The Social Contract

"The Social Contract" addresses the fundamental problem of political obligation: how can individuals form an association that defends their persons and goods while allowing each to obey only themselves and remain as free as before? Rousseau posits that this problem is solved by a social contract where each associate totally alienates all rights to the whole community. This ensures that conditions are equal for all, making the arrangement mutually beneficial and preferable to the natural state.

The book explores the nature of this contract, arguing that its fundamental clauses are universally implied and binding until violated. It examines the establishment of sovereign power, asserting its absolute, sacred, and inviolable nature within the bounds of general conventions. Rousseau's central aim is to find a sure rule of administration in the civil order by grounding society on human freedom and the will of its members. Key concepts explored include the social contract, sovereignty, and the general will.

Key concepts in The Social Contract

• Political Obligation — The central problem of finding a legitimate basis for individuals to be bound by the laws of a state.
• Social Contract — An agreement among individuals to form an association that protects their rights while preserving their freedom.
• Sovereignty — The absolute and inviolable supreme power within a state, limited only by general conventions.
• General Will — The collective will of the members of a society, serving as the sole basis for any society.
• Alienation of Rights — The act of an individual giving up all their rights to the entire community as part of the social contract.

From the book

Note: Images of the original pages are available through

the the Google Books Library Project. See

http://www.google.com/books?id=exNPAAAAMAAJ

Popular questions readers ask

• The introduction asserts that "historical imagination is the first necessity." How would you explain to someone unfamiliar with Rousseau why understanding the 18th-century environment is *absolutely crucial* for discerning the "absolute and permanent value" of his thought, rather than just reading his ideas in isolation?
• The text claims that great men "can never transcend the age in which they live." Using Rousseau as an example, how would you demonstrate to a peer how his "startlingly new" insights might still be presented through "old-fashioned form[s]" and "inadequate ideas and formulae of tradition," and why recognizing this paradox is vital for a nuanced understanding?
• The introduction notes that Rousseau has suffered from critics with an "equal lack of understanding and imagination." If you were guiding a new reader, how would you help them identify and overcome the "political bias" that leads to accepting or rejecting his doctrines "as a whole," encouraging them instead to "sift" and discriminate his ideas?
• Rousseau is said to have a "double significance": historically and as "the parent of the romantic movement." How would you explain the connections and interplay between his political philosophy (e.g., *The Social Contract*) and his profound influence on art, literature, and lifestyle during the romantic era, to someone who might view these as distinct areas?
• If you had to extract the most essential piece of advice from this introduction for how to approach *any* foundational text from the past, what would that single principle be, and how would you elaborate on its importance, drawing on the specific challenges and misunderstandings highlighted regarding Rousseau?