ABSTRACT
This 'true' self in fact is the prime ingredient of Rousseau's notion of the general will, expounded in the Social Contract, as the ultimate source of authority in the state. The general will is the manifestation of those who have shed their ephemeral desires and realised their 'true' needs and wishes in a way which Rousseau's educational prescriptions would encourage and foster. Emile ultimately evokes the social contract and the incipient tyranny it enables, as is made clear in the later pages of the book.7
