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The Social Contract and Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
The Social Contract and Discourse on the Origin of Inequality Author:Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Lester G. Crocker (Editor) In The Social Contract Rousseau (1712-1778) argues for the preservation of individual freedom in political society. An individual can only be free under the law, he says, by voluntarily embracing that law as his own. Hence, being free in society requires each of us to subjugate our desires to the interests of all, the general wi... more »ll.
Some have seen in this the promise of a free and equal relationship between society and the individual, while others have seen it as nothing less than a blueprint for totalitarianism. The Social Contract is not only one of the great defences of civil society, it is also unflinching in its study of the darker side of political systems.
A strikingly original inquiry into politics and human nature, the Discourse presents a theoretical view of people in a pre-social condition and the ensuing effects of civilization. In his sweeping account of social and political development, the author develops a theory of evolution that prefigures Darwinism and encompasses aspects of ethics, sociology, and epistemology. One of the most influential works of the Enlightenment, the Discourse on the Origin of Inequality offers both a thought-provoking account of society's origins and a keen criticism of unequal political institutions.« less