Editing General will (section)

=== Defense of Rousseau ===
Some Rousseau scholars, however, such as his biographer and editor Maurice Cranston, and Ralph Leigh, editor of Rousseau's correspondence, do not consider Talmon's 1950s "totalitarian thesis" as sustainable.<ref>For a rejoinder to Talmon see R. A. Leigh, "Liberté et autorité dans le Contrat Social" in ''Jean-Jacques Rousseau et son oeuvre'', (Paris, 1963).</ref>

Prior to Rousseau, the phrase "general will" referred explicitly to the general (as opposed to the particular) will or ''volition'' (as it is sometimes translated) of the Deity. It occurs in the theological writings of [[Nicolas Malebranche|Malebranche]],<ref>[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/malebranche/ See the "Nicolas Malebranche" entry in the ''Stanford History of Philosophy'' (revised 2009).]</ref> who had picked it up from [[Blaise Pascal|Pascal]], and in the writings of Malebranche's pupil, [[Montesquieu]],<ref>Patrick Riley, "The General Will Before Rousseau", ''Political Theory'' 6: 4: Special Issue: ''Jean-Jacques Rousseau'' (Nov., 1978): 485-516</ref> who contrasted ''volonté particulière'' and ''volonté générale'' in a secular sense in his most celebrated chapter (Chapter XI) of [[The Spirit of the Laws|''De L'Esprit des Lois'']] (1748).<ref>Rousseau at one point, states that the most profound metaphysics are to be found in "Plato, Locke, or Malebranche" P [IV: III], quoted in Charles William Hendel, ''Rousseau Moralist'' [Oxford University Press, 1934], p. 169. See also [https://books.google.com/books?id=ybYLfAw_084C&q=general+volition&pg=PA742  Nicolas Malebranche,  ''Malebranche: The Search After Truth: With Elucidations of The Search After Truth'', Thomas M. Lennon and Paul J. Olscamp, editors (Cambridge University Press, 1997), p. 742.]</ref>