The Social Contract
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1762)
“'Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.' Rousseau's 1762 treatise converts this opening provocation into the most radical and most dangerous contract theory of the Enlightenment — a blueprint for popular sovereignty that the French Revolution would carry in its pocket, and that twentieth-century critics would blame for the Terror.”
Characters in The Social Contract
by Jean-Jacques Rousseau · 1762 · 8 characters analyzed
Cast: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Sovereign / The People, The Legislator, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Montesquieu, Robespierre (Posthumous Disciple), Isaiah Berlin (Posthumous Critic).
Character Analysis
Rousseau writes as a citizen addressing other citizens, drawing on his Genevan-republican background and his break with the philosophes. His voice is confident but not academic, polemical but not ranting. He presents himself simultaneously as philosopher, as citizen, and occasionally as prophetic voice warning of political dangers.