1841.The formation of civil society presupposes...

SCANNED PDF

The formation of civil society presupposes civilization, in the sense of the mutual recognition and understanding condensed into the proposition that all human beings are created equal. Therefore, civil societies cannot be formed with the uncivilized, i.e., barbarians or savages, who, as such, are lacking in any such mutual recognition and understanding.

This means, among other things, that when a civilized people comes into contact with an uncivilized in such a way that there must be a relationship of ruling and being ruled, the civilized may very well have to govern the uncivilized without their consent. In fact, even extreme forms of despotism may be justified if they are necessary to stamp out such uncivilized practices as human sacrifice or cannibalism. Still, the uncivilized may never be governed as if they were an inferior species, existing only for the convenience of the superior. On the contrary, the civilized must recognize the humanity of the uncivilized and the equal rights inherent in that humanity, in the same sense in which adults recognize the humanity of children prior to their reaching the "age of consent," i.e., have the intelligence and maturity necessary to the possibility of a valid contract between two rational beings.