Critique of The Social Contract, part 10
This week we’re covering Book 3, Chapter 2 of “The Social Contract,” titled The Constituent Principle in the Various Forms of Government. Rousseau is leading up to his evaluations of democracy, aristocracy, and monarchy, and in order to do this, he needs to throw up even more weird fuzzy math to justify his ideas.
Full show notes here.
He ends up twisting things all around so that anything that makes a State successful will inevitably lead to changes in the structure of government that are likely to curb that success. He departs significantly from his earlier-stated desire to examine “man as he is,” leading to another irritating self-contradictory mess.
This video is available on Odysee, YouTube, and BitChute.
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References:
Intro quote by Benjamin Constant, an underappreciated French liberty-lover
https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/constant-principles-of-politics-applicable-to-all-governments
Intro music by MFCC, courtesy Pixabay
https://pixabay.com/users/mfcc-28627740/
Thumbnail uses image by Thomas T, courtesy Unsplash
https://unsplash.com/@pyssling240