Aporie della "voce celeste". Jean-Jacques Rousseau e la ragione pubblica

This paper starts from the premise that there is no theory of public reason in Rousseau’s works. As a matter of fact, the phrase ‘public reason’ appears few times in Rousseau’s writings and is never used in his Social Contract. The article focuses on the language of ‘public’ and ‘reason’ in Rousseau’s political writings from his Discourses on political economy and on inequality to The Social Contract and discusses the relationship and differences between the idea of public reason and that of general will. In the author’s opinion, the role of the legislator in The Social Contract casts doubt over the citizens’ natural disposition to develop a public reason approach and to put public interest over their personal concerns.