Thinker
1 reading
← Thinkers
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Thinker · 1 reading
Rousseau examines dependence and the possibility of freedom through common laws. His general will requires more than a majority’s victory over dissenters.
All readings
1 reading · 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.