Discourse On The Origin Of Inequality, By Jean Jacques Rousseau

There were many enlightened philosophers who influenced the ideals and guidelines set up in the United States of America. One of these philosophers was Jean Jacques Rousseau, whose social contract theory still can be seen in the structure of our government today. By really breaking down Rousseau’s viewpoint into three different categories, we can begin to understand the reasoning behind his ideas. In this paper, I will be giving evidence to support the idea that Rousseau is a relationalist, a conservative, and a progressive. First we will examine Rousseau’s metaphysics of person. He begins his book Emile with the following line: “God makes all things good” (Rousseau, 9). This ideological view of humans as innately good is a common theme throughout many of his most influential works. In his book Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, he talks of the natural man as a timid and flighty animal, who only differs from other animals in that he has the ability to will. Perhaps what is most important in Rousseau’s discussion of the natural man, is his possession of the only natural virtue: pity. Pity is what really ties us to each other. It is pity that moderates in each man “the …show more content…
It is also where morals and virtues are established. So, since we need community to develop society and therefore constitute meaning in our lives, then we need other people to be people which is a relationalist belief. As I stated earlier the family is the first form of society and it is therefore the “prototype of political societies” (Morgan, 772). In this analogy, the leader would be representative of the father and the people representative of the children. This view of government further enforces Rousseau’s relationalism by not only creating meaningful relationships within familial units but also within community and society as a whole. It also sets up his conservative political