ABSTRACT
Foremost of J. J. Rousseau’s political works comes the famous Contrat Social, a book which may well be numbered amongst the most powerful influences on the political thought of the period that has lapsed since its publication. Rousseau tells that he began to think upon the project of a comprehensive work on political theory about the time of his sojourn at Venice in the early forties of the century, and he worked sporadically upon it for many years. Like the early Discours sur l’Economie Politique, the famous Contrat Social opens in a tone which seems to promise an impassioned vindication of radical individualism. ‘Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains/ The only natural society is the family; all others are founded upon human convention, and even the family is but a passing institution, since the authority of the father over his children ceases to exist as they become capable of self-support.
