POL 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: The Strongest, Unanimous Consent
14 Dec 2016
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Social contract (cid:862)you forget that the fruits (cid:271)elo(cid:374)g to all a(cid:374)d that the la(cid:374)d (cid:271)elo(cid:374)gs to (cid:374)o o(cid:374)e. (cid:863) jean-jacques. For him who renounces everything no indemnity is possible. Such a renunciation is incompatible with man"s nature; to remove all liberty from his will is to remove all morality from his a(cid:272)ts. (cid:863) -- social contract, book i, chapter iv. The strongest is never strong enough to be always the master, unless he transforms strength into right, and obedience into duty. Hence the right of the strongest, which, though to all seeming meant ironically, is really laid down as a fundamental principle. Force is a physical power, and i fail to see what moral effect it can have. To yield to force is an act of necessity, not of will - at the most, an act of prudence. This is the fundamental problem of which the social contract provides the solution.
