Page 14 - GALIET ILLUSION: Rousseau IV

right,”28 he ennobles himself by benefiting from the universal, general goodwill of others, and gains both, a civil liberty limited by the General Will’s laws, and legal rights to property and possessions.29 Because the General Will never seeks to harm one member or all,30 or burden members unnecessarily,31 the General Will or the Sovereign’s goodness is always rightful, and always tends to and aims at the common good,32 or at what is common to the different interests.33 If one member is injured, the whole in injured and vice versa,34 and duty and self-interest oblige all parties to mutual aid.35 Humans also gain noble sentiments, sublimation of spirit and mind, moral freedom, self-mastery, and obedience to a law prescribed to oneself.36 They progress from natural independence to freedom, from an uncertain and precarious life to a more secure one, from instinct and action to justice and morality, from impulse, desire and inclination to duty, right and reason, and from personal strength to invincible rights.37 In this way, the Social Contract endows the Sovereign with absolute power over all its members, endowing equality amongst all, and binding and favouring, not just a few, but all citizens equally, because
28 Ibid., Chapter 10 and Book II. Chapter 2.
29 Ibid., Chapter 9 and 10. In the state of nature, man possesses things by right of 1st occupant, which is fragile; in the state of civil society, his right of 1st occupant is legitimized and protected by The Social Contract and the collective will against foreign usurpation. Only in this state, he has legal title and right to property and possessions only of inhabitable and farming land, and only of that land which is needed for his subsistence.
30 Ibid., Book I. Chapter 7.
31 Ibid., Book I. Chapter 7.
32 Ibid., Book I. Chapter 7. Book II. Chapter 3.
33 Ibid., Book II. Chapter 1. Rousseau argues that the General Will directs the
state to its end, the common good. He also posits that conflict between private interests makes society necessary, while harmony between these interests makes society possible. The social bond thus arises from what is common to the different interests.
34 Ibid., Book I.
35 Ibid., Book I.
36 Ibid., Book I.
37 Ibid., Book I. Chapter 8. Book II. Chapter 4.
Chapter 7. Chapter 7. Chapters 8 and 9.
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