Full Title of Rousseau’s The Social Contract: The Social Contract or Principles of Political Right.

Core Q: How can we Reconcile Independence and Inter-dependence?

1. Rousseau’s Life (1712-1778)

 Born in a city-state, Geneva in 1712

 In 1750, his “Discourse on the Arts and Science” was awarded the first prize in an essay
composition sponsored by the Academie de Dijon
 In 1752, he wrote an opera Le Devin du Village, by which King Louis XV was so pleased to offer
him a lifelong pension. But he refused.
 Published Emile and The Social Contract in 1762
 As the representative of Romanticism in the 18 th century, influenced the French Revolution as well
as the modern educational and political thought

2. Fundamental Issues: Human Autonomy & Social Interdependence

 Subject of the Inquiry

 “Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. One thinks himself the master of others, and
still remains a greater slave than they. How did this change come about? I do not know. What
can make it legitimate? I believe I can solve this question.”(SC I, Ch. I, my emphasis)
 Who should rule?
 What should a legitimate government be like?
 Fundamental problem of ‘a free community of equals’: how to reconcile personal autonomy
with social interdependence?
 Attempt to solve the tension between liberty of citizens and Authority of the state

“Man is born free”: natural liberty

“and everywhere he is in chains”: civil/moral order including laws
In chains: (1) authoritatively imposed rules; (2) in a society marked by profound
differences in power and advantages, some people are subject to the decisions of
others.
“What can make it legitimate? I believe I can solve this question.” : the Reconciliation of
Human Autonomy and Political Community1
Rousseau’s answer: chains are legitimate insofar as they bind us to the general
will: 1. Human beings must unite to survive (SC I, VI, 2) 2. They can unite to be ruled by
a master. Or they can unite to exercise together the general will
Only the latter avoids personal dependence – the general will comes from all and
applies to all (SC I, VI, 6, 8-10)

3. The Social Contract

 Background
 Enlightenment: human being and reason / liberty and equality
 The political order is not natural but invented (SC I, IV, 1).
 We can ask under what conditions it is legitimate, and the answer can be found through reason.

 Social Contract
 People make a contract with each other, to lay down their certain rights and liberty in order to
exchange the peace and security
 Loss and gain through the social contract (SC I, II, 1)
Loss: natural liberty and unlimited right to everything
1
In the Social Contract, Rousseau thinks that the “fundamental problem” is “to find a form of association that will defend and
protect with the whole common force the person and goods of each associate, and in which each, while uniting himself with all,
may still obey himself alone, and remain as free as before.” (SC I, VI, 4)
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 Gain: civil liberty and moral liberty
 civil liberty: equality between the community members2
 moral liberty: self-actualization of himself; no longer as the slave of his
impulses3
 Civil State: the union of all persons4
 Social Contract: an agreement, or compact, that establishes the State (or political order) in
which each person gives up his natural liberty and possessions in exchange for protection, civil
liberty and the right to property.
 State of Nature  Social Contract (consent)  Sovereign

 Social Contract: an agreement, or compact, that establishes the State (or political order) in which
each person gives up his natural liberty and possessions in exchange for protection, civil liberty
and the right to property.

4. The Sovereign
 A ruling, law-making body of society formed by the social contract
 A body of citizens that act collectively, and thus this authority should be exercised by all citizens,
but not only by a master or a few of elites5
 An ultimate authority in the decision-making process of the State and in maintenance of order
 A public person, body politic (as metaphor), the people; not simply a collection of individuals in a
given territory
 It requires a certain level of civic unity / identity and civic virtues: the exercise of the general
will6

5. The General Will

 The general will is the will of the sovereign that aims always at the common good, which gives
weight to the good of each citizen, i.e. it is a share understanding of the common good and a
shared recognition of the authority of such good.
 Reason and Common Good
 Reason is universal, general and common to all, that is, what is true for one rational man is
also true for other rational men. e.g. valid argument
 If I am rational, then I will discover I seek goods which is common to all 7
 For Rousseau, common good is the object of the general will8
 General Will
 Not a particular will9
2
“…each man, in giving himself to all, gives himself to nobody; and as there is no associate over which he does not acquire the
same right as he yields others over himself, he gains an equivalent for everything he loses, and an increase of force for the
preservation of what he has.” (SC I, VI, 8)
3
“To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man, to surrender the rights of humanity and even its duties.”(SC I, VI, 6)
4
“This public person, so formed by the union of all other persons, formerly took the name of city, and now takes that of Republic
or body politic; it is called by its members State when passive, Sovereign when active, and Power when compared with others like
itself. Those who are associated in it take collectively the name of people, and severally are called citizens, as sharing in the
sovereign power, and subjects, as being under the laws of the State.” (SC I, VI, 11)
5
“the moment a master exists, there is no longer a Sovereign, and from that moment the body politic has ceased to exist.” (SC II,I,
3)
6
“…Sovereignty, being nothing less than the exercise of the general will, can never be alienated, and that the Sovereign, who is no
less than a collective being, cannot be represented except by himself” (SC II, I, 2)
7
“The individuals see the good they reject; the public wills the good it does not see. All stand equally in need of guidance. The
former must be compelled to bring their wills into conformity with their reason; the latter must be taught to know what it wills.”
(SC II, VI, 10)
8
“The first and most important deduction from the principles we have so far laid down is that the general will alone can direct the
State according to the object for which it was instituted, i.e., the common good……It is solely on the basis of this common
interest that every society should be governed.” (SC II, I, 1)
9
“In fact, each individual, as a man, may have a particular will contrary or dissimilar to the general will which he has as a citizen.
His particular interest may speak to him quite differently from the common interest: his absolute and naturally independent
existence may make him look upon what he owes to the common cause as a gratuitous contribution, the loss of which will do less
harm to others than the payment of it is burdensome to himself; and, regarding the moral person which constitutes the State as
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  Not the will of all10
 General will implies the concept of equality in its essence 11
“Each of us puts his person and all his power in common under the supreme direction of
the general will, and, in our corporate capacity, we receive each member as an indivisible
part of the whole.”(SC I, VI, 10)

6. Forced to be Free
 Natural liberty is that one can do whatever one wants subjected to physical constraints.
 But real liberty is a moral liberty subjected to human reason.
 One has “to consult his reason before listening to his inclinations” (Bk 1 Ch.8)
 Use one’s rational abilities to deliberate the common good, the good for the society as a whole and
control one’s desires and private interests and put public interests (or the common goods) at the
first place.
 “Forced to be free” therefore means that one can be forced to be morally free and be forced to put
the common good at the first place and this liberty is the real liberty of being a human being.

In a nutshell

Nature and “first societies” society (in the true sense)

Natural state Civil state

Natural liberty Civil liberty

Aggregation Association

Power as brute force Power as legitimate authority with rights and

duties

Master/slave Citizen/ citizen

Particular will and sum of wills General will

Private Interests Common Goods or Public Interests

Instincts/Desires Justice

Usurpation of property Legitimate proprietorship

Appendix: The Relationship between Legitimacy and Justification

a persona ficta, because not a man, he may wish to enjoy the rights of citizenship without being ready to fulfil the duties of a
subject.” (SC I, VII, 7)
10
“There is often a great deal of difference between the will of all and the general will; the latter considers only the common
interest, while the former takes private interest into account, and is no more than a sum of particular wills: but take away from
these same wills the pluses and minuses that cancel one another, and the general will remains as the sum of the differences.” (SC
II, III, 2)
11
“…the general will, to be really such, must be general in its object as well as its essence; that it must both come from all and
apply to all; and that it loses its natural rectitude when it is directed to some particular and determinate object, because in such a
case we are judging of something foreign to us, and have no true principle of equity to guide us.” (SC II, IV, 5)
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Legitimacy Subjective Aspect Objective Aspect
It concerns about “why can you rule me?”

Ancient Time

Mandate Heaven (天命) 

Divine Right of Kings (君權神授) 

Imperial Lineage (皇室血統) 

Natural Law, Order and Right 

Between Ancient and Modern

Orthodox Ruling Belief 

People’s belief that a rule, institution, or leader has the right 

to govern (orthodox ruling belief)

Modern Time

People’s consent to be ruled 

Human Law, Order and Right 

However, justification asks a different question. It concerns about “why do we need a state to
rule us?”

A state will be justified to govern us if it can provide …

1. Comfortable and Safe Living Environment

2. Protection of Civil Rights

3. Fair Working and Investing Conditions

4. Equal Opportunity of Education

5. Healthy Housing Market

6. Robust Welfare System

7. 8…9…10…etc.

Finally, the concept of justification of a state points to the preservation and prosperity of the
well-being of the members of a state or society!

In the modern time, if a state cannot provide any degree of the above “benefit” to the members, can it
still be legitimate to govern the members? Probably not! Therefore, conceptually, we can distinguish
the terms legitimacy and justification, but we must be aware that they are closely related to each other
and under some conditions, justification will even substitute the place of legitimacy!