Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote The Social Contract in 1762 to offer ideas on political reform. The work inspired numerous political revolutions and reforms throughout Europe. In the following excerpt, Rousseau explains his ideas for creating a civil society.
from The Social Contract
by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The social contract's terms, when they are well understood, can be reduced to a single stipulation: the individual member alienates himself totally to the whole community together with all his rights. This is first because conditions will be the same for everyone when each individual gives himself totally, and secondly, because no one will be tempted to make that condition of shared equality worse for other men. . . .
Which of the following best states the main idea of this excerpt from Rousseau's The Social Contract?
A.
Some people, in a society, will suffer more than others.
B.
People must make sacrifices for the good of all society.
C.
Some people who live in a society isolate themselves completely from others.
D.
People live in a society because they want to keep their personal freedom.