General will

The Volonté générale (French general will ) describes the general will of a nation and is the key concept in the theory of democracy by Jean -Jacques Rousseau, who he owes its present importance. Rousseau borders this common will towards the Volonte de tous, the sum of individual interests, from.

The reconnaissance treated the term, especially in his major work, The Social Contract or Principles of constitutional law. He played a central role in paving the way of the ideal of the French Revolution on the basis of the body of thought of the Enlightenment. Even more French Enlightenment thinker, such as Denis Diderot sat down with the concept of the general will, volonté générale in relation to the private will of the individual, the volonté particulière apart.

Term before Rousseau

In the doctrine of grace

Volonté générale first appears in Antoine Arnauld (1616-1698) and Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), where he is in each case in the context of the Catholic doctrine of grace and refers to God as the subject. Volonté générale referred to the counter-concept to ( represented by Arnauld and Pascal ) Jansenist - Calvinist notion of an " absolute will " of God ( volonté absolue ), which the people not only in general but absolutely determined and not give him freedom of choice, and therefore also not the choice leaves between good and evil; on the other hand are the volonté générale man in the sense of gratia cooperans Although its existence as necessary before, but leaves him open to the possibility and the decision to do good or bad.

In Malebranche

A paradigm shift experienced by the expression in Nicolas Malebranche (1638-1715), who understands volonté générale the basic moral principle indifferent movement of the human will. It is thus an essential metaphysical attribute of being human, experiencing however the specific human freedom was a major ethical extension which is religiously and morally decisive. Denis Diderot took on this meaning of the volonté générale in his Encyclopédie substantially.

Concept in Rousseau

According to Jean -Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), which subjects the term a further change of meaning, is the volonté générale sacred and absolute, it represents the interests of all, the general welfare of the people that issued his monarch as sovereign. Democrats and nationalists, has addressed this concept, which was conceived by Rousseau alike after 1789. He is, according to Rousseau, the "true interest" of democracy and the sovereign state's population.

The volonté générale ( " general will " ) differs from the " volonté de tous " ( " will of all " ): the former represents the common good, while the latter is just the sum of individual private individual interests ( " volonté particulière ") means. The volonté générale is in contrast to the " volonté de tous " infallible, because they referred to what the body politic would do (the community of citizens) and decide if he might decide to choose or vote generally applicable legislation, in case of complete knowledge, the highest reason and full, so dogmatic or emotionally unclouded, power of judgment:

" Si, quand le peuple suffisamment Informe Delibere, les citoyens n'avaient aucune communication entre eux, du grand nombre de petites différences résulterait toujours la volonte generale et la bonne deliberation serait toujours. "

"If the citizens had no connection with each other, would, if the people decide well informed, resulting from the large number of small differences always Volonté générale ( general will ), and the decision would always be good. "

Rousseau believes that the volonté générale to come from a public meeting, contribute ideas in the wise men.

Terminological problems

After Bernhard HF Taureck (* 1943) is volonté générale be understood as a metaphor, as a general will, which determinate the respective individual will be real, not imagined representational, yet let demonstrated empirically. My term does not mean a lost identity of the individual will in the state of nature, but refer rather to a possible pragmatic " anthropological interest unity of the people [ ... ] that is to free up time from their previous political deformations ".

Swell

• Jean -Jacques Rousseau: You contrat social ou Principes du droit politique, in: Oeuvres complètes, Vol 3, Paris: Gallimard, 1964, p 349-470. dt: The Social Contract or Principles of constitutional law, Stuttgart: Reclam 1986.