"Man was born free, but everywhere he is in chains." Thus begins Rousseau's influential 1762 work, in which he argues that all government is fundamentally flawed and that modern society is based on a system of inequality. The philosopher posits that a good government can justify its need for individual compromises and that promoting social settings in which people transcend their immediate appetites and desires leads to the development of self-governing,...

""Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains" are the famous opening words of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Social Contract, a work of political philosophy that has stirred vigorous debate ever since its publication in 1762. Rejecting the view that anyone has a natural right to sovereignty, Rousseau argues instead for a pact -- a "social contract" -- that should exist among all the citizens of a state and that should be the source of governing power....

"This [book] includes the three most important of Rousseau's political writings: Discourse on inequality, Discourse on political economy, and On social contract ... As background to these works, [it] provides a sketch of Rousseau's life, selections from his Confessions, and comments on Rousseau's work and character from such ... contemporaries and early critics as Voltaire, Hume, Boswell and Johnson, Paine, Kant, and Proudhon. A section of "Commentaries"...