apr 1, 1762 - The Social Contract

Description:

Perhaps the most important political work of the 18th century (by Rousseau). "Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains,"

Chains = slavery, but also religious superstition, submission to authority, accepting unjust social hierarchies for the sake of social order or security.l

Remedy = knowledge.

Thomas Paine's Common Sense was influenced by this.

The spread of knowledge--and with it, of freedom and individual empowerement--became the great mission of the times.

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