“ No one has a right to kill an enemy except when he cannot make him a slave, and the right to enslave him cannot therefore be derived from the right to kill him. ”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract (1762). copy citation
| Author | Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
|---|---|
| Source | The Social Contract |
| Topic | killing right |
| Date | 1762 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | Of the Social Contract, or Principles of Political Law, Book I |
| Note | Translated by George Douglas Howard Cole |
| Weblink | https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Social_Contract/Book_I |
Context
“The right of conquest has no foundation other than the right of the strongest. If war does not give the conqueror the right to massacre the conquered peoples, the right to enslave them cannot be based upon a right which does not exist. No one has a right to kill an enemy except when he cannot make him a slave, and the right to enslave him cannot therefore be derived from the right to kill him. It is accordingly an unfair exchange to make him buy at the price of his liberty his life, over which the victor holds no right.
Is it not clear that there is a vicious circle in founding the right of life and death on the right of slavery, and the right of slavery on the right of life and death?”
source
