Social Contract, The & Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (2 titles)

by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Social Contract, The & Di...

by
Jean-Jacques Rousseau

book data

53 ratings, 3.49 average rating, 7 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		11%
4		35%
3		43%
2		9%
1		0%

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published

January 1st 1967 by Washington Square Press (first published 1958)

details

Mass Market Paperback

isbn

0671424610 (isbn13: 9780671424619)

description

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. This …more

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 108)

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Aug 19, 2009

Bob Nichols rated it:

(review of isbn 9562915654)

Read in August, 2009

Rousseau writes about biological man who is driven by self-interest (one's preservation, welfare). The need for freedom to attend to one's own needs is grounded in biology and this is Rousseau's philosophical core. Self-interest is balanced by "pity" for the sufferings of other feeling beings. Rousseau's natural man interacts with his fellows in a way that preserves a balance between respect for the self's need for freedom with a respect for the rights of others to their own freedom...more Rousseau writes about biological man who is driven by self-interest (one's preservation, welfare). The need for freedom to attend to one's own needs is grounded in biology and this is Rousseau's philosophical core. Self-interest is balanced by "pity" for the sufferings of other feeling beings. Rousseau's natural man interacts with his fellows in a way that preserves a balance between respect for the self's need for freedom with a respect for the rights of others to their own freedom. His task as a political philosopher is to find a governance system that provides for further mutual advantage, yet protects one's freedom that is inalienable. His solution is the General Will concept (The Social Contract), which is kindred in spirit to Kant's notion of universal moral law, where all individual particularity ends so that nothing but the good of the whole remains. Rousseau starts from a solid foundation, which is man's inherent need for freedom. It is a need that extends to all creatures and in this incidental way Rousseau articulates the rights of animals. Where Rousseau goes astray is his perspective that "pity" is a general capacity that applies to all men equally and that its application extends to those outside of one's circle. In a Thoreau-like critique of modern society, he rails against the corruption of arts and sciences (First Discourse) that leads us to deviate from our true nature and to become pretend (and soft) men, preoccupied with impression and advantage, which creates inequality (Second Discourse) that results in the ills of modern society and the accentuation of the particular will over the general will (Discourse on Political Economy). Rousseau says that theorists like Hobbes take this corrupt state and project it backwards into the state of nature, which stands in contrast to his own benign view of natural man. But Hobbes's observation may be a more accurate reading of "human nature(s)" in which case the role of power to check power may be far more viable as a governing system than a general will that is premised on a less than complete picture of who we are individually and collectively. As Darwin observed, we may be more tribal than individual. Yet, Rousseau writes powerfully about man's (and "brutes'") inherent need for freedom and this alone makes for compelling reading. The introduction by translator G.D.H. Cole (Everyman Library, 1950 edition) is also very good. (less)

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Apr 07, 2008

Drew rated it:

(review of isbn 0671832050)

I'm pretty aware that this book is brilliant. I pick out great ideas as I read this. But it's so difficult for me to read (i.e. boring) that I don't think I can finish it. I think I've been raised on entertainment for too long to be able to make a book like this happen. I wish I could justly give it the attention it needs.

I finally figured out why I don't like it. It feels like I'm talking to a teenage girl speaking in a vernacular used in the 1700's. The run-on sentences and/or idea...more

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Nov 07, 2009

Justin Mitchell rated it:

(review of isbn 0671832050)

Read in November, 2009

I fully intended to love this book, but I just found Rosseau's writing to be about twice as wordy as there was any need for, due mostly I am certain to the era in which he lived, and once I unearthed the meaning of one of his labyrinthine sentences, I was always rather underwhelmed, as he really only has a handful of actual ideas that he expounds over and over again, and they are hardly earth-shattering. An important book, I know, but not the be-all and end-all of anything.

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Oct 07, 2009

Paul rated it:

(review of other edition)

bookshelves: political-theory

"For it is by no means a light undertaking to distinguish properly between what is original and what is artificial in the actual nature of man, or to form a true idea of a state which no longer exists, perhaps never did exist, and probably never will exist; and of which it is, nevertheless, necessary to have true ideas, in order to form a proper judgment of our present state."

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