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![]() ![]() The volume also contains the opening chapter of the manuscript version of the Contract, together with the long article on Political Economy, a work traditionally between the Contract and Rousseau's earlier masterpiece, the Discourse on Inequality. This new translation is fully annotated and indexed. Individuals through their common self-interest, thus validating the society in which they live and the constraints it imposes on them. His greatest contribution to political thought is the concept of the general will, which unites ![]() He insisted on the sovereignty of the people, and made some provocative statements that are still highly controversial. The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Social Contract & Discourses, by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Translated by George Douglas Howard Cole. Rousseau is essentially a radical thinker, and in a broad sense a revolutionary. ![]() This is because self-preservation is humans’ deepest drive, and. ![]() If they choose to remain united with their parents, it is only by agreement, and not by nature. As humans we were `born free' and our subjection to government must be freely accepted. Rousseau contends that the oldest of all societies is that of the family, but once children grow up, they become naturally independent of parents. It argues concisely but eloquently, that the basis of any legitimate society must be the agreement of its members. Censored in its own time, the Social Contract (1762) remains a key source of democratic belief and is one of the classics of political theory. ![]()
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