What Is the General Will

Dados Bibliográficos

ID10692879
AutoresGopal Sreenivasan (0000-0002-6416-9767, autor correspondente)
Ano2000
Volume109
Fascículo4
Páginas545-581
Data de publicação2000-10-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoThe Philosophical Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0031-8108 • E-ISSN: 1558-1470
EditoraDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00318108-109-4-545
OpenAlexW2067098286
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas18

What is the general will? In this essay, I propose a simple and straightforward answer. Rousseau's general will, I shall argue, is the totality of unrescinded decisions made by a community-that is, of an association of individuals contractually constituted as a moral and collective body-when its deliberation is subject to certain constraints.' The interpretation of Rousseau that I shall develop in support of this answer will be partial in various respects. Most importantly, perhaps, the textual basis of my discussion will be confined to the Social Contract.2 Since this is the critical text for any account of the general will, I shall assume that this restriction in focus is not unreasonable. Furthermore, I shall not pay any attention either to the immediate historical context in which Rousseau wrote or to his location in a longer tradition of theorizing about a general will.3

Analytic philosophy · Contemporary philosophy · Epistemology · General interest · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Philosophy · Political Theory and Influence · Rousseau and Enlightenment Thought