Book I,
chapter IV of is devoted to the topic of Slavery.opposes slavery, or the
ownership of another person. He uses logic to dismantle the intellectual bases of slavery that
had been proposed by other philosophers. He begins with the idea that there is no such thing as
natural authority of one man (to use his terminology) over another, considering both the
individual who can alienate his own liberty, becoming a slave to a master, and a group that can
collectively become the subjects of a king.
Ultimately, Rousseau argues that
the condition of slavery is impossible. Slavery requires that a man sell himself. As a man is
not an object, however, he cannot actually sell himself, so any contract based on such a sale
would be void. If, however, one sets that aside to make the argument that slavery a logical
possibility, then a slavebeing propertywould not be a man, and would be incapable of moral
judgments.
To renounce liberty is to...
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