Spinoza and the General Will.

The general will has traditionally been associated with the early modern Platonists, such as Malebranche and Leibniz. Yet careful examination of Benedict Spinoza's works reveals a proto-type of the general will before his famous successors. This is significant not only in re-ordering the narrative of the general will's history, but also in revealing an entirely different and original strain that anticipates twentieth-century attempts to forge a post-metaphysical general will. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]