The Social Contract, Or Principles of
The Social Compact
Political Right by Jean Jacques Rousseau
Book 1
1. Subject of First Book:
Man is born free: and everywhere he is in
chains
Social order (2): Sacred right, basis of all
other rights
Origin of sacred right (2): not nature,
founded on convention
To Rosseau, man is a free being who (not
by nature) has come to choose freely (by
convention) society.
2. The First Societies (Family):
Most ancient and only natural of societies:
Family
Family may then be called: the first model
of political societies
Once need of family ceases: natural bond
dissolves
Family only maintained by: convention
First law, is to: provide for his own
preservation
Man is his own: master
To Rousseau, Aristotle: mistook effect for
cause
If they are slaves by nature: they are made
slaves against their nature
On Force and Cowardice (2): made the
first slaves, and perpetuated the condition
To Rosseau, political society was founded
first in family and is thus like the family, a
free association. And men come to be
slaves not because of nature, but against
their nature they are conditioned as so.
3. The Right of the Strongest:
The strongest is only strong enough to be
master when he: transforms strength into
right, and obedience into duty
But force has: no moral effect
To yield to force is an: act of necessity, not
of will
Right of force: Oxymoron
To Rosseau, force is not a legitimate way
to create a society as it has no moral (and
thus free) capacity.
4. Slavery (also on War)
Two principles key to Roussau (2): no man
has natural authority over his fellow, and
force creates no right
The basis of all legitimate authority among
men: convention
To renounce liberty is to: renounce being a
man
To remove liberty from his will is to:
remove all morality from his acts
The right to kill is not deducible from the:
right of war
War is constituted (2): by a relation
between things, not of persons
War is between thus (2): not between
men, but between States
In war, Individuals are enemies only:
accidentally
The object of war being: the destruction of
the hostile State
As soon as defenders lay down their arms:
they cease being instruments of the
enemy
And once men surrender as instruments,
we no longer: have any right to take their
life
Sometimes it is possible to kill the State
without: killing a single one of its members
Slavery is still killing: not without profit but
usefully
In slavery, the state of war: continues to
subsist between them
Right of slavery: Oxymoron
To Rosseau, the state of war is not
between men but between states. And
right to slavery through right of war is an
absurd notion, as it is contradictory. As a
slave has no rights, there is no convention.
5. That We Must Always Go Back to a
First Convention
Opposite of association: aggregation
In an aggregation, there is neither (these
two): public good or body politic
A people is a people before: it gives “itself”
To Rosseau, it is not the king that was first
but the people that decided to come
together before a king is even there.
6.
Any slight modication of this contract will
make it (2): vain and ineffective
When each man gives himself to all: he
gives himself to nobody
To Rosseau, the social contract frees man
from being bound only to himself, and
brings him to society where he can be
“more” of himself (through property).
8. The Civil State (drawing up a new social
contract, not of sovereign and subject, but
of civil society)
What man loses by social contract (2
loses): 1) natural liberty 2) unlimited right
to everything he tries to get and succeeds
in getting
What man gains by social contract (2
gains): 1) civil liberty 2) the proprietorship
of all he possesses
Natural liberty (what is it?): is that which is
bounded only by the strength of the
individual
Civil liberty (what is it?): is that which is
limited by the general will
Possesion (what is it?): is that which is
merely the effect of force
Property (what is it?): is that which can be
founded only on a positive title
Book 2
3. Whether the General Will is Fallible
The general will is always (2): right and
tends to public advantage
The people is never corrupted: but it is
often deceived
The will of all (2 features): 1) takes private
interest into account 2) no more than a
sum of particular wills
General will (2 features): 1) the same wills
that have canceled each other out 2) the
sum of their difference
There should be as many votes: as there
are men
When few factions arise: the general will is
endangered
It is therefore essential for the general will
to express itself that (2 things): 1) there
should be no partial society within the
State 2) each citizen should think only his
own thoughts