differentiation is human self-differentiation, that is, the differentiation within human nature, which is consistent with the course from natural freedom to moral freedom. The distinction between natural person and social person reveals the dialectical historical process of human society from natural state to social state, from natural equality to social inequality, and then to social equality. Through this distinction, people have gained equal status in social life. People are no longer dominated by the laws of nature, but obey their own consent as an external heteronomy. The people are masters of the country, realizing social freedom and social liberation. The division within human nature is the deepening of the first division. Through this distinction, human beings have progressed from an unconscious moral state to a social state with high moral consciousness. People have established their own moral laws through legislation, and the self-discipline of will makes people consciously abide by external laws. It is this distinction that deepens people's understanding of themselves, makes people the real masters of their own will, and realizes the liberation of moral freedom and human freedom.

Rousseau traced the state of nature in theory and described the living situation of a lonely natural person. Natural people are lonely and homeless, and their activities are mostly used to meet physiological needs. They are free because they follow two principles of natural law (self-love and compassion). Self-love promotes self-preservation, while compassion restricts self-love from being too selfish and causing harm to others. Natural persons have no distinction between good and evil, and there are no moral norms and various evaluation criteria. "The barbarian is not evil, because he doesn't know what is good. Because what prevents him from doing evil is not the development of wisdom, nor the constraint of law, but the calm mood and ignorance of evil. " [5] Although the behavior of natural persons transcends morality, they are inherently kind. Natural people have no distinction between "you" and "I" and have no language. Although there are many physical inequalities, they don't feel it. Inequality is almost equal to zero for them.

Rousseau's thought of freedom has exerted great influence on western society in theory and practice. Theoretically speaking, natural freedom affirms the inviolability of people's freedom rights, social freedom clarifies the basic spirit of a democratic society ruled by law, and moral freedom enlightens people and educates people towards perfection. Rousseau's concept of freedom has greatly liberated people's minds, washed away the theoretical basis of "divine right of monarchy" and "hereditary of nobility" in feudal dynasties, and exposed the evil behavior of collusion between political power and divine right and oppression of people. Practically speaking, the French Revolution and the American War of Independence were largely guided by his thoughts, and both the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence shone with the brilliance of his liberal thoughts. However, there are many immature and empty places in Rousseau's freedom thought. Natural freedom is purely a theoretical fiction; In social freedom, people are masters of their own affairs, but they lack maneuverability. Law only refers to the fundamental constitution and does not involve all kinds of laws and regulations. It is difficult to ensure that power belongs to the people, and the concepts of "general will" and "sovereignty" are confused, which has become a double-edged sword that both Democrats and totalitarians can use. Moral freedom bases moral law on the personal feelings of conscience, which makes morality lose its universal inevitability and objective effectiveness, and conscience may become an excuse for those with impure motives to excuse themselves. These negative factors are something that we must face squarely and criticize.