GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

SOCIETY. ITS NATURE AND ORIGIN 499
issues and the individual's will, in so far as it is general) is
embodied in the decision to appoint and obey the executive.
This last provision seems rather to destroy the peculiar
significance of the doctrine by restricting the manifestation
of the General Will to those occasions on which people are
unanimous. But, if they are unanimous, there is, one would
have supposed, no point in introducing the doctrine of the
General Will.
In fact, however, Rousseau does not mean that the General
Will is the same as the unanimous will of the people, for
(5), he- introduces a distinction between the General Will
and the Will of All. "There is often," he says, "a great
deal of difference between the will of all and the general
will ; the latter takes account only of the common interest,
while the former takes private interest into account, and
is no more than a sum of particular wills." In order to
throw this distinction into relief, let us envisage a situation
in which all the members of a particular society are
willing, and willing selfishly for the promotion of individual
or sectional interests. We will, however, also suppose
that on a particular occasion there is an accidental
harmony between these individual selfish interests, so that
all those who are willing are unanimous. In such circum-
stances Rousseau would say that, although the Will oi
All was expressed, the General Will *as not, for the
reason that the interests embodied in the willing wen
selfish.
Without pressing Rousseau too closely we may say tha
the General Will always exists, that it is always presen
in each one of us, that it is always right, and that thos
matters which equally concern all the members of th
community constitute the realm of its expression.
Finally, (6), Rousseau maintains that, in so far as th
General Will is it expressed, is the will of an entity, whic
is society. "The body politic," he says, "is also a mor
being, possessed of a will, and this general will, which ten<
.always to the preservation and welfare of the whole ar
of every part, and is the source of the laws constitutes f