Political Philosophy

The Social Contract

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Jean-Jacques Rousseau

1762 · 94 pages

The Social Contract is Rousseau's masterwork of political philosophy, opening with the famous declaration that 'Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains.' In four books, Rousseau argues that legitimate political authority can only arise from a social contract by which free and equal individuals collectively form a sovereign people. The general will — the collective interest of society — becomes the basis of all just law. Published in 1762, it became one of the most influential texts of the French Revolution and of modern democratic thought.