Critique of Rousseau’s Social Contract, part 17
This week, we’re covering one long chapter. Book 4, Chapter 4, is titled “The Roman Comitia,” and it’s Rousseau’s breakdown of the ways that early Roman government worked. I’d even say, coming as it does near the end of the book, that it’s unnecessarily long, because many of the points Rousseau is using this historical analysis to support have already been fervently argued against by Rousseau earlier in the book.
Full show notes here.
Even worse, Rousseau tells us up front that plenty of the information we have about the workings of ancient Rome may be no better than fables, intended to teach some specific lessons, with likely bias in favor of Rome’s goodness.
In the end, Rousseau raises a bunch of interesting questions, but, as usual, he largely fails to answer them. In a better organized book, this chapter would have come early, and been the subject of deep scrutiny.
In Rousseau’s book, it pops up unexpectedly near the end and gives us almost no insight.
This video is available on Odysee, YouTube, and BitChute.
Return to the Table of Contents for this series.
Intro quote from this article by Williamson M. Evers:
https://mises.org/journal-libertarian-studies/social-contract-critique
Intro music by Praz Khanal, courtesy Pixabay:
https://pixabay.com/users/prazkhanal-24653570/