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.
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.
These two chapters are both very short. First, Kropotkin argues that economic calculation or understanding should start with what people need, and then move on to production. Oddly enough, he has a bit of a point here, but unfortunately, he carries it off into one of his bizarre and flatly wrong tangents again.
He ends up arguing that the division of labor is destructive to prosperity. He wanders off in a couple of weird directions that are clearly counter to reality, but that fact doesn’t stop him.
Full notes here.
This video is available on Odysee, YouTube, and BitChute.
This episode’s intro quote is from a talk by Shawn Ritenour:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bP4Mw3uk1A
Intro music by MFCC, courtesy Pixabay:
https://pixabay.com/users/mfcc-28627740/
References:
Mises, Human Action:
https://mises.org/library/book/human-action
Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State:
https://mises.org/library/book/man-economy-and-state-power-and-market
My article containing intros to Mises’s Calculation Problem, Hayek’s Knowledge Problem, and the concept of Pareto-Superiorty:
https://mises.org/mises-wire/mmt-feeding-economically-inferior-machine
Mises, Money, Method, and the Market Process:
https://mises.org/online-book/money-method-and-market-process/trade/10-autarky-and-its-consequences
Hoppe, Marxist and Austrian Class Analysis:
https://mises.org/mises-wire/marxist-and-austrian-class-analysis
Chapter 13 is titled “The Collectivist Wages System” and it is a tissue of faulty comparisons, bad conclusions stapled to obsolete theories, and nonsensical figures attached to shifting goalposts.