The social contract & discoursesRousseau, Jean-Jacques
Philosophy
The social contract & discourses
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques
Economics; Political science -- Early works to 1800; Social contract
The General Will is, then, above all a universal and, in the Kantian
sense, a "rational" will. It would be possible to find in Rousseau
many more anticipations of the views of Kant; but it is better here
to confine comment to an important difference between them. It is
surprising to find in Kant, the originator of modern "intellectualism,"
and in Rousseau, the great apostle of "sentiment," an essentially
similar view on the nature and function of the will. Their views,
however, present a difference; for, whereas the moving force of Kant's
moral imperative is purely "rational," Rousseau finds the sanction of
his General Will in human feeling itself. As we can see from a passage
in the original draft of the _Social Contract,_ the General Will
remains purely rational. "No-one will dispute that the General Will is
in each individual a pure act of the understanding, which reasons while
the passions are silent on what a man may demand of his neighbour and
on what his neighbour has a right to demand of him." The will remains
purely rational, but Rousseau feels that it needs an external motive
power. "If natural law," he writes, "were written only on the tablets
of human reason it would be incapable of guiding the greater part of
our actions; but it is also graven on the heart of man in characters
that cannot be effaced, and it is there it speaks to him more strongly
than all the precepts of the philosophers" (from an unfinished essay on
_The State of War_). The nature of this guiding sentiment is explained
in the _Discourse on Inequality_ (p. 197, note 2), where egoism
(_amour-propre_) is contrasted with self-respect (_amour de soi_).
Naturally, Rousseau holds, man does not want everything for himself,
and nothing for others. "Egoism" and "altruism" are both one-sided
qualities arising out of the perversion of man's, "natural goodness."
"Man is born good," that is, man's nature really makes him desire only
to be treated as one among others, to share equally. This natural love
of equality (_amour de soi_) includes love of others as well as love
of self, and egoism, loving one's self at the expense of others, is
an unnatural and perverted condition. The "rational" precepts of the
General Will, therefore, find an echo in the heart of the "natural"
man, and, if we can only secure the human being against perversion by
existing societies, the General Will can be made actual.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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