Rousseau on needs, language and pity: The limits of 'public reason'

European Journal of Political Theory 10 (3):372-393 (2011)
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Abstract

The idea of ‘public reason’ has recently been associated with Rousseau’s views on the formation of a general will. Advocates of this idea in the Kantian tradition tend to emphasize reflective acts of rational deliberation which, I suggest, are more suited to written than to spoken language. Rousseau’s accounts of the role of spoken language as a means of expressing human needs and the role of pity in the development of a moral form of reasoning, which allows one properly to take into account the interests of others, show that he cannot be so easily interpreted as an advocate of the idea of public reason. This is because his views on the importance of spoken language in democratic politics and the essential part played by the sentiment of pity in the development of moral reasoning imply the legitimacy of modes of expression in the formation of a general will that are not, in any obvious sense, compatible with the demands of public reason

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David James
University of Warwick

Citations of this work

Rousseau’s Antidote to Egoism.Roshnee Ossewaarde-Lowtoo - 2019 - The European Legacy 25 (1):20-37.

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References found in this work

Justice as Fairness: A Restatement.C. L. Ten - 2003 - Mind 112 (447):563-566.
Rousseaus Lehre vom Menschen. [REVIEW]Herbert Dieckmann - 1962 - Philosophical Review 71 (1):108-111.

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