A Discourse On Rousseau's General Will And Liberty And His Classicalism

Rousseau differentiated natural liberty and political liberty by division person's nature state and citizen state, the liberty which is the peace and free of soul is used to evaluate a person's happiness and a social's goodness. Political liberty is a recovery to person's natural state in some higher level. Rousseau make close relation between freedom realization and general will sovereignty, the alwayse right of general will sovereignty rely on founding a political social on liberty as its highest arm, its conservation and realization needs everyone commit himself to realize liberty; on the other hand, because of its general and invariableness, general will make person get rid of the dependence in his social being, and help everyone under general will dominion to realize their liberty.In Rousseau's opinion, general will and liberty are mutual and reciprocal, general will is efficient means for people who need associate with each other to alter themselves and realize political liberty. Ultimately, liberty become internal virtue which be obeyed by everyone, so a right and efficient political social is possible. As a substitution rule of natural in modern social, general will renew the power of classic virtue in modern time by right of its relationship with liberty, which make Rousseau withstand modern political wave and act in accord with classic political philosophy.