General Will and History

Rousseau's 'General Will' is often interpreted Atomistically, i. e. as an expression of a consensus of Individuals, analogous to a Hobbesian Sovereign.  Now, one under-appreciated alternative is suggested by the decidedly non-political Schopenhauer--that the General Will is fundamentally a species drive, independent of its members, which Kant, Hegel, and Marx gloss as 'Reason', of one variety or another.  On that basis, the Democratization that Rousseau inspires constitutes a moment in the development of the species, whether as part of a Will to Live, or even of a Will to Grow.  Accordingly, even if it is not codified until the works of his successors, the modern concept of a human History that is more than a mere narrative first emerges with Rousseau's General Will.