Jean-Jacques Rousseau

In The Social Contract, published in 1762, the general will means the collective will directed toward the common good. Rousseau uses it to explain legitimate political authority.

Emile, also published in 1762, presented Rousseau's ideas about education and natural development. It was condemned in Paris and Geneva partly because of its religious arguments.

Rousseau died before the French Revolution, but his ideas about sovereignty and citizenship became important to revolutionaries. The Social Contract was frequently invoked in late 18th-century political debate.

Rousseau begins The Social Contract with the famous claim that humans are born free but are everywhere in chains. He then asks what kind of political order could make obedience compatible with freedom.