The Role of the Will in Jean-Jacques Rousseau´s Polítical Philosophy

Abstract

This work sought to understand the concepts of will of all, will of the body and general will in Rousseau, seeking their relationship with the idea of people´s tyranny and the participation of people in power. We saw that who occupies the centrality of the Rousseau´s political philosophy is his concept of general will, ruling the legittimate State and withdrawing the virtue from the centrality of the political philosophy´s argumentative core and that the general will deals with the idea of people´s tyranny through a mechanism that excludes the will of all and places the people as sovereign body and legislator, which defines a good form of government.