Reading of Rousseau’s Social Contract (Amherst: U of Massachusetts P, 1976) 40-43. On the other hand,
Ramon M. Lemos recognizes that the “generality” of the general will can refer to both subjects and objects, and
this allows him to offer a much more complete picture of the phenomenon. See Rousseau’s Political
Philosophy: An Exposition and Interpretation (Athens: U of Georgia P, 1977) 135-143. N. J. H. Dent’s more
recent discussion of the general will continues in this same tradition. See his A Rousseau Dictionary (Oxford:
Blackwell, 1992) 123-126.
4. A good account of the necessity of this correlation can be found in N. J. H. Dent’s 23-40.
5. The important question of how this agreement is to be brought about will be taken up at the end of the essay.
For now I will assume, with Rousseau, that the agreement is possible, and investigate the consequences.
6. John B. Noone, Jr. uses this term in, Rousseau’s Social Contract: a Conceptual Analysis (Athens: U of
Georgia Press, 1980) 78.
7. James Miller, for example, mistakenly argues that the social contract is the unique act which constitutes a
people as a people, and that the general will emerges after that constituting act. See Rousseau: Dreamer of
Democracy (New Haven: Yale UP, 1984) 61-62.
8. Kennedy F. Roche argues that the concept of majority rule is the closest that Rousseau ever gets to
explaining just exactly what he means by “the general will” in The Social Contract. While I agree with Roche
that this is one of the ways in which Rousseau explicates “the general will,” it should be clear from my
arguments up to this point that I do not think that Rousseau limits himself to this formulation of the general
will. (See Rousseau: Stoic and Romantic (London: Methuen, 1974) 69-76.) Paul Weirich presents a more
balanced discussion of majority rule, arguing that it is one possible, valid manifestation of the general will, in
his essay “Rousseau on Proportional Majority Rule,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 47
(Summer 1986): 111-126.
9. For a good account of how Rousseau’s use of the majority rule convention does not amount to a simple
defense of the right of the majority to dominate a minority, see Stephen Ellenburg, “Rousseau and Kant:
Principles of Political Right,” Rousseau After Two Hundred Years: Proceedings of the Cambridge
Bicentennial Colloquium, ed. R. A. Leigh (Cambridge: University Press, 1982) 3-36; 12-15. See also
Ellenburg’s Rousseau’s Political Philosophy: an Interpretation from Within (Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1976) 53-55.
10. For another affirmative account of Rousseau’s theory of the general will, which situates it within the
modern liberal tradition, see John W. Chapman, Rousseau–Totalitarian or Liberal? (New York: Columbia
UP, 1956) 124-144.
11. In comparison, the complete concept of the general will can only be reconstructed by piecing together
various texts and arguments that occur scattered throughout the entire book.
12. On this point see Ronald Grimsley, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Sussex: Harvester Press, 1983) 98-99.
13. Judith Shklar makes this suggestion in her essay, “Rousseau’s Images of Authority,” Hobbes and
Rousseau: A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. Maurice Cranston and Richard S. Peters (Garden City, New
York: Anchor Books, 1972) 333-365; 342. See also her Men and Citizens: a Study of Rousseau’s Social
Theory (Cambridge: University Press, 1969) 154-164.
14. If it is true, as Jean-Fran?ois Lyotard has argued, that the present age is characterized by “incredulity
toward metanarratives,” would that mean that a Rousseauan state is no longer possible? Was it ever possible?
(cf. Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, trans. Geoff Bennington and Brian
Massumi (Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1984) xxiv.)
bb3
and Referenced:
Chapman, John W. Rousseau–Totalitarian or Liberal?. New York: Columbia University Press, 1956.
Dent, N. J. H. A Rousseau Dictionary. Oxford: Blackwell, 1992.
Ellenburg, Stephen. “Rousseau and Kant: Principles of Political Right,” Rousseau After Two Hundred
Years: Proceedings of the Cambridge Bicentennial Colloquium, ed. R. A. Leigh. Cambridge: University Press,
1982. (3)36; 12-15.
Ellenburg, Stephen. Rousseau’s Political Philosophy: an Interpretation from Within. Ithaca: Cornell
University Press, 1976.
Grimsley, Ronald. Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Sussex: Harvester Press, 1983.
Lemos, Ramon M. Rousseau’s Political Philosophy: An Exposition and Interpretation. Athens: U of
Georgia Press, 1977.
Levine, Andrew. The Politics of Autonomy: A Kantian Reading of Rousseau’s Social Contract.
Amherst: U of Massachusetts Press, 1976.
Lyotard, Jean-Fran?ois. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, trans. Geoff Bennington
and Brian Massumi, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984.
Miller, James. Rousseau: Dreamer of Democracy. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984.
Noone, John B. Jr. Rousseau’s Social Contract: a Conceptual Analysis. Athens: University of Georgia
Press, 1980.
Roche, Kennedy F. Rousseau: Stoic and Romantic. London: Methuen, 1974.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques. On the Social Contract, trans. and ed. Donald A. Cress, Jean-Jacques
Rousseau: The Basic Political Writings. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1987.
Shklar, Judith. “Rousseau’s Images of Authority,” Hobbes and Rousseau: A Collection of Critical
Essays, ed. Maurice Cranston and Richard S. Peters. Garden City, New York: Anchor Books, 1972. 333-365.
Shklar, Judith. Men and Citizens: a Study of Rousseau’s Social Theory. Cambridge: University Press,
1969.
Weirich, Paul “Rousseau on Proportional Majority Rule,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research.
47 Summer 1986: 111-126.