Social Contract

Name: Social Contract - Penguin Random House South Africa
SKU: 9780140442014
Price: 250.00 ZAR
Availability: InStock

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Maurice Cranston

Formats & Editions

Paperback

Flexible plastic / vinyl cover

Buy from..

About the book

'Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains'

These are the famous opening words of a treatise that has not ceased to stir debate since its publication in 1762. Rejecting the view that anyone has a natural right to wield authority over others, Rousseau argues instead for a pact, or 'social contract', that should exist between all the citizens of a state and that should be the source of sovereign power. From this fundamental premise, he goes on to consider issues of liberty and law, freedom and justice, arriving at a view of society that has seemed to some a blueprint for totalitarianism, to others a declaration of democratic principles.

Translated and Introduced by Maurice Cranston

About the Author

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) was the author of numerous political and philosophical texts as well as entries on music for Diderot’s Encyclopédie and the novels La nouvelle Héloïse and Émile. Rousseau was also a widely loved composer and philosopher. His philosophy had great influence during the French Enlightenment and throughout all of Europe.