![]() Notably, Rousseau argues that nature gives way to society during periods of pressure and upheaval, when people are no longer able to survive without banding together. ![]() In this sense, by agreeing to put limits on themselves, people actually gain far more than they lose: they can focus on intellectual, emotional, and moral pursuits rather than simply staying alive. ![]() By explaining the formation of society through a social contract, Rousseau resolves the paradox he posed at the beginning of Book 1: first, how can a state be legitimate if people are “everywhere in chains,” and secondly, if people naturally and inevitably seek to advance their own well-being and multiply their own freedom, how can they agree to be ruled by a society that limits what they can do? Under the social contract, a state is legitimate because people consent to give it authority, and while this state limits some kinds of freedom-namely the freedom to injure other people and take their things-it gives people the far more valuable freedom of knowing that they will not be injured or have their things taken away. ![]()
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