The Social Contract & Discourses, by Jean Jacques Rousseau. Read by Monroe Clark McBride.
Rousseau's Social Contract remains, after a quarter of a millennium, one of the most controversial texts in the history of political philosophy, variously seen as a model for participatory democracy, a blueprint for totalitarianism, and several points in between. In addition to Rousseau’s magnum opus, this production includes an introduction by George Douglas Howard Cole, an English political theorist, economist, writer and historian. Also included are three discourses that Rousseau composed apart from The Social Contract. Though not part of his magnum opus, these discourses treat elements from the main piece and elaborate on the same subject.
“The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.”
Americans have several heroes and intellectual forefathers. Jefferson, Hamilton, Adams et al all were literary geniuses, schooled in the progressive thought of the Enlightenment. Rousseau is one of the most influential in tat he wrote of a contract willingly entered into by people in order to prosper. “ Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains.” Is there anything more provocative than this quote?
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The Social Contract & Discourses, by Jean Jacques Rousseau. Read by Monroe Clark McBride.
