Abstract

The article explores the different modalities of the notion of bond in Rousseau’s philosophy (social, civil, political) according to the main axes of his thinking. We begin with the criticism of the sociability of Enlightenment developed in the Discourse on the Origins and Basis of Inequality among Men in order to compare it with the political remedy that emerges in the Social Contract, as well as the analysis that is conducted in the Émile around “the abstract man” cultivating his capacity for attachment. Thus the genealogy of the links can emerge from the relationships of need. Alongside the condemnation of mutual dependence, mapping the notions of link, bond, relationship, node and spring offers full meaning to the positive definition of Man as a “relative being”.