The Social Contract
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The Social Contract, originally published as On the Social Contract; or, Principles of Political Right, is a 1762 French-language book by the Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The book theori
Title page of the first octavo edition
Title page of a pirated edition of the Social Contract, probably printed in Germany
Social contract
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In moral and political philosophy, the social contract is an idea, theory, or model that usually, although not always, concerns the legitimacy of the authority of the state over the individual. Concep
The Social Contract
…be compatible with individual freedom. Such authority can only be compatible with individual freedom if it is consented to, and hence there must be a social contract. However, Rousseau's conception of this social contract was different to that of thinkers before him, such as Grotius, Hobbes, and Pufendorf. For…
The original cover of Thomas Hobbes's work Leviathan (1651), in which he discusses the concept of the social contract theory