Economics Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| General Will: Volonté générale, or general will, is a concept in political philosophy developed by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. It is the will of the people as a whole, directed towards the common good. See also Society, Will, The Good, Social goods, Progress, J.-J. Rousseau._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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J.-J. Rousseau on General Will - Dictionary of Arguments
Höffe I 277 General Will/Rousseau/Höffe: The core idea of Rousseau's social contract(1) consists in a collective common will, the volonté générale. It comes into being as soon as several people unite as a single body with a single will. Unlike the "distributive" common will, the sum of individual private interests and individual intentions, and the mutable will of all (volonté des tous), Rousseau's common will is by its very nature "always constant, unchangeable and pure". Common good: Since [the common good] is oriented towards the good of the whole, both the common preservation and the general welfare, it always and without restriction has normative precedence over the (particular) will of the individuals. The common good is based on the will of those concerned. Höffe: Question: How is this will determined? [Rousseau] votes (...) for an empirical reading of the common will. Cf. >Human rights/Rousseau, >Parliamentarism/Rousseau. 1. Rousseau, The Social Contract (Du contrat social ou Principes du droit politique), 1762_____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Rousseau I J. J. Rousseau Les Confessions, 1765-1770, publ. 1782-1789 German Edition: The Confessions 1953 Höffe I Otfried Höffe Geschichte des politischen Denkens München 2016 |
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> Counter arguments against Rousseau
> Counter arguments in relation to General Will
