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.
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.
Wrapping up my examination and critique of Locke’s Second Treatise, I focus here on where Locke’s framework fails to achieve his stated goals, and why.
This is it! The final chapter of Locke’s Second Treatise, “Of the Dissolution of Government.” Here, Locke covers a variety of ways that a government or a society can fail, and tries to explain under what circumstances a people forming a society may toss out their existing government and create a new one.
These two chapters cover two ways in which governments can make themselves illegitimate: through usurpation and tyranny.
Locke is careful to separate the two terms, so that usurpation is specifically the transfer of power to one entitled to it (even if that one restricts himself to similar powers and functions as the legitimate government).
Chapter 16, “Of Conquest” finally gets to the details of the hypothetical “just conqueror,” and covers Locke’s ideas of the restrictions and requirements for a conqueror to maintain the legal/moral high ground.
Some of the argumentation in this chapter is a bit confusing, so I start out with Locke’s summary at the end of the chapter, and then return to the more nuanced discussions after that.
I’ve been reading the essay collection Social Justice and the Indian Rope Trick by Anthony de Jasay, and despite his unusually opaque style of writing, there are definitely some interesting ideas here.
One that I’ve been playing around with has been his explanation of where the burden of proof must lie in determining whether an action is free or not.