The general will : the evolution of a concept / edited by James Farr, David Lay Williams.

The general will before Rousseau : the contributions of Arnauld, Pascal, Malebranche, Bayle and Bossuet / Patrick Riley -- Malebranche's shadow : divine providence and general will in the Leibniz-Arnauld correspondence / Steven Nadler -- Locke's ideas, Rousseau's principles, and the general will / James Farr -- Spinoza and the general will / David Lay Williams -- Freedom, sovereignty, and the general will in Montesquieu / Sharon R. Krause -- Rethinking Rousseau's tyranny of orators : Cicero's on duties and the beauty of true glory / Daniel J. Kapust -- An American general will? : 'the bonds of brotherly affection' in New England / Andrew R. Murphy -- The substantive elements of Rousseau's general will / David Lay Williams -- Justice, beneficence, and boundaries : Rousseau and the paradox of generality / Richard Boyd -- On the general will of humanity : global connections in Rousseau's political thought / Sankar Muthu -- General will in Rousseau and after Rousseau / Tracy B. Strong -- Kant on the general will / Patrick Riley -- The general will after Rousseau : Smith and Rousseau on sociability and inequality / Shannon C. Stimson -- Benjamin Constant's liberalism and the political theology of the general will / Bryan Garsten -- The general will after Rousseau : the case of Tocqueville / Michael Locke McLendon -- Rawls on Rousseau and the general will / Christopher Brooke.

Print version record.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 447-476) and index.

Although it originated in theological debates, the general will ultimately became one of the most celebrated and denigrated concepts emerging from early modern political thought. Jean-Jacques Rousseau made it the central element of his political theory, and it took on a life of its own during the French Revolution, before being subjected to generations of embrace or opprobrium. James Farr and David Lay Williams have collected for the first time a set of essays that track the evolving history of the general will from its origins to recent times. The General Will: The Evolution of a Concept discusses the general will's theological, political, formal, and substantive dimensions with a careful eye toward the concept's virtues and limitations as understood by its expositors and critics, among them Arnauld, Pascal, Malebranche, Leibniz, Locke, Spinoza, Montesquieu, Kant, Constant, Tocqueville, Adam Smith and John Rawls.-- Provided by Publisher.

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