title: The Social Contract (Penguin Books for Philosophy)
author:  Jean-Jacques Rousseau 
description: <b>Jean-Jacques Rousseau</b> (17121778) is the author of numerous political and philosophical texts as well as entries on music for Diderot's Encyclopdie and the novels La nouvelle Hlose and mile.
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  ##### www.blackmask.com
  
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  The Social Contract
  
  
    
    
  [Foreward  
    
  ](socon.htm#apreface)Book I  
    
  [Book II  
    
  ](The%20Social%20Contract%2c%20Or%20Princip_split_001.html#filepos36513)[Book
  III  
    
  ](The%20Social%20Contract%2c%20Or%20Princip_split_001.html#filepos91147)[Book
  IV
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  # The Social Contract, Or Principles of Political Right
  
  
  ### Jean Jacques Rousseau
  
    
    
  
  ##### Translated by G. D. H. Cole
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Foederis aequas Dicamus leges.
  
  
  Virgil, Aeneid xi.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ###  
    
  FOREWARD  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  This little treatise is part of a longer work which I began years ago
  
  
  without realising my limitations, and long since abandoned. Of the
  
  
  various fragments that might have been extracted from what I wrote, this
  
  
  is the most considerable, and, I think, the least unworthy of being
  
  
  offered to the public. The rest no longer exists.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ###  
    
  BOOK I  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I MEAN to inquire if, in the civ