[Du contract social;] Principes du droit politique

PMM 207 – "L'homme est né libre"
In 8vo (mm 200x122); legatura coeva in piena pelle marmorizzata, dorso a cinque nervi con fregi, tassello e titolo in oro, tagli e risguardi marmorizzati (minimi danni agl'angoli superiori); pp. [4], VIII, 323, [1]. Segnatura: [π]2 *4 A-V8 X2. Vignetta in rame al titolo. Sul risguardo anteriore firme di appartenenza "Ex Libris P. Champesme presbyteri" e "G. Lurteau"; sull'occhietto si trova la nota "9 M[?] de francs"; firma cassata al titolo. Insignificanti fioriture marginali su alcune carte, per il resto ottima copia genuina e marginosa.
PRIMA EDIZIONE, seconda tiratura. Rispetto alla prima tiratura, l'editore M.M. Rey, per volontà dell'autore, soppresse la porzione superiore del titolo (Du contract social;), trasferendola, compreso il punto e virgola, nell'occhietto. La vignetta centrale fu sostituita e furono soppresse le ultime due pagine, contenenti un discorso sul matrimonio, che Rousseau temeva potesse irritare le autorità francesi. Questa seconda tiratura presenta quindi alla pagina (324) il Catalogue de livres imprimez chez Rey, Libraire à Amsterdam. Nonostante queste misure precauzionali prese dall'autore, l'opera fu comunque proibita in Francia e numerose copie furono distrutte. Nello stesso anno, con le stesse note tipografiche, apparvero anche un'edizione ufficiale in 12mo, facente parte delle Oeuvres diverses del Rousseau, e varie contraffazioni sempre in 12mo. € 12.500,00
Il Conratto sociale è il testo principale in cui Rousseau esprime la tesi fondamentale che un governo dipenda in modo imprescindibile dal mandato popolare. "Rousseau's most important political treatise was The Social Contract (1762), a political matrix and symbol of a wider shift in ideas about the nature of reality, the self, and politics in Western society (W. Gairdner, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Romantic Roots of Modern Democracy, in: "Humanitas", vol. 12, 1999, p. 77).
"Furthermore, The Social Contract also appears to concur with the argument in Political Economy that the proper politicization of passions is their salvation. While Rousseau offers many criticisms of citizens' private desires, he has none to offer of the general will, the expression of the citizens' public desires. The general will, he contends, is "always right and always tends toward the public utility". The only problem is that the citizens do not always discern the public good, and "only then does it appear to want what is bad". Elaborating on this argument a few pages later, Rousseau contrasts private desire with public desire: "Private individuals see the good they reject; the public wants the good it does not see". In other words, whereas individuals may purposely hold on to desires for bad things, the public only desires such things out of ignorance. Rousseau concludes this argument by asserting the need for a legislator who will enlighten the public, but the point here is the distinction he has drawn between private and public passion. Apparently, in the move from "I desire" to "we desire", desire itself is redeemed from any harmful intentions. The "dangerous disposition from which all our vices arise" is "transform[ed] into a sublime virtue". Although one might argue that Rousseau does not fully explain why the general will is by definition virtuous, it is clear that the key to its virtue is its generality, its link to the common interest. The private will, he says, "tends by its nature toward preferences, and the general will toward equality". The general will is also, of course, the guarantee of the citizens' freedom. Since equality and freedom are among the supreme virtues in Rousseau's thought, we can begin to see why he praises the citizens' public passion" (C. Hall, Reason, Passion and Politics in Rousseau, in: "Polity", vol. 34, 2001, p. 69 e sgg.).
"It had the most profound influence on the political thinking of the generation following its publication. It was, after all, the first great "emotional" plea for the equality of all men in the state: others had argued the same theoretically, but had themselves tolerated a very different government. Rousseau believed passionately in what he wrote, and when in 1789 a similiar emotion was released on a national scale, the Contract Social came into its own as the bible of the revolutionaries in building their ideal state. [Rousseau's] fundamental thesis that the government depends absolutely on the mandate of the people, and his genuine creative insight into the political and economic problems of society gives his work an indisputable cogency" (Printing and the Mind of Man, nr. 207).
A. Tchemerzine, Bibliographie d'éditions originales et rares d'auteurs français des XVe, XVIe, XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, Paris, 1977, V, p. 543. J. Sénelier, Bibliographie générale des oeuvres de J.J. Rousseau, Paris, 1950, nr. 554. OCLC, 5798807. T.A. Dufour, Recherches bibliographiques sur les oeuvres imprimées de J.-J. Rousseau, Paris, 1925, nr. 133. .