[Music] jean-jacques Rousseau wrote the social contract in 1762 in France at a time of great change the moral authority of Kings and the church was being continually questioned as was political power in general and the world was becoming less feudal and increasingly global and commercial commenting on man's condition in this changing world Rousseau starts the social contract with his famous lines man is born free and is everywhere in chains in a discourse on inequality Rousseau had argued that in a state of nature man has two innate impulses self-preservation what he calls amour de soie which means love of self and pity or a repugnance towards seeing suffering in others he argues that in the course of evolution man starts to become civilized by comparing himself to others through what equals perfectibility essentially man's capacity for mimicry and development by copying others as man enters society though this amour de soir the love of self transforms into a more prop which is a sense of his own self-worth this stems from man learning from others but simultaneously comparing himself to them which diminishes is pity for others modern society is defined by amour prop to the detriment of man and so everywhere he is in Chains comparing himself to others at the beginning of the social contract Rousseau considers three ways of organizing society that were part of eighteenth-century orthodoxy natural Authority right of the strongest and slavery many at the time argued that rulers are like parents and the ruled like children or that rulers are naturally better suited to ruling all that if these aren't the case maybe the strong should rule just for the sake of stability Rousseau makes a number of arguments against these that seemed obvious to the modern mind that children become independent from parents or that even the strong can't rule with physical strength alone he argues that all of these arguments have been made after the fact that is they have been made to justify the very state of affairs that they argue for not the other way around none of them fit the idea of man in a state of nature with just a love of self and pity for others so he says that the only way a society can be formed is by a covenant a pact a social contract he argues that even if people choose a leader a social pact based on a prior agreement must have already been in place to begin the decision-making process this is the basis of the social contract so the question for Rousseau becomes how to find a form of Association which will defend the person and goods of each member with the collective force of all and under which each individual while uniting himself with others a baised no one but himself and remains as free as before this is the perennial question of political philosophy in entering a political community of state you give up part of your freedom and submit to laws of the community anarchists argued that this is never justified is it possible to prove that it is Russo's answer he writes is in the total alienation of each associate of himself and all his rights to the whole community he goes on to say that as every individual gives himself absolutely the conditions are the same for all and precisely because they are the same for all it's in no one's interest to make the conditions onerous for others for Rousseau no one gives up their freedom for other individuals but for the idea of an equal community the community then is an abstract idea that is part of the individual it is a concept that the individual creates rationally for himself Rousseau conceptualizes a historical con tribution to philosophy and psychology this metaphysical community or society is what Hegel describes as Geist and what Freud takes inspiration from for the super-ego it is arguably an inherent part of our own psychology for Rousseau this social contract should be organized by his most famous concept the general will it is this concept of a metaphysical community directed by the general will that his sovereign not a king or a parliament in a small community each individual will be motivated by his amour de soir and his pity for others in a community of equals none will be motivated by the corrosive effects of amour prop as comparing himself to others Rousseau is not talking about equality of property but equality of citizenship and direct democracy that you have property on the basis that is afforded to you by the community the community protects your individual rights not the other way around to act morally than is to act in accordance with the general will of the community rather than one's own particular individual will for Rousseau giving up the freedom of natural Liberty leads to a greater civil liberty politic should be judged on this basis and leads Rousseau to one of his most infamous phrases if an individual does not act in accordance with the general will which remember according to Rousseau would be rational for them to do so then they should be forced to be free this general will is worked out by the simple debating and voting of an issue but importantly each person should be directly involved in the process and so Rousseau advocates small states and direct democracy where interest groups and factionalism would be banned Rousseau's fundamental belief was that society should be homogeneous which has led many to accuse him of being one of the intellectual sources for totalitarianism and hurt him at odds with liberals at the time like Voltaire and Montesquieu Rousseau then is most aptly described as a communitarian thinker rather than a liberal obsessed with high individuals societies and himself could lead cohesive authentic lives he argued that in an increasingly individualistic society everyone pretends to be working for the others profits or reputation while only seeking to raise his own above them and at their expense it's a world where sincere friendship real esteem and perfect confidence are banished from among men jealousy suspicion fear coldness reserved hate and fraud like constantly concealed Russo's influence and reputation is totemic he was a leading contributor to the philosophy of the Enlightenment and had a major effect on the causes in the course of the French Revolution which is arguably the defining moment in the creation of modern Europe and in some way he's influenced almost every philosopher who came after him ultimately the question in judging Rousseau is whether you buy into these fundamental observations about human nature about pity if you don't then the rest of the social contract is unlikely to be convincing if you like these videos and would like to support me making more you can follow me on Twitter Instagram and Facebook by clicking the links in the description below you can like this video and subscribe to the then and now channel to see more and if you're feeling really generous you can pledge as little as a dollar towards the creation of each new video you can click 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