For this section, students should read the entirety of Book II of On the Social Contract.
Common Core Objectives
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- 2
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Note that it is perfectly fine to expand any day’s work into two days depending on the characteristics of the class, particularly if the class will engage in all of the suggested classroom exercises and activities and discuss all of the thought questions.
Content Summary for Teachers
Book II, Chapter I
In this chapter, Rousseau discusses how the common good can be discerned and achieved in a society governed by the social contract. At the center of his discussion is the notion of the "general will", or the will of the body politic as a whole....
