Skip to main content

Rousseau's Social Contract

This video presents the same text shown beside it, spoken and on screen. It adds nothing the text does not say.

State

Rousseau's social contract trades natural freedom for civil freedom: each person, joining with all, obeys laws the whole community gives itself.

Show

Rousseau's phrase carries the idea: man "is born free, and everywhere he is in chains" — legitimate chains being the ones a people forges for itself.

Builds on

Unlocks

  • Nothing yet depends on this.