The General Will, Group Decision Theory, and Indeterminacy

Rousseau"s Social Contract asks how individuals can
live together without losing their freedom: Is there "a form
of association which defends and protects with all common
forces the person and goods of each associate,� Rousseau
wonders, �and by means of which each one, while
uniting with all, nevertheless obeys only himself and
remains as free as before� (I.6)? Rousseau wrote at the
dawn of a golden age of reflection on group rationality. The
last 50 years also witnessed a dramatic increase in
understanding of formal aspects of group rationality. Yet
curiously, we understand the mathematics of social choice
better than its philosophy. But first let me continue with
Rousseau for a bit.