The Social Contract

The Social Contract

by

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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The Social Contract: Book 1, Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
“Man was born free,” Rousseau begins, “and he is everywhere in chains.” But the powerful are “greater slaves” than those over whom they rule. Rousseau does not know why this condition came about, but he thinks he can figure out how to make it “legitimate.”
Rousseau’s famous opening line points out the wide gap between the radical potential of a legitimately organized society, which is capable of helping people realize their fullest human potential, and the reality that societies mostly serve to further existing concentrations of wealth, property, and power by denying rights and self-determination to the majority.
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Quotes
In theory, Rousseau continues, people should simply seek freedom by resisting anyone who rules over them—but society, which is the “basis for all other rights,” requires that people agree to let others rule over them. His goal in this Book 1s to figure out what people must actually agree to.
There appears to be a contradiction between people’s inherent, self-interested desire for freedom and their willingness to live in a society that restricts their freedom. However, Rousseau is about to explain why society can actually increase people’s freedom.
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