The new actuality of the Rousseau’s ideas about “Le Contrat Social”

Abstract

The article is focuses on Rousseau attitude to the problem of “le contrat/pacte social” — in order to demonstrate, on the one hand, the concrete historical sense and significance of this theory, the special accents, the varying forms of it in the Rousseau’s case; and on the other hand, the contemporary actuality not only of his well known general ideas, but also of his underestimated distinctions, which have the theoretical as well the practical significance. For instance it is the difference between “le contrat/pacte social” (which is understood as the fundamental pacte) and the planty of “les conventions” (concrete arguments). Through analising the Rousseau’s text (in French original comparised with Russian translations) the author argues, that we need the new way to (re)read and to understand the legacy of this philosopher and writer in the light of the challenges of the contemporary history.