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Saturday, November 14, 2009

Quotes from The Social Contract


“…the right of any individual over his own estate is always subordinate to the right of the community over everything; for without this there would be neither strength in the social bond nor effective force in the exercise of sovereignty.” (SC p. 68, Penguin edition)
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“…the laws are but registers of what we ourselves desire.” (p. 82)
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“There is often a great deal of difference between the will of all and the general will. The latter looks only to the common interest; the former considers private interest and is only a sum of private wills. But take away from these same wills the pluses and minuses that cancel each other out, and the remaining sum of the differences is the general will.”
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“…life is…a gift he has received conditionally from the state.” (p. 79)
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“Each one of us puts into the community his person and all his powers under the supreme direction of the general will; and as a body, we incorporate every member as an indivisible part of the whole.” (SC, p. 61)
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“…whoever refuses to obey the general will shall be constrained to do so by the whole body, which means nothing other than that he shall be forced to be free…” (p. 64)
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“Every member of the community gives himself to it at the moment it is brought into being just as he is – he himself, with all his recourses, including all his goods.” (p. 65)
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“…the general will is always rightful and always tends to the public good…” (p. 72)
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“If the state, or the nation, is nothing other than an artificial person the life of which consists in the union of its members and if the most important of its cares is its preservation, it needs to have a universal and compelling power to move and dispose of each part in whatever manner is beneficial to the whole.” (p. 74)
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Yikes!
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See also:
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