THE SOCIAL CONTRACT

This book is included in the 3rd series of our “The Most Classical English Literature Library”. It is a selection of The Social Contract, a classic work by Jean Rousseau, a famous thinker, philosopher, educator, and litterateur. The work is divided into four volumes, in which Volume I deals with the social structure and social contract, Volume II with sovereignty and its rights, Volume III with its forms of operation, and Volume IV with several types of social organizations. The idea of sovereignty of the people in The Social Contract is the cornerstone of the modern system, which profoundly influenced the European movement and the war of independence of the British North American colonies. The Social Contract introduced for the first time the idea of “natural rights and sovereignty of the people”. It began with the statement that “man is born free, but he is always in chains”. When it was first introduced, it was stopped. Rousseau himself was forced to go into exile in England. But the theory advocated by The Social Contract soon took the world by storm. It triggered the world-shaking National Congress. The national motto “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” was taken from The Social Contract. The spirit of The Social Contract is fully reflected in the Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the National Assembly in 1789, which stated that “the purpose of society is the common good” and “the right to rule belongs to the people”. This book directly laid the theoretical foundation for the American Declaration of Independence, the American Constitution and its Bill of Rights, the National Declaration of Rights, and the three constitutions of the National Assembly period that came out soon afterwards.