27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant ideas regarding a model society, December 23, 1997
By A Customer
Inspired by the unfair treatment of France by their king, J.J. Rousseau wrote this book and ideology based on the equality of men. In this book, Rousseau gives the reader detailed information on his view of the model society. The reader is consumed by the principle stating that no man has any authority over the other, and the balance of man's losses and gains gives the reader a sense of hope in this form of community. This is a must-read for any lover of deep thought and classic literature.
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33 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Valuable Piece of History..., April 26, 2004
This is a valuable historical document, because it shows us the thinking that led up to the French Revolution. Rousseau wrote: "Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains." What Rousseau means by this is that Man is born free in the State of Nature - it is society, government, and urban life that are the corruptive forces. Without those things, Rousseau argues, man would exist in peaceful co-habitation. What is striking to the modern reader about this claim is how blatantly wrong it is. Rousseau was trying to refute Thomas Hobbes who wrote that the State of Nature is the same as the State of War. Apparently Hobbes got the better of the argument because, as soon as the French Revolution took effect, peaceful liberty went out the window in favor of the Reign of Terror.
But, back to Rousseau. He claims that, even though men in nature peacefully co-exist, it is more beneficial for them to come together to form a society. Thus they SHOULD come together and form a Social Contract. The ideal contract for Rousseau would entail the individual GIVING UP ALL HIS RIGHTS on entering the contract with the understanding that he will get them all back from the Sovereign. Who is the Sovereign? Well, for Rousseau, the Sovereign is the People. If Rousseau's Ideal State were an organism, it would be a large one-celled organism with no differentiation. This is very much unlike Hobbes' Leviathan, with the Sovereign at the head and each part assigned its individual task. For Rousseau, only the SOCIETY AS A WHOLE has the right to govern.
Of course, this system is incredibly unwieldy, that is why - in Rousseau's world - there are a whole bunch of little city-states, like ancient Athens. HERE COMES THE SCARY PART. Once the whole population gets together and makes a decision, that decision is infallible. "THE GENERAL WILL CANNOT BE WRONG." Those minorities who are disaffected by this general rule shall be "FORCED TO BE FREE." In the case of the French Revolution, that was the freedom of one's head from one's shoulders.
According to Simon Schama in his wonderful book, Citizens, the importance of the Social Contract has been overestimated. Rousseau's love of the State of Nature (which was the spirit of the French Revolution) had more of an effect on the public through his novels Emile and La Nouvelle Heloise.
The Social Contract must be viewed in its historical context as a piece of history in itself. If one reads it for philosophic reasons only, it will come of sounding either frightening or painfully naďve. One sentence caught my imagination however - Rousseau saw the island of Corsica as the perfect candidate for his ideal state. "I have a presentiment that this little island will one day astonish Europe." It did. It produced the greatest warlord the world had ever seen - Napoleon.
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11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Intellectual, January 8, 2003
Jean Jacques Rousseau is truly a great intellectual.His Discourses and The Social Contract are some of the best in Enlightenment thinking. In the Discourses Rousseau exalts the "noble" savage free from the corrupting influence of modern civilization. He believes that civilization has corrupted man from his original, yet ignorant state. I found the Discourses to be a little flighty and unrealistic. The Social Contract was a different story altogether. This is a monumental work. In it Rousseau shows his vast knowledge of the Roman Republic and Empire and the reasons for it's rise and collapse. Rousseau also denounces monarchy and aristocracy as forms of government and exalts republicanism. He also decries the power of organized religion in the oppression of mankind. With his "General Will" theory of the social contract he shows true brilliance. A great buy.
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