The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Engraving-style cover art for The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

My Review

Insight into the origins of Western political thought abound in this succinct and well-constructed book. In particular insight into right behavior of magistrates and descriptions of various types of government.

"We might also add that man acquires with civil society, moral freedom, which alone makes man the master of himself; for to be governed by appetite alone is slavery, while obedience to a law one prescribes to oneself is freedom."

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Joseph Voelbel designs learning curriculum and writes about money, systems, and meaning. Author of Pay Attention to Bitcoin (2024), a crash-course primer on sound money, Nineteen Stories (2017), an exploration of the unknown, and This Plant Will Grow (2026), a children's book about a plant that becomes a rainforest.