Consider this quote from Book 1, Chapter 9: "...instead of destroying the natural equality of mankind, the [social contract] substitutes ... a moral and legal equality for that physical inequality which nature placed among men, and that, let men be ever so unequal in strength or in genius, they are all equalized by convention and legal right." Debate the merits of this perspective - is it valid or invalid? How effective is it in practice, as compared to the author's theory? What other inequalities are either ignored or addressed by the contract?

Consider this quote from Book 2, Chapter 5: "... when [the government] says to [an individual] 'It is expedient for the State that thou shouldst die, he ought to die, because it is only on that condition that he has enjoyed his security up to that moment, and because his life is not to be considered simply as...