社会契约论（英文原版）pdf/doc/txt格式电子书下载

书名：社会契约论（英文原版）pdf/doc/txt格式电子书下载

推荐语：

作者：（法）卢梭,戴光年译

出版社：武汉出版社

出版时间：2014-12-01

书籍编号：30304785

ISBN：9787543067363

正文语种：英文

字数：44113

版次：1

所属分类：外语学习-英语读物

版权信息

书名：社会契约论（英文原版）

作者：（法）卢梭

译者：戴光年

ISBN：9787543067363

版权所有 · 侵权必究

This little treatise is extracted from a larger work undertaken at an earlier time without consideration of my capacity, and long since abandoned．Of the various fragments that might be selected from what was accomplished, the following is the most considerable, and appears to me the least unworthy of being offered to the public．The rest of the work is no longer in existence．

I wish to enquire whether, taking men as they are and laws as they can be made, it is possible to establish some just and certain rule of administration in civil affairs．In this investigation I shall always strive to reconcile what right permits with what interest prescribes, so that justice and utility may not be severed．

I enter upon this enquiry without demonstrating the importance of my subject．I shall be asked whether I am a prince or a legislator that I write on politics．I reply that I am not; and that it is for this very reason that I write on politics．If I were a prince or a legislator, I should not waste my time in saying what ought to be done; I should do it or remain silent．

Having been born a citizen of a free state, and a member of the sovereign body, however feeble an influence my voice may have in public affairs, the right to vote upon them is sufficient to impose on me the duty of informing myself about them; and I feel happy, whenever I meditate on governments, always to discover in my researches new reasons for loving that of my own country．

CHAPTER 1 Subject of the First Book

Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains．Many a one believes himself the master of others, and yet he is a greater slave than they．How has this change come about？I do not know．What can render it legitimate？I believe that I can settle this question．

If I considered only force and the results that proceed from it, I should say that so long as a people is compelled to obey and does obey, it does well; but that, so soon as it can shake off the yoke and does shake it off, it does better; for, if men recover their freedom by virtue of the same right by which it was taken away, either they are justified in resuming it, or there was no justification for depriving them of it．But the social order is a sacred right which serves as a foundation for all others．This right, however, does not come from nature．It is therefore based on conventions．The question is to know what these conventions are．Before coming to that, I must establish what I have just laid down．

CHAPTER 2 Primitive Societies

The earliest of all societies, and the only natural one, is the family;yet children remain attached to their father only so long as they have need of him for their own preservation．As soon as this need ceases, the natural bond is dissolved．The children being freed from the obedience which they owed to their father, and the father from the cares which he owed to his children, become equally independent．If they remain united, it is no longer naturally but voluntarily; and the family itself is kept together only by convention．

This common liberty is a consequence of man’s nature．His first law is to attend to his own preservation, his first cares are those which he owes to himself; and as soon as he comes to years of discretion, being sole judge of the means adapted for his own preservation, he becomes his own master．

The family is, then, if you will, the primitive model of political societies; the chief is the analogue of the father, while the people represent the children; and all, being born free and equal, alienate their liberty only for their own advantage．The whole difference is that, in the family, the father\'s love for his children repays him for the care that he bestow upon them; while, in the state, the pleasure of ruling makes up for the chief\'s lack of love for his people．

Grotius denies that all human authority is established for the benefit of the governed, and he cites slavery as an instance．His invariable mode of reasoning is to establish right by fact．A juster method might be employed, but none more favourable to tyrants.

It is doubtful, then, according to Grotius, whether the human race belongs to a hundred men, or whether these hundred men belong to the human race; and he appears throughout his book to incline to the former opinion, which is also that of Hobbes．In this way we have mankind divided like herds of cattle, each of which has a master, who looks after it in order to devour it．

Just as a herdsman is superior in nature to his herd, so chiefs, who are the herdsmen of men, are superior in nature to their people．Thus, according to Philo’s account, the Emperor Caligula reasoned, inferring truly enough from this analogy that kings are gods, or that men are brutes．

The reasoning of Caligula is tantamount to that of Hobbes and Grotius．Aristotle, before them all, had likewise said that men are not naturally equal, but that some are born for slavery and others for dominion．

Ar

....