Rousseau

Rousseau's diagnostic opening line. | Source: Rousseau, Social Contract, Bk.1 Ch.1

"Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains."

Rousseau's fundamental aim. | Source: Rousseau, Social Contract, Bk.1 Ch.6

"Find a form of association that defends and protects the person and goods of each associate with all the common force… yet each one, uniting with all, nevertheless obeys only himself and remains as free as before"

Rousseau on civilization's corrupting effect. | Source: Rousseau, Discourse on the Arts and Sciences, p.5

"The sciences, letters, and arts… spread garlands of flowers over the iron chains which weigh men down"

Rousseau on how the rich trick the poor into the first (illegitimate) contract. | Source: Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, p.97–98
"gave the weak new fetters and the rich new forces…irreversibly destroyed natural freedom, forever fixed the Law of property and inequality, transformed a skillful usurpation into an irrevocable right”

“for the profit of a few ambitious men henceforth subjugated the whole of Mankind to labour, servitude and misery"

Rousseau on savages in the State of Nature (only amour de soi). | Source: Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality

"the savage desires only food, sexual satisfaction, and sleep, and fears only hunger and pain"

Rousseau's "forced to be free" passage. | Source: Rousseau, Social Contract, Bk.1 Ch.7

"In order then that the social compact may not be an empty formula…whoever refuses to obey the general will shall be compelled to do so by the whole body. This means nothing less than that he will be forced to be free."

Rousseau on what is lost and gained in the social compact. | Source: Rousseau, Social Contract, Bk.1 Ch.8

“What man loses by the social contract is his natural liberty and an unlimited right to everything he tries to get and succeeds in getting; what he gains is civil liberty and the proprietorship of all he possesses"

Rousseau on the inalienability of sovereignty. | Source: Rousseau, Social Contract, Bk.2 Ch.1

"Sovereignty, being nothing less than the exercise of the general will, can never be alienated, and… the Sovereign, who is no less than a collective being, cannot be represented except by himself: the power indeed may be transmitted, but not the will"

Rousseau on the self-dissolution of a people who merely "obey." | Source: Rousseau, Social Contract, Bk.2 Ch.1

"the moment a master exists, there is no longer a Sovereign."

Rousseau on the legitimacy of acts of sovereignty. | Source: Rousseau, Social Contract, Bk.2 Ch.4

"It is legitimate, because based on the social contract, and equitable, because common to all; useful, because it can have no other object than the general good, and stable, because guaranteed by the public force and the supreme power"

Rousseau on law breakers as enemies of the state. | Source: Rousseau, Social Contract, Bk.2 Ch.5 ("By violating its laws he ceases to be a member of it…")

"in putting the guilty to death, we slay not so much the citizen as an enemy"

Rousseau on law as the register of our wills. | Source: Rousseau, Social Contract, Bk.2 Ch.6
("Laws are, properly speaking, only the conditions of civil association. The people, being subject to the laws, ought to be their author")

"It can no longer be asked whose business it is to make laws, since they are acts of the general will"

Rousseau on elective aristocracy as the best form. | Source: Rousseau, Social Contract, Bk.3 Ch.5

"it is the best and most natural arrangement that the wisest should govern the many, when it is assured that they will govern for its profit, and not for their own."

Rousseau's critique of English "freedom." | Source: Rousseau, Social Contract, Bk.3 Ch.15

"As soon as they are elected, slavery overtakes it, and it is nothing"

Rousseau on the inherent defect of the body politic. | Source: Rousseau, Social Contract, Bk.3 Ch.10 ("sooner or later the prince must inevitably suppress the Sovereign and break the social treaty")

"As the particular will acts constantly in opposition to the general will, the government continually exerts itself against the Sovereignty"

Rousseau on substituting the individual for the whole — changing human nature from individual to citizen. | Source: Rousseau, Social Contract, Bk.2 Ch.7

"He must take from man his own forces in order to give him forces that are foreign to him and of which he cannot make use without the help of others."

Rousseau on "each" and "all." | Source: Rousseau, Social Contract, Bk.2 Ch.4

“Why do all consistently will each one's happiness, if not because there is no one who does not appropriate the word each to himself, and think of himself as he votes for all."

Mills on the first contract?
(“to remove them of their burdensome and oppressive character”)

"the contract is a scam; the pretence is that everybody will be included in the codification of moral principles and legal rules"

Mills on why we don’t go back to natural primitivism and why the new contract is required?

“Only in the social order can we develop our distinctively human potential…but does not fall prey to the evils and corruptions of the domination contract.”

Rawls on Amoir de soi vs amour-propre

Amour de soi: free will, self-improvement, and compassion for others. Amour-propre: the craving for social standing and the right to make claims that limit others' conduct

Bertram on restricting freedom?

"In each of these two cases, freedom is restricted for the sake of freedom”

Cobban on law-making as a rare activity?

“a rare and exceptional activity”

Wolff on repressive implications? (bad argument imo)

“The same measures which make democracy defensible in instrumental terms also make it intrinsically undesirable”

Wolff on dissent as treason

“Against the background of the tight unity of the state, dissent is a crime, and crime is treason”

Bertram - purpose of civil religion

“give citizens a confidence in dealing with one another, a confidence that will underpin their feelings of common identity and solidarity”

Okin on male and female Rousseaun morality

"Rousseau clearly regarded female morality and male morality as essentially different."

Wolff on women’s subordination

“The doctrine of the equality of citizens is rather soured by Rousseau's assumption that there would naturally be inequalities”

Klausen on freedom and dependence

"economic dependence, clientelism and luxury economies" are all forms of slavery

Bertram on moral freedom is the fruit of association?

(“Social Contract provides a solution to the problem of social coexistence for people whose amour propre has been awakened”)

“‘moral freedom', is a fruit of their association and could not be anticipated beforehand”

Wolff on particular vs general will
“Exercising your vote in the first way — in your interests — is to pursue your particular will.”

“Voting for what is in your view the morally correct outcome, or the common good”

Gourevitch on Moral agents (Institutions shape our beliefs and morality —> Find a pure and legitimate political society)

“we are moral agents by virtue of being citizens or at least members of political societies; we are not moral agents who may or may not become political agents”

Gourevitch on social compact vs social contract?

“The double contract leaves the parties in a legal state of nature”

Gourevitch on the defining feature of the social contract

“The defining feature of the social contract is freedom under self-imposed law: each party to it is both a member of the sovereign and a subject or Citizen”

Gourevitch on moral agents (society corrupts and everything depends on politics)

“man is by nature good, political society corrupts him, and everything depends on politics”