The Social Contract & Discourses

The Social Contract and Discourses (1762) are two groundbreaking works of political theory and philosophy by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, presented here in one volume.

In The Social Contract, Rousseau breaks down his vision for a just society, one rooted in man’s inherent perfection gleaned from the state of nature. To be truly free, Rousseau argues that people must divulge themselves of their individual notions of natural rights and instead submit to the general will of the people. While this may seem antithetical to the modern perception of freedom, Rousseau argues that the boundaries necessary to uphold individual rights are in fact the greatest restrictions of freedom and that if one accepts themselves not as an individual but as one part of many, the will of the many becomes necessarily their own. In Discourses, Rousseau takes aim at one of the prevailing ideals of his time: that advances in culture necessitate advances in morality. In his view, culture is built from and maintained by inequality and its advancement leads only to moral decline. Far from trying to be perfect or prescient, Rousseau uses his words to challenge directly the accepted ideas concerning humanity’s place in the world, specifically those ideas that most often lead to violence and inequality. For modern readers, especially, it is a refreshing reminder that humanity creates good in the world by placing the well-being of others before ourselves.

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