ABSTRACT
The Social Contract is reinterpreted by emphasizing its relation to Rousseau's other writings and doctrines. The doctrine of the Social Contract takes the form of a juridical deduction beginning from a "state of nature" and proceeding through a "social contract" to the establishment of the "sovereignty" of the General Will. The difficulty concerns this partial assimilation of Rousseau to Hobbes. Although it is generally conceded that the major concepts of Rousseau's doctrine were borrowed from Hobbes, this fact has not been taken as a sign of any deeper similarity between the two thinkers, a similarity of reasoning and purpose. Rousseau argues that public virtue is necessary to secure the minimum Hobbesian goals of preservation and non-oppression. He also argues that since oppression is the source of all vice, the mere elimination of oppression is sufficient to foster or preserve virtue. The political requirements of preservation and of virtue therefore coincide perfectly.
