![]() ![]() In addition, because strength is a relative term, the effect of this right changes with the cause. Thus, the right of the strongest cannot create the sense of a duty that is necessary to establishing a true right. ![]() People obey those stronger than themselves out of necessity, not by choice. Each person gives up his liberty to receive the protection of the family and thus promote his own utility.Īccording to Rousseau, force cannot be the foundation for legitimate political authority. The family is the prototype for all political societies: the father is the leader, and his children are the populace. Once a child has reached maturity, the members of the family return to their previous state of independence. However, children are only bound to their father as long they depend on him to take care of them. The oldest and only natural society is the family. ![]() He denies that a legitimate, political authority can be found in the state of nature. According to Rousseau, this sense of communal duty is founded upon convention. ![]() He begins with the famous sentence, "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains." These chains result from the obligations that each person has to the community. In Book I, Rousseau aims to discover why people gave up their natural liberty, which they possessed in the state of nature, and how political authority became legitimate. ![]()
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