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    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

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

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 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 for 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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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 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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