You think this is about your libido? Read Rousseau: You may want to challenge me: ‘So you want to write on politics—are you then a prince [see Glossary] or a legislator?’ I answer that I am neither, and that is why I write on politics. If I were a prince or a legislator I wouldn’t waste my time saying what should be done; I would do it, or keep quiet. As I was born a citizen of a free state, and am a member of its sovereign [see Glossary], my right to vote makes it my duty to study public affairs, however little influence my voice can have on them. Happily, when I think about governments I always find that my inquiries give me new reasons for loving the government of my own country! None of the rest of it is. I plan to address this question: With men as they are and with laws as they could be, can there be in the civil order any sure and legitimate rule of administration? In tackling this I shall try always to unite •what right allows with •what interest demands, so that •justice and •utility don’t at any stage part company. I start on this without showing that the subject is important. You may want to challenge me: ‘So you want to write on politics—are you then a prince [see Glossary] or a legislator?’ I answer that I am neither, and that is why I write on politics. If I were a prince or a legislator I wouldn’t waste my time saying what should be done; I would do it, or keep quiet. As I was born a citizen of a free state, and am a member of its sovereign [see Glossary], my right to vote makes it my duty to study public affairs, however little influence my voice can have on them. Happily, when I think about governments I always find that my inquiries give me new reasons for loving the government of my own country! Read more!
http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/rousseau1762.pdf
This little treatise is salvaged from a much longer work that I abandoned long ago, having started it without thinking about whether I was capable of pulling it off. Of various bits that might be rescued from what I had written of that longer work, what I offer here is the most substantial and, it seems to me, the least unworthy of being published. None of the rest of it is. I plan to address this question: With men as they are and with laws as they could be, can there be in the civil order any sure and legitimate rule of administration? In tackling this I shall try always to unite •what right allows with •what interest demands, so that •justice and •utility don’t at any stage part company. I start on this without showing that the subject is important. You may want to challenge me: ‘So you want to write on politics—are you then a prince [see Glossary] or a legislator?’ I answer that I am neither, and that is why I write on politics. If I were a prince or a legislator I wouldn’t waste my time saying what should be done; I would do it, or keep quiet. As I was born a citizen of a free state, and am a member of its sovereign [see Glossary], my right to vote makes it my duty to study public affairs, however little influence my voice can have on them. Happily, when I think about governments I always find that my inquiries give me new reasons for loving the government of my own country!
1. The subject of the first book Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. Here’s one who thinks he is the master of others, yet he is more enslaved than they are. How did this change come about? I don’t know. What can make it legitimate? That’s a question that I think I can answer.
2. The first societies The most ancient of all societies, and the only natural one, is the society of the family. Yet the children remain attached to the father only for as long as they need him for their preservation; as soon as this need ceases, the natural bond is dissolved. The children, released from the obedience they owed to the father, and the father, released from the care he owed his children, return equally to independence. If they remain united, this is something they do not •naturally but 1 The Social Contract Jean-Jacques Rousseau 13. The right of the strongest •voluntarily, and the family itself is then maintained only by agreement. This common liberty is an upshot of the nature of man. His first law is to provide for his own preservation, his first cares are those he owes to himself; and as soon as he can think for himself he is the sole judge of the right way to take care of himself, which makes him his own master. You could call the family the prime model of political societies: the ruler corresponds to the father, and the people to the children; and all of them—·ruler, people, father, children·—because they were born free and equal don’t give up their liberty without getting something in return. The whole difference is that •in the family the father’s care for his children is repaid by his love for them, whereas •in the state the ruler’s care for the people under him is repaid not by love for them (which he doesn’t have!) but by the pleasure of being in charge. Grotius denies that all human power is established in favour of the governed, and cites slavery as a counterexample. His usual method of reasoning is to establish •right by •fact [meaning: . . . ‘to draw conclusions about what should be the case from premises about what is the case’]. Not the most logical of argument-patterns, but it’s one that is very favourable to tyrants. . . . .Throughout his book, Grotius seems to favour—as does Hobbes—the thesis that the human species is divided into so many herds of cattle, each with a ruler who keeps guard over them for the purpose of devouring them. Philo tells us that the Emperor Caligula reasoned thus: As a shepherd has a higher nature than his flock does, so also the shepherds of men, i.e. their rulers, have a higher nature than do the peoples under them; from which he inferred, reasonably enough, that either kings were gods or men were beasts. This reasoning of Caligula’s is on a par with that of Hobbes and Grotius. Aristotle, before any of them, had said that men are not naturally equal because some are born for slavery and others for command. Aristotle was right; but he mistook the effect for the cause. Every man born in slavery is born for slavery—nothing is more certain than that. Slaves lose everything in their chains, even the desire to escape from them: they love their servitude, as Ulysses’ comrades loved their brutish condition ·when the goddess Circe turned them into pigs·. So if there are slaves by nature, that’s because there have been slaves against nature. Force made the first slaves, and their cowardice kept them as slaves. I have said nothing about King Adam; or about Emperor Noah, the father of three great monarchs who shared out the universe (like Saturn’s children, whom some scholars have recognised in them). [In Genesis 9 it is said that after the flood Noah’s three sons ruled the world.] I hope to be given credit for my moderation: as a direct descendant of one of these princes—perhaps of the eldest branch—I don’t know that a verification of titles wouldn’t show me to be the legitimate king of the human race! Anyway, Adam was undeniably sovereign of the world, as Robinson Crusoe was of his island, as long as he was its only inhabitant; and this empire had the advantage that the monarch, safe on his throne, had nothing to fear from rebellions, wars, or conspirators. 3. The right of the strongest The strongest is never strong enough to be always the master unless he transforms •strength into •right, and •obedience into •duty. Hence ‘the right of the strongest’—a phrase that one might think is meant ironically, but is actually laid down.
This little treatise is salvaged from a much longer work that I abandoned long ago, having started it without thinking about whether I was capable of pulling it off. Of various bits that might be rescued from what I had written of that longer work, what I offer here is the most substantial and, it seems to me, the least unworthy of being published. None of the rest of it is. I plan to address this question: With men as they are and with laws as they could be, can there be in the civil order any sure and legitimate rule of administration? In tackling this I shall try always to unite •what right allows with •what interest demands, so that •justice and •utility don’t at any stage part company. I start on this without showing that the subject is important. You may want to challenge me: ‘So you want to write on politics—are you then a prince [see Glossary] or a legislator?’ I answer that I am neither, and that is why I write on politics. If I were a prince or a legislator I wouldn’t waste my time saying what should be done; I would do it, or keep quiet. As I was born a citizen of a free state, and am a member of its sovereign [see Glossary], my right to vote makes it my duty to study public affairs, however little influence my voice can have on them. Happily, when I think about governments I always find that my inquiries give me new reasons for loving the government of my own country!
1. The subject of the first book Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. Here’s one who thinks he is the master of others, yet he is more enslaved than they are. How did this change come about? I don’t know. What can make it legitimate? That’s a question that I think I can answer.
2. The first societies The most ancient of all societies, and the only natural one, is the society of the family. Yet the children remain attached to the father only for as long as they need him for their preservation; as soon as this need ceases, the natural bond is dissolved. The children, released from the obedience they owed to the father, and the father, released from the care he owed his children, return equally to independence. If they remain united, this is something they do not •naturally but 1 The Social Contract Jean-Jacques Rousseau 13. The right of the strongest •voluntarily, and the family itself is then maintained only by agreement. This common liberty is an upshot of the nature of man. His first law is to provide for his own preservation, his first cares are those he owes to himself; and as soon as he can think for himself he is the sole judge of the right way to take care of himself, which makes him his own master. You could call the family the prime model of political societies: the ruler corresponds to the father, and the people to the children; and all of them—·ruler, people, father, children·—because they were born free and equal don’t give up their liberty without getting something in return. The whole difference is that •in the family the father’s care for his children is repaid by his love for them, whereas •in the state the ruler’s care for the people under him is repaid not by love for them (which he doesn’t have!) but by the pleasure of being in charge. Grotius denies that all human power is established in favour of the governed, and cites slavery as a counterexample. His usual method of reasoning is to establish •right by •fact [meaning: . . . ‘to draw conclusions about what should be the case from premises about what is the case’]. Not the most logical of argument-patterns, but it’s one that is very favourable to tyrants. . . . .Throughout his book, Grotius seems to favour—as does Hobbes—the thesis that the human species is divided into so many herds of cattle, each with a ruler who keeps guard over them for the purpose of devouring them. Philo tells us that the Emperor Caligula reasoned thus: As a shepherd has a higher nature than his flock does, so also the shepherds of men, i.e. their rulers, have a higher nature than do the peoples under them; from which he inferred, reasonably enough, that either kings were gods or men were beasts. This reasoning of Caligula’s is on a par with that of Hobbes and Grotius. Aristotle, before any of them, had said that men are not naturally equal because some are born for slavery and others for command. Aristotle was right; but he mistook the effect for the cause. Every man born in slavery is born for slavery—nothing is more certain than that. Slaves lose everything in their chains, even the desire to escape from them: they love their servitude, as Ulysses’ comrades loved their brutish condition ·when the goddess Circe turned them into pigs·. So if there are slaves by nature, that’s because there have been slaves against nature. Force made the first slaves, and their cowardice kept them as slaves. I have said nothing about King Adam; or about Emperor Noah, the father of three great monarchs who shared out the universe (like Saturn’s children, whom some scholars have recognised in them). [In Genesis 9 it is said that after the flood Noah’s three sons ruled the world.] I hope to be given credit for my moderation: as a direct descendant of one of these princes—perhaps of the eldest branch—I don’t know that a verification of titles wouldn’t show me to be the legitimate king of the human race! Anyway, Adam was undeniably sovereign of the world, as Robinson Crusoe was of his island, as long as he was its only inhabitant; and this empire had the advantage that the monarch, safe on his throne, had nothing to fear from rebellions, wars, or conspirators. 3. The right of the strongest The strongest is never strong enough to be always the master unless he transforms •strength into •right, and •obedience into •duty. Hence ‘the right of the strongest’—a phrase that one might think is meant ironically, but is actually laid down.
Comments
Post a Comment