Rousseau's Terminology He uses some familiar worlds in slightly unfamiliar ways People/Citizens/Subjects. These are same individuals under different descriptions. Citizens are members of sovereign Subjects when subject to its law Citizens make law Subjects obey it As citizen I make law which as subject I obey Rousseau's basic principle. Make a law for yourself: that is freedom. Contrast the alienated condition of Jews in pre Enlightenment Europe of American slaves of Women before vote They would naturally think: The state it is them I.e. they have no role in making laws which apply to them The law is merely external, as it is for children Rousseau's goal: I am as free in legitimate society as in state of nature