Rousseau begins The Social Contract with the claim that "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains." What are these restrictions on man's liberty? How are they affected by the social contract?
Man is in chains wherever there is tyranny and oppression be it in a monarchy, theocracy, dictatorship, or republic. Civil society substitutes a moral existence, in which people have obligations to each other and to the state, for the independent existence of the state of nature. Rousseau praises this transformation, which forces man to listen to reason before acting on any physical impulses. He claims that only after entering the social contract does man become fully human. However, Rousseau also criticizes the effect that civil society has on man. He states his objections most clearly in Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality among Men.
