Rousseau's Discourse On The Origin Of Inequality

Improved Essays
In Rousseau's Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, Rousseau argues that the concept of nature justifies harmful inequality, and the best way to negate that is to reveal that inequality is “unnatural”. In his endeavor reveal the origin of inequality Rousseau examines the idea of the savage man. The Savage man being one who lives among beasts and raises themselves to the level of animal instinct. This man has no instinctive qualities, including language and the power of reason. Their whole being is there body toughened and fortified by the elements. The savage man since living with nature beging to realize that he is stronger and superior to certain creatures and discovers not to fear them. Eventually man “makes a him tyrant over himself and

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    If men are equal, as Jean-Jacques Rousseau claims in the preface to his discourse on inequality (40), why do some men live in large lavish houses, while others struggle on the street, unsure of their next meal? The distance between the rich and the poor has been increasing steadily over the last decade, but in reality it has been expanding ever since man separated from Rousseau’s original state of nature. The state of nature is different than that which is natural, and within Rousseau’s state of nature, physical inequality is the only thing separating a man from another. Therefore, disregarding physical inequality, nature for man was equal and the state of nature provided an equal playing ground. As early as the preface, Rousseau realizes that in order for one to understand inequality, one must first attempt to understand man (39).…

    • 1335 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Jean-Jacques Rousseau was an English Philosopher whose work was influential especially in the eighteenth century. Some of his main works include the Discourse on the Sciences and Arts, and the Discourse on the Origin of Inequality. Both of these works were written in response to prompts from the Academy of Dijon. For the first discourse, the prompt was, “Has the restoration of the sciences and arts tended to purify morals?” and for the second discourse the prompt was, "What is the origin of inequality among men, and is it authorized by the natural law?"…

    • 1144 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Because it is believed natural man is to be like this by Rousseau, inequality isn’t prominent in nature. In the other half, Rousseau criticizes the inequality of property -- how work and oppression divides people into property. He also describes the development of technology and how it influences people’s virtues. The property class and the struggle of poor vs. rich led to the idea of a contract to solve the inequality issue. “But according to Rousseau, it is a liability: “Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains.””…

    • 387 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    In this paper I am going to summarize Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s “Discourse on the Origin of Inequality” in which Rousseau theorizes that inequality is not a natural event, but an unfortunate byproduct of modern life. I will then provide a criticism of Rousseau’s argument, focusing on his decision to not discuss the relationship between natural and moral inequality. This criticism will then be countered by a theorized response from Rousseau’s perspective. The general argument presented by Rousseau is that the establishment of civil society and the associated progress of humanity is the underlying cause for the inequality between men.…

    • 1814 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In his article, “Gentle Savages and Fierce Citizens against Civilization: Unraveling Rousseau’s Paradoxes,” author Matthew Mendham further explores Shklar’s work by creating the “Shklarian Model” which is simply split between what is best for a man and what is best for a citizen as being distinct ideals (172). Mendham further elaborates on this argument by explaining the position of Leo Strauss, who argued that Rousseau’s political solution “ought to be read as merely intended for modern consumption” since it is impossible for humans to ever truly return to the ideal solitude and naturalness of the original state of human nature (172). In fact, in his Confessions Rousseau posited that “he alone has maintained the soul of original, natural…

    • 1754 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The essay will conclude that society is both progressive in one sense and yet corrupting in another sense depending upon the extent to which it fosters the positive values of community, and the extent to which it may degenerate if these values are not developed properly. ABSOLUTE FREEDOM, ANOMIE AND ALTRUISM. ABSOLUTE FREEDOM Rousseau’s Social Contract (1762) presents a view of society as corrupting, by describing the ways in which the transition from living freely, to living enslaved by the rules of society decays the virtue of man. Before there was civilisation, people lived peaceful and innocent lives, in which they strove to sustain their own contentment and absolute freedom. In the ‘state of nature’, man was free to do as he wished,…

    • 2119 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    (Rousseau, Chapter 1). Moreover, Rousseau imagined that humans turned rational and selfish once the vices of civilization and their interactions with…

    • 1051 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    When examining the question of whether John Rawls would consider Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s ideal society in the Social Contract fair, it is important to not only understand Rousseau’s ideal society more closely, but also understand what Rawls defines as being fair. First, the society that Rousseau proposes as the ideal one is based off of his concept of the nature of men. Men are born free and it is society that enslaves them, therefore, the goal of his ideal society is one that protects the people while also maintaining them as free as they were in nature. While to many philosophers maintaining security means renouncing some of an individual’s freedom, Rousseau believes that society can have one without the expense of the other. This only happens…

    • 1251 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Although complicated tasks were divided among workers, the workers become more dependent on one another. The division of labor among individuals allowed them to transform land into property, however an unequal distribution of resources emerged as not all individuals held the same talents and abilities as one another. Therefore, the use of resources were unequal since some individuals could benefit by being naturally gifted at their craft while others could find it difficult to survive in a nonsufficient market depending the needs of that community. The institution of property, according to Rousseau, is what adds to the political and social inequalities. It is important to note that Rousseau does not necessarily believe that property is the cause of these inequalities rather he points to the inequality of property as the main driven force behind…

    • 1622 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    The idea of freedom in Jean Jacque Rousseau’s The Social Contract (1762) is present throughout the book and Rousseau’s own, personal understanding of freedom underpins his argument for his ideal state. In this essay I will argue that individual citizens aren’t truly free in every sense in Rousseau’s state as the sovereign has complete dominion over public matters and due to the sovereign explicitly being composed of every citizen, this could lead to nearly every problem being deemed within the public realm. Furthermore, one cannot be individually free, in my opinion, when one cannot voice dissent against the prevailing convention of society, as is the case in Rousseau’s state. To argue this thesis effectively I will explore what freedom means…

    • 2188 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Both Alexis de Tocqueville and Karl Marx examine the social change that nations go through either as a result of democracy diminishing Aristocratic ages or because of the wide spread of industrial capitalism. However, Marx and Tocqueville observe the impact of these social changes on the community differently. Marx writings are about how the European world was changing during his lifespan. He observes how the beginning of the Industrial Revolution creates an increase in the level of economic production, but also an immense increase of inequality in a society. On the contrary, Tocqueville analyzes the relationship between equality and liberty during the democratic ages vs. the aristocratic ages.…

    • 926 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Social Contract Author: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1762) Introduction His books were a blue print on how Rousseau wanted to know the reasons of why the people gave up their natural liberty over the state of nature. How the political standpoint became such an impact in people’s lives. One of the things he did state in his book that stuck out to me was that, “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.”…

    • 900 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Both Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Karl Marx share the political and economical ideology that private property separates society into classes, and creates oppression. However, the two view property in different regards. Rousseau views property in a more political view, while Marx focuses more on the economic sphere of property and society. This paper will first state Rousseau and his critique of property, inequality, and the emergence of society found in The Discourses. Then, it will contrast the political critique of Rousseau with that of Karl Marx’s economic critique regarding property, and include other critical parts of Marx’s work including the Jewish Question and the Communist Manifesto.…

    • 1114 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Rousseau criticizes the state of nature described by Hobbes; instead of a constant state of fear, Rousseau described it as equality and happiness. Through the passage of time, the state of nature started to disappear as small communities formed, here man started to make comparisons to one another as class divisions developed. For Rousseau private property was a drastic change because communities went away from a simple state to one that consisted of greed and rivalry. Disapproving of Hobbes, who argued that people surrendered rights to an overall “ruler”, Rousseau believed people surrendered their rights to each other, in other words the community. For Rousseau, modern civilization took away the good parts of the early societies and replaced it with a society revolved around the state.…

    • 1070 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Today, various forms of government exist across the world as remnants and variations of the original ideals developed years ago by historic philosophers like John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, and James Harrington. Philosophers have played a substantial role in the development of law and government over the course of history in roughly every civilization and they basically served as innovators in the field of moral principles, ethics, and human rights. One of the larger political innovations of the past that heavily affects the America 's today was based upon original ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau, a famous French politic and philosopher of the 1700s during the French Revolution, was an individual who believed in the development of a government…

    • 1840 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays