Question

1. What are the Common Good and the General Will, according to Rousseau? How does a society bring about what Rousseau calls a coincidence of these two entities?

Answer 1

Who is Jean-Jacques Rousseau ?

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a philosopher, writer and composer born in Geneva. Rousseau defines human beings as distinct from other sentient beings by virtue of two essential characteristics, which are already present in the state of nature: 1) human freedom, and 2) perfectibility. He believed that people in the state of nature were innocent and at their best and that they were corrupted by the unnaturalness of civilization. In the state of nature, people lived entirely for themselves, possessed an absolute independence, and were content.

His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolution and the development of modern political, economic and educational thought. His Discourse on Inequality and The Social Contract are cornerstones in modern political and social scenario.

Rousseau believed that good government must have the freedom of all its citizens as its most fundamental objective. The Social Contract political theory published in 1762  in particular is Rousseau’s attempt to imagine the form of government that best affirms the individual freedom of all its citizens, with certain constraints inherent to a complex, modern, civil society. In his work on TheSocial Contract , Rousseau outlined these principles and how they may be given expression in a functional modern state.He argues that people should form a society to which they would completely surrender themselves. By giving up their rights, they actually create a new entity in the form of a public person that would be directed by a general will. When people join the community, they are voluntarily agreeing to comply with the general will of the community.

Perhaps the most difficult and quasi-metaphysical concept in Rousseau’s political philosophy is the principle of the general will (volonté générale).The idea of the general will is at the heart of Rousseau's philosophy. The general will is not the will of the majority. He says it is the will of the political organism that he sees as an entity with a life of its own. The general will is an additional will, somehow distinct from and other than any individual will or group of individual wills. As Rousseau explains, the general will is the will of the sovereign, or all the people together, that aims at the common good—what is best for the state as a whole.Rousseau distinguished the general will from the particular and often contradictory wills of individuals and groups. The concept of the general will has had a deep and lasting influence on modern republican thought, particularly in the French tradition.

Although each individual may have his or her own particular will that expresses what is good for him or her, in a healthy state, where people correctly value the collective good of all over their own personal good, the amalgamation of all particular wills, the “will of all,” is equivalent to the general will. In a state where the vulgarities of private interest prevail over the common interests of the collective, the will of all can be something quite different from the general will.

The most concrete manifestation of the general will in a healthy state comes in the form of law. To Rousseau, laws should always record what the people collectively desire (the general will) and should always be universally applicable to all members of the state. Further, they should exist to ensure that people’s individual freedom is upheld, thereby guaranteeing that people remain loyal to the sovereign at all times.

The “common good” refers to those facilities—whether material, cultural or institutional—that the members of a community provide to all members in order to fulfill a relational obligation they all have to care for certain interests that they have in common. Examples of the common good in a modern liberal democracy include: the road system; public parks; police protection and public safety; courts and the judicial system; public schools; museums and cultural institutions; public transportation; civil liberties, such as the freedom of speech and the freedom of association; the system of property; clean air and clean water; and national defense.

The people, as a sovereign entity, express their sovereignty through their general will and must never have their sovereignty abrogated by anyone or anything outside their collective self. In this regard, sovereignty is not identified with the government but is instead opposed against it.

General will, in political theory, a collectively held will that aims at the common good or common interest. Rousseau's concept of "general will" could be used to eliminate minority rights if it is proven that minority rights do not match or violate the wishes of the majority of the population.

The good citizen is able to identify his own will with the general will.