The Social Contract - 1 - Freedom
Book One
Quote
It would be well, before we examine the act by which a people elects a king, to examine the act by which a people becomes a people.
Notes
🔥 "Man was born free, and everywhere he is in chains. There are some who may believe themselves masters of others, and are no less enslaved than they."
🔥 The social order is a sacred right, but it doesn't come from nature. It comes from agreed conventions. So what are those conventions...?
🔥 Man's first law is his own conservation, taking care of himself.
🔥 "Behold then the human race divided into herds of cattle, each with its chief, who preserves it in order to devour it."
🔥 The family is the most ancient society, with the father as the leader.
🔥 The so-called "right of the strongest" is not really a right. "To yield to force is an act of necessity, not of consent ... We are obliged to obey only legitimate powers."
🔥 No one has a natural right over another, and being stronger doesn't give you a right to rule either. The right to rule must come from "agreed convention."
🔥 Why would a nation sell itself and become subject to a king? Some say a king brings civil order, but he also might bring greed, or a warlike ambition for more power.
🔥 "Prisoners live peacefully in their dungeons; is that enough for them to feel comfortable there?"
🔥 In order for a government to be legitimate, it needs the people's consent. Conquering someone in war doesn't give you a right to rule over them.
🔥 Slavery is similarly illegitimate. "I will make a covenant with you which is entirely at your expense and entirely for my good." No one would enter into a deal like that voluntarily.
🔥 The idea that there is an agreement to go with the majority vote in a decision shows some prior agreement to this collective arrangement.
🔥 Humans can't survive on their own in the state of nature. They need to find a way to cooperate with others while still retaining their individual freedom.
🔥 Rousseau conceives this social pact as a mutual exchange between its members where you give your rights to the community — the general will — but you receive more rights back collectively: "Each of us puts his person and all his power in common under the supreme direction of the general will; and we as a body receive each member as an indivisible part of the whole."
🔥 The sovereign of this body, theoretically, should have the same interests as the body, since they're all part of the same state. But it is possible for one's individual interests to differ from the general will. So there should be some mechanism to ensure obedience to the general will.
🔥 Being a member of a society brings about a change in a person where they're no longer only thinking about themselves. He has to "consult his reason before acting on other inclinations." But civil freedom is greater and gives you more protection than individual freedom does.
🔥 Being driven by appetites alone is actually slavery. And following a law we impose on ourselves is actually freedom.
🔥 Property rights must be established and are stronger in a state than in nature. You have to work the land to really own it.
🔥 "I end this chapter, and this book, by a remark upon which the entire social system should be based: it is that, instead of destroying natural equality, the fundamental contract substitutes moral and legal equality for whatever degree of physical inequality nature has put among men; they may be unequal in strength or intelligence, but all become equal through agreed convention and by right."
Thoughts
A lot of this book so far seems very similar to John Locke, discussing things like the state of nature and the necessity of consent in order for a ruler to have any legitimacy.
There are elements from other philosophies, too, like the idea of being free to pursue your inclinations or appetites is actually slavery, and controlling yourself enough to follow reason and be part of a society is actually freedom.