What Is the General Will?

Philosophical Review 109 (4):545-581 (2000)
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Abstract

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.

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00318108

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10.2307/2693624

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Gopal Sreenivasan
Duke University

Citations of this work

Democratic equality and militant democracy.Lars Vinx - 2020 - Constellations 27 (4):685-701.
Jean Jacques Rousseau.Christopher Bertram - forthcoming - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Rousseau on refined Epicureanism and the problem of modern liberty.Jared Holley - 2018 - European Journal of Political Theory 17 (4):411-431.
Autonomy and Common Good: Interpreting Rousseau’s General Will.Michael J. Thompson - 2017 - International Journal of Philosophical Studies 25 (2):266-285.

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