The first person who, having enclosed a plot of land, took it
into his head to say this is mind and found people simple enough
to believe him, was the true founder of civil society. What
crimes, wars, murders, what miseries and horrors would the human
race have been spared, had someone pulled up the states or
filled in the ditch and cried out to his fellow men: Do not
listen to this impostor. You are lost if you forget that the
fruits of the earth belong to all and the earth to no one! –
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, from his essay on the social contract
(this text taken from the website of Prof. Simon Cushing at the
University of Michigan-Flint). Prof. Charles Lindholm will be
lecturing on Rousseau on October 13th, for the students of
CC203: Foundations of the Social Sciences.