Social Contract

Man was born free and he is everywhere in chainsThese are the famous opening words of a treatise that has not ceased to stir debate since its publication in 1762. Rejecting the view that anyone has a natural right to wield authority over others Rousseau argues instead for a pact or social contract that should exist between all the citizens of a state and that should be the source of sovereign power. From this fundamental premise he goes on to consider issues of liberty and law freedom and justice arriving at a view of society that has seemed to some a blueprint for totalitarianism to others a declaration of democratic principles.Translated and Introduced by Maurice Cranston About the Author Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78) the French political philosopher and educationalist is the author of A Discourse on Inequality and Emile.Maurice Cranston was Professor of Political Science at the London School of Economics and wrote and published widely on Rousseau including two volumes of biography. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. The Social ContractBy Jean Jacques RousseauPenguin BooksCopyright © 1968Jean Jacques RousseauAll right reserved.ISBN: 0140442014IntroductionRousseaus Political Triptych SUSAN DUNNIs there any deed more shocking more hateful more infamous than the willful burning of a library? Is there any blow more devastating to the core of human civilization? In the mid-eighteenth century Jean-Jacques Rousseaustartled - and excited - his readers by praising Caliph Omar who in the year 650 ordered the incineration of the glorious library in Alexandria. In his first important work The Discourse on the Sciences and Arts (1750) also known as the First Discourse Rousseau held that the search for knowledge was so socially and morally destructive that book burning and the subsequent return to ignorance innocence and poverty would be a step forward rather than a step backward in the history of civilization. He was convinced that only cultural and material regression could accompany the movement of society toward morality. The entire rational enterprise of the Enlightenment found itself unexpectedly under fierce and principled attack. When Rousseau burst upon the intellectual scene the philosophers and writers of eighteenth-century France had for decades been passionately engaged in an audacious innovative project: the questioning and dismantlingof all the traditional underpinnings of their society. Their daring charge entailed exposing to the light of reason all preconceived ideas supernatural dogmas and superstitious beliefs all political and social assumptions.Intellectuals were challenging the theological foundation of monarchy the privileges of the aristocracy the doctrines of Catholicism. Having wiped their intellectual slate as clean as they could men of letters in France embarked upon the bold plan of using human reason to address peoples needs: how they should live govern themselves organize society and conceive morality. Their goal was a rational society dedicated to equalityfreedom and happiness. Life had become an intellectual adventure and people were optimistic that they could shape their own destinies. Rousseau had once participated in this luminous and probing culture. He too had wanted to embrace all knowledge; he too had known the joy of intellectual curiosity the bliss of creativity. Mingling and collaborating with artists musicians philosophers and writers - the great philosopheVoltaire the composer Rameau the versatile man of letters Diderot the witty playwright Marivaux the philosophe Fontenelle - he had reveled in the aristocratic world of brilliant salons where luxury elegance and genius combined to make life a joy for the mind and the senses. But his fascination with the sophisticated world of the Enlightenment was also colored by bitterness and resentment the result of hi