The Cambridge Companion to Rousseau's Social Contract

Opens up a masterpiece of political philosophy for a new generation, including influential arguments about justice, equality, and freedom.

What is freedom? What is equality? What is sovereignty? Few texts have offered more influential answers to these questions than Rousseau's Social Contract, and in this new Cambridge Companion, a multidisciplinary team of contributors provide new ways to navigate a masterpiece of political philosophy- and its animating questions.What is freedom? What is equality? And what is sovereignty? A foundational text of modern political philosophy, Rousseau's Social Contract has generated much debate and exerted extraordinary influence not only on political thought, but also modern political history, by way of the French Revolution and other political events, ideals, and practices. The Social Contract is regularly studied in undergraduate courses of philosophy, political thought, and modern intellectual history, as well as being the subject of graduate seminars in numerous disciplines. The book inspires an ongoing flow of scholarly articles and monographs. Few texts have offered more influential and important answers to research questions than Rousseau's Social Contract, and in this new Cambridge Companion, a multidisciplinary team of contributors provides new ways to navigate this masterpiece of political philosophy- and its animating questions.