PLZ HELP!! To renounce one’s liberty is to renounce one’s quality as a man, the rights and also the duties of humanity. For him
who renounces everything there is no possible compensation. Such a renunciation is incompatible with man’s nature, for to take away all freedom from his will is to take away all morality from his actions. In short, a convention which stipulates absolute authority on the one side and unlimited obedience on the other is vain and contradictory. Is it not clear that we are under no obligations whatsoever towards a man from whom we have a right to demand everything? And does not this single condition, without equivalent, without exchange, involve the nullity of the act? For what right would my slave have against me, since all that he has belongs to me? His rights being mine, this right of me against myself is a meaningless phrase.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “The Social Contract,” 1762
What ideas about liberty does Rousseau express in this passage?
In this passage, Rousseau expresses his belief that when individuals renounce their liberty, they become enslaved by the government. He maintains that such a renunciation is incompatible with human nature, and that absolute government is vain and contradictory.
