[1] M. Dreyfus-Brisac. [2] _Civil Government_, ii. 22. Thus far, then, we have seen how the problem of self-government is transformed by a deeper insight. _(a)_ The negative relation of the self to other selves begins to dissolve away before the conception of the common self; and _(b)_ the negative relation of the self to law and government begins to disappear in the idea of a law which expresses our real will, as opposed to our trivial and rebellious moods. The whole notion of man as one among {102} others tends to break down; and we begin to see something in the one which actually identifies him with the others, and at the same time tends to make him what he admits that he ought to be. We have now to follow these ideas to their application. {103} CHAPTER V. THE CONCEPTION OF A “REAL” WILL. 1. We saw in the course of the last chapter that for Rousseau’s political theory everything turns on the reality of the “moral person” which constitutes the State. When active, this “moral” or “public person,” or common self, is called sovereign; [1] and sovereignty for Rousseau consists in the exercise of the General Will; [2] and it is in this characteristic of political society that he finds that justification for the use of force upon individuals [3] which he set out to seek. At the close of the last chapter we noted the transformation in the problem of “self-government” which such a conception tends to produce. In face of it, the opposition between self and others, and between self and law or government, will have to be interpreted altogether afresh. The present chapter will be devoted to explaining the idea of a General Will with reference to Rousseau’s presentation of it, and the rest of the work will develop and apply it more freely. [1] Bk. I., ch. vi. [2] Bk. II., ch. i. [3] Bk. i., ch. vii.; cf. I., ch. i. A few words may be said upon Rousseau’s relation to Hobbes [1] and Locke, simply to {104} illustrate the process by which deepening political experience awakened the ancient meaning within abstractions which had preserved it in a latent form. [1] See also p. 93 above. Both Hobbes and Locke use expressions, in treating of the government and unity of a commonwealth, which closely resemble Rousseau’s phrases respecting the General Will, the moral person, and the real unity.