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    Rousseau's two accounts are complementary stages in a sin... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→There is a tension in Rousseau's Social Contract between two accounts of how the general will emerges.

    Rousseau's two accounts are complementary stages in a single developmental theory, not rival explanations of the same phenomenon.

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    Reasons For

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    Reason for
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    • 1.Rousseau explicitly structures his work chronologically, moving from natural origins to civil society, suggesting intentional developmental progression.
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    • 2.The accounts address different explanatory targets: one explains human nature's foundation, the other explains society's emergence and legitimacy.
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    • 3.Reading them as stages avoids attributing direct contradiction to Rousseau and preserves coherence across his major texts.
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    Reasons Against

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    Reason against
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    • 1.Rousseau's descriptions of natural man and civil man contain incompatible psychological claims about desire, reason, and motivation within humans.
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    • 2.The accounts make rival causal claims about inequality's origins—natural differences versus social institutions—that cannot both be primary drivers.
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    • 3.Textual evidence shows Rousseau treating both accounts as complete explanations rather than explicitly presenting one as dependent on the other.
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    Related

    Reading them as stages avoids attributing direct contradiction to Rousseau and p...Rousseau explicitly structures his work chronologically, moving from natural ori...Rousseau's descriptions of natural man and civil man contain incompatible psycho...Textual evidence shows Rousseau treating both accounts as complete explanations ...
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    The accounts address different explanatory targets: one explains human nature's ...The accounts make rival causal claims about inequality's origins—natural differe...There is a tension in Rousseau's Social Contract between two accounts of how the...

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    claim
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    2 (1 for, 1 against)
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