This category is for posts that include/focus on a video link to a video I made.
Rousseau spends three chapters talking about the people, and it’s full of weird assertions and odd points that call into question the value of Rousseau’s book as a work of political philosophy.
Full show notes here.
This week we’re covering Book 2, Chapter 6: Law, and Chapter 7: The Legislator. Rousseau’s peculiar definition of Law comes more into play, and the dangerous ideas he has about what makes “perfect” legislation raises its ugly and tyrannical head.
Full show notes here.
In Book 2, Chapters 4 and 5, we’re covering “The Limits of the Sovereign Power” and “The Right of Life and Death.” Rousseau has finally seemed to realize that the framework he is building is incredibly totalitarian, and has started to backpedal FURIOUSLY.
Full show notes here.
We are starting out with the first three chapters in Book 2 of Rousseau’s Social Contract this time.
Full show notes here.
This week, we are finishing up Book 1 of Rousseau’s Social Contract. Three more chapters, and unfortunately Rousseau repeats and confirms the unlimited power of the State in his framework.
Full show notes here.
There are a lot of ways to make a weak argument. One of the most common is to base your argument on some arbitrary selection–the endpoints of your graph, or a significant event. The problem is that such arguments are usually not universal, and can easily be turned back against you by a different arbitrary choice.
In chapters 5 and 6 of Book 1, Rousseau gives us his definition of the Social Contract.
It is a definition so fraught with self-contradictions and deliberately fuzzy thinking that it is frankly insane.
Show notes here.
Here’s the first part of this next book I decided to go through: Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s famous (or infamous, if you’re like me) Social Contract.
Show notes here.
When politicians make over-the-top declarations, or even when they say especially callous things, it is important to remember that any blowback their glib statements bring down will hit not them, but more likely the people they are seen to “represent.”
The end of the book came almost as a surprise. Chapter 16 is very short and is mostly focused on a gross misunderstanding of the meaning of “specialization.”
Full show notes here.