General will

Concept · 2 readings

Rousseau’s general will concerns the common interest under conditions of political equality. Counting wishes or declaring dissent mistaken cannot by itself establish it.

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2 readings · Title A–Z

Guided course · Module 9 · Lesson 53
Freedom, inequality and a common will
Rousseau traces how inequality grows and argues that citizens could remain free as joint authors of the law. A majority’s victory, the lesson warns, is not the same as the general will.
Guided course · Module 9 · Lesson 54
Who was left outside the language of rights?
Wollstonecraft and Cugoano challenge the exclusion of women and of enslaved people from equal liberty. What do their arguments demand of education, ownership and public institutions?

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Freedom, inequality and a common will

Who was left outside the language of rights?