Natural Liberty in Nature Alone
Modern idealizations of success and prosperity over one’s lifetime are generally compromised by images of wealth, academic achievement, innovation, and leaving a legacy behind. Although all are perceived to be accomplishments, the state of nature at its core does nothing that requires man to submit himself to these needs. Instead, it is man who has over generations created the present constructs harnessing his passion, demanding his performance, and creating chasms in equality. According to Rousseau, man in the state of nature possesses true freedom unlike the civilized man. Rousseau’s conceptualization of freedom not only includes being physically free, but also being psychologically and spiritually free as well. In the comparison between the savage and civilized man, a society of property and laws restricts human freedom and equality regardless of wealth or hierarchical status, while nature begs nothing of man aside from the need to survive. Natural man is only concerned with meeting the needs that are critical for survival, which allow him complete freedom. He is “subject to …show more content…
According to Rousseau, “most of our ills are of our own making” (84). Additionally, while the savage man is absorbed with gathering food and is not plagued by boredom or non-primal desires, freedom dissipates along with the development of inequality as “the excess of idleness among some and the excess of toil among others” (84) becomes present. When a savage man is sick, he has no expectation or desire to see another human such as a doctor. In fact, the sick savage man has “nothing to hope for except from nature, conversely he has nothing to fear except from his sickness” (85). In addition to this, Rousseau contrasts man in society, where people of all classes suffer “sorrows and anxieties”
Modern idealizations of success and prosperity over one’s lifetime are generally compromised by images of wealth, academic achievement, innovation, and leaving a legacy behind. Although all are perceived to be accomplishments, the state of nature at its core does nothing that requires man to submit himself to these needs. Instead, it is man who has over generations created the present constructs harnessing his passion, demanding his performance, and creating chasms in equality. According to Rousseau, man in the state of nature possesses true freedom unlike the civilized man. Rousseau’s conceptualization of freedom not only includes being physically free, but also being psychologically and spiritually free as well. In the comparison between the savage and civilized man, a society of property and laws restricts human freedom and equality regardless of wealth or hierarchical status, while nature begs nothing of man aside from the need to survive. Natural man is only concerned with meeting the needs that are critical for survival, which allow him complete freedom. He is “subject to …show more content…
According to Rousseau, “most of our ills are of our own making” (84). Additionally, while the savage man is absorbed with gathering food and is not plagued by boredom or non-primal desires, freedom dissipates along with the development of inequality as “the excess of idleness among some and the excess of toil among others” (84) becomes present. When a savage man is sick, he has no expectation or desire to see another human such as a doctor. In fact, the sick savage man has “nothing to hope for except from nature, conversely he has nothing to fear except from his sickness” (85). In addition to this, Rousseau contrasts man in society, where people of all classes suffer “sorrows and anxieties”