POLS 2900 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: The Dilemma

• School: York University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POLS 2900
• Professor: Michelle Mawhinney

Document Summary

Rousseau social contract (1762: overview, the dilemma everywhere he is in chains. We have free agency but its transformed to interdependence that is destructive (inequality, slavery, etc. : solution not in nature, religion, force, etc we have to begin with our current situation, we cant go back and just undo things. We have to take present condition and think about what we can do, this is like. He"s looking at how people actually behave (like machiavelli) but the difference between the m and r is that for m human behavior is embedded in nature, you cant change it. For r human behavior is a result of social and historical evolution, so its possible to change it. So it can be presumed if we are left to our own devices we will act for self interest, our natural liberties have mutually and self destructive. This is the main problem in social contract.