Since 1922, The Magazine ANTIQUES has been America’s premier publication on the fine and decorative arts, architecture, preservation, and interior design.
social contract - social contract - The social contract in Rousseau: Rousseau, in Discours sur l’origine de l’inegalité (1755; Discourse on the Origin of Inequality), held that in the state of nature humans were solitary but also healthy, happy, good, and free. What Rousseau called “nascent societies” were formed when human began to live together as families and neighbours; that development, however, gave rise to negative and destructive passions such as jealousy and pride, which in turn fostered social inequality and human vice. The introduction of private property marked a further step toward inequality, since it made law and government necessary as a means of protecting it. Rousseau lamented the “fatal”
Samuel F.B. Morse on the daguerreotype.
Gentlemen, I have been requested to give my opinion of the probable effects to be produced by the discovery of Louis Daguerre on the arts of design. It is known to most of you that for many months I have been engaged in experiments with the daguerreotype, more particularly for the purpose of forming an intelligent judgment on this point.
The daguerreotype is undoubtedly destined to produce a great revolution in art, and we as artists should be aware of it and rightly understand its influence. This influence, both on ourselves and the public generally will, I think, be in the highest degree favorable to the character of art.