19 - Democracy and Participation: Rousseau, Discourse on Inequality (part II)
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Description
The discussion on the origins of inequality in the Second Discourse continues. This lecture focuses on amour-propre, a faculty or a disposition that is related to a range of psychological characteristics such as pride, vanity, and conceit. The Social Contract is subsequently discussed with an emphasis on the concept of freedom and how one's desire to preserve one's freedom is often in conflict with that of others to protect and defend their own. General will becomes Rousseau's solution to the problem of securing individual liberty.
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