Abstract

AZEVEDO, Marco Antonio. The varieties of common interest. Conjectura: filos. e Educ. [online]. 2018, vol.23, n.spe3, pp.293-332.  Epub Sep 02, 2019. ISSN 2178-4612.  https://doi.org/10.18226/21784612.v23.dossie.14.

This article presents an exploratory study on the issue of general interests, proposing a differentiation between authentic collective interests and common interests. The defense of authentic collective interests is an essential part of political theories identified as “republican”. My goal, however, is not properly to defend the republican view against its opponents. I intend only to explore some theoretical paths that allow to make plausible the thesis that not all the interests considered as “public” have a unique characteristic. I will argue that there is an essential difference between the interests that I will call “common,” resulting from the aggregation of individual interests, and the authentic “collective” interests. Nevertheless, even if there are genuine or authentic collective interests, it does not follow that all of them must prevail over any and all private or common interests. There are claimable individual interests (individual claim-rights) against the community, which by definition should prevail over the interests of this collectivity. In the end, I will address the question of whether the majority principle can be defended as an epistemically superior mode of procedure in order to decide which the contents of general interest are.

Keywords : General Will; Collective Interest; Condorcet’s Theorem; Epistemic Proceduralism.

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