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The social contract & discourses

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The social contract & discourses is 123,455 words — about 8h 14m at 250 words per minute, across 71 chapters. Measure your own speed and read it free, here.

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For the study of the great writers and thinkers of the past, historical imagination is the first necessity. Without mentally referring to the environment in which they lived, we cannot hope to penetrate below the inessential and temporary to the absolute and permanent value of their thought. Theory, no less than action, is subject to these necessities; the form in which men cast their speculations, no less than the w…

Details

  • AuthorJean-Jacques Rousseau
  • SourceProject Gutenberg #46333
  • Length123,455 words · 8h 14m of reading
  • Chapters71
  • DictionaryIncluded
  • CopyrightPublic domain in the United States
  • Source checked2026-08-21

Contents

71 chapters

Recovered from the original source text, so you can open the book at any of them.

  1. 01JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU
  2. 02Philosophy and Theology
  3. 03INTRODUCTION
  4. 04A NOTE ON BOOKS
  5. 05BIBLIOGRAPHY
  6. 06FOREWORD
  7. 07BOOK II
  8. 08BOOK III
  9. 09BOOK IV
  10. 10FOREWORD
  11. 11BOOK I
  12. 12SUBJECT OF THE FIRST BOOK
  13. 13THE FIRST SOCIETIES
  14. 14THE RIGHT OF THE STRONGEST
  15. 15SLAVERY
  16. 16THAT WE MUST ALWAYS GO BACK TO A FIRST CONVENTION
  17. 17THE SOCIAL COMPACT
  18. 18THE SOVEREIGN
  19. 19THE CIVIL STATE
  20. 20REAL PROPERTY
  21. 21THAT SOVEREIGNTY IS INALIENABLE
  22. 22THAT SOVEREIGNTY IS INDIVISIBLE
  23. 23WHETHER THE GENERAL WILL IS FALLIBLE
  24. 24THE LIMITS OF THE SOVEREIGN POWER
  25. 25THE RIGHT OF LIFE AND DEATH
  26. 26LAW
  27. 27THE LEGISLATOR
  28. 28THE PEOPLE
  29. 29THE PEOPLE (_continued_)
  30. 30THE PEOPLE (_continued_)
  31. 31THE VARIOUS SYSTEMS OF LEGISLATION
  32. 32THE DIVISION OF THE LAWS
  33. 33BOOK III
  34. 34GOVERNMENT IN GENERAL
  35. 35THE CONSTITUENT PRINCIPLE IN THE VARIOUS FORMS OF GOVERNMENT
  36. 36THE DIVISION OF GOVERNMENTS
  37. 37DEMOCRACY
  38. 38ARISTOCRACY
  39. 39MONARCHY
  40. 40MIXED GOVERNMENTS
  41. 41THAT ALL FORMS OF GOVERNMENT DO NOT SUIT ALL COUNTRIES
  42. 42THE MARKS OF A GOOD GOVERNMENT
  43. 43THE ABUSE OF GOVERNMENT AND ITS TENDENCY TO DEGENERATE
  44. 44THE DEATH OF THE BODY POLITIC
  45. 45HOW THE SOVEREIGN AUTHORITY MAINTAINS ITSELF
  46. 46THE SAME (_continued_)
  47. 47THE SAME (continued)
  48. 48DEPUTIES OR REPRESENTATIVES
  49. 49THAT THE INSTITUTION OF GOVERNMENT IS NOT A CONTRACT
  50. 50THE INSTITUTION OF GOVERNMENT
  51. 51HOW TO CHECK THE USURPATIONS OF GOVERNMENT
  52. 52THAT THE GENERAL WILL IS INDESTRUCTIBLE
  53. 53VOTING
  54. 54ELECTIONS
  55. 55THE ROMAN COMITIA
  56. 56THE TRIBUNATE
  57. 57THE DICTATORSHIP
  58. 58THE CENSORSHIP
  59. 59CIVIL RELIGION
  60. 60CONCLUSION
  61. 61A DISCOURSE
  62. 62Barbaras his ego sum, qui non intelligor illis.--OVID.[1
  63. 63PREFACE
  64. 64OF THE ARTS AND SCIENCES
  65. 65A DISCOURSE
  66. 66REPUBLIC OF GENEVA
  67. 67PREFACE
  68. 68ON THE ORIGIN AND FOUNDATION OF THE INEQUALITY OF MANKIND
  69. 69THE FIRST PART
  70. 70THE SECOND PART
  71. 71APPENDIX[1

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