Analysis Of Rousseau's Origin Of Inequality

association… and maintain eternal harmony among us” . The poor, or disadvantaged men, supported this notion of the state for it encourages ambition and envy, guised as opportunity for social mobility as long as the work hard within the system. Rousseau described the creation of this institution as the destroyer of natural liberty, and “eternally fixed the law of property and inequality… [and] subjected all mankind to perpetual labour, slavery, and wretchedness.” For these laws ensured cemented social classes and created little opportunity for social mobility. In addition to greed and ambition, most citizens advocated for the creation of the state for the inequality introduced to humanity by society causes conflict that needed to be controlled and legislated. However, they agreed to an …show more content…
In the Origin of Inequality, Rousseau uses an anthropological approach to explain the nature of humans in nature and their transition into the civilized man. Rousseau depicts a movement away from a solitary, peaceful life in nature as a savage man, to a more socially integrated but corrupt life of the civilized man. Rousseau furthers this idea of corruption in the Social Contract, stating that in order to reform the corrupt society, man must implement a social contract that allows for the natural rights of man to flourish. He believes that this is done through the General Will, a political body that is the sum of all citizens will. The General Will allows for humans to keep their freedom as they choose to participate within the system. Moreover, the ontological claims of human nature and the corruption of an unequal society found in the Origin of Inequality are built upon in the Social Contract, allowing Rousseau to argue that a Social Contract based upon liberal ideas and equality allows for a peaceful and flourishing