The Social Contract
"Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains"
These are the famous opening words of a treatise that has not ceased to stir vigorous debate since its first 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.
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June 30, 1968Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) was the author of numerous political and philosophical texts as well as entries on music for Diderot's Encyclopédie and the novels La nouvelle Héloïse and Émile. Rousseau was also a widely loved composer and philosopher. His philosophy had great influence during the French Enlightenment and throughout all of Europe.
Confessions
Jean-Jacques Rousseau; Introduction by P. N. Furbank
The Essential Writings of Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau; Newly translated by Peter Constantine; Edited by Leo Damrosch
Of the Social Contract and Other Political Writings
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The Social Contract and The Discourses
Jean-Jacques Rousseau; Introduction by Alan Ryan
Reveries of the Solitary Walker
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The Essential Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The Social Contract
Jean-Jacques Rousseau