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    Made withinDC&Austin
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    On the procedural account, citizens do not need any speci... — Carmelics
    Home/Social Contract
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    On the procedural account, citizens do not need any specifically moral qualities for the general will to emerge.

    Social Contract
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    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • The constraints of generality and universality, together with propitious background conditions like rough equality and cultural similarity, are sufficient to produce the general will from the assembly.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
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    • 1.Rousseau explicitly argues in Book II that citizens must be capable of distinguishing the general will from the will of all, requiring civic virtue.
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    • 2.The will of all aggregates private interests, so procedural constraints alone cannot prevent citizens from voting selfishly without prior moral orientation.
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    • 3.Kant's reception of Rousseau treats the general will as requiring autonomous moral reasoning, not merely formal procedural compliance.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Arrow's impossibility theorem demonstrates that aggregating individual preferences through formal procedures cannot reliably produce coherent collective outcomes.
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    • 2.If procedural mechanisms are insufficient to generate rational collective choice even under ideal conditions, background equality and cultural similarity cannot compensate.
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    Topics

    Social Contract

    Related

    Arrow's impossibility theorem demonstrates that aggregating individual preferenc...If procedural mechanisms are insufficient to generate rational collective choice...Kant's reception of Rousseau treats the general will as requiring autonomous mor...Rousseau explicitly argues in Book II that citizens must be capable of distingui...
    +2 moreShow less
    The constraints of generality and universality, together with propitious backgro...The will of all aggregates private interests, so procedural constraints alone ca...

    Similar

    Another account holds that mere contemplation of self-interest is inad...78%One account holds that the general will emerges procedurally from indi...77%Citizen virtue is a necessary condition for the emergence of the gener...73%Rousseau's claim that citizens obey only themselves when obeying the g...70%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: rousseau
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    The Social Contract harbors a further tension between two accounts of how the general will emerges and its relation to the private wills of citizens. Sometimes Rousseau favors a procedural story according to which the individual contemplation of self interest (subject to the constraints of generality and universality and under propitious sociological background conditions such as rough equality and cultural similarity) will result in the emergence of the general will from the assembly of citizen
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit