Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Social Contract: Chapter VII
Let us draw up the whole account in terms easily commensurable. What man loses by the social contract is his natural liberty and an unlimited right to everything he tries to get and succeeds in getting; what he gains is civil liberty and the proprietorship of all he possesses. If we are to avoid mistake in weighing one against the other, we must clearly distinguish natural liberty, which is bounded only by the strength of the individual, from civil liberty, which is limited by the general will; and possession, which is merely the effect of force or the right of the first occupier, from property, which can be founded only on a positive title.
Commentary on Chapter VII
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Themes
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) was a Genevan social philosopher. His exerted a profound influence on the social and political thought of the Enlightenment in France and across Europe, including aspects of the French Revolution. Many of his ideas were foundational in the overall development of modern political and educational thought.
Rousseau’s distinction between “natural liberty” and “civil liberty” is an essential feature of the Western political tradition, where, as John Locke describes in his Second Treatise on Civil Government, liberty isn’t the right to do whatever one wants, but, rather, is protection from the arbitrary exercise of authority.