ABSTRACT
Jean-Jacques Rousseau had lashed out against the French aristocracy, those who "gorge themselves with superfluities while the starving multitudes are in want of the bare necessities of life". Rousseau explored concepts related to the leadership dyad. This chapter explores writings renouncing philosophies that give primacy to reason, for unlike Edwin Locke or Thomas Hobbes and the rationalists who emerged from the Age of Enlightenment, Rousseau scoffed at those who taught that reason could bring understanding regarding the nature of man. Rousseau suggested that leaders must often point to supernatural authority as the source of their inspiration and wisdom if they are to be successful in their attempt to guide the wills of the masses. The general will should not be confused with the will of all. Such is an important distinction. They are not the same, for the will of all is only a sum of private wills, and, as such, it often contains greed and selfishness.
