El contrato social / The Social Contract

Ideas que han cambiado el mundo.

A lo largo de la historia, algunos libros han cambiado el mundo. Han transformado la manera en que nos vemos a nosotros mismos y a los demás. Han inspirado el debate, la discordia, la guerra y la revolución. Han iluminado, indignado, provocado y consolado. Han enriquecido vidas, y también las han destruido.

Taurus publica las obras de los grandes pensadores, pioneros, radicales y visionarios cuyas ideas sacudieron la civilización y nos impulsaron a ser quienes somos.

Este explosivo llamamiento de Rousseau a favor de la libertad humana contribuyó a encender la mecha de la Revolución Francesa y ha avivado desde entonces cualquier debate sobre cómo deberíamos gobernarnos los unos a los otros, siendo considerado tanto un modelo para el terror político como una declaración fundamental de la democracia.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

The Social Contract is one of Jean Jacques Rousseau's works that has influenced politics & government throughout the world. It espouses Rousseau's theory on power & philosophical doctrine by delving into what he viewed as the best way to establish a political community in the face of the problems of commercial society, which he had already identified in his Discourse on Inequality (1754).

The Social Contract helped inspire political reforms or revolutions in Europe, especially in France. It argued against the idea that monarchs were divinely empowered to legislate. Rousseau asserts that only the people, who are sovereign, have that all-powerful right. In The Social Contract (1762) Rousseau argues that laws are binding only when they are supported by the general will of the people.

When people aren't abiding the general will and they are "forced to be free", this wasn't advocating totalitarianism. The general will is laws that are accepted as just and those who don't follow the general will are breaking the law. Rousseau is advocating to force people to follow the law because it is in everyone's best interest to do so.