Summary Of A Discourse On Inequality

A Discourse on Inequality, published in 1755 by Jean-Jacques Rousseau was an essay submitted into a competition out of hundreds of competitors that also applied happened to win. This discourse exceptional read about inequality before and after man meant society. Equality was an important and essential aspect of life, as it proceed to seem unchangeable and then meeting miraculous change. Rousseau did a proficient job explaining the various steps of how man came to be unequal from a state of equality. Through reading this discourse, I became intrigued with the normal everyday “savage man” having barely any needs and maintaining forever happiness to suddenly reaching the quality of perfectibility in a more “civil man” meeting society. Men is equal as a savage man with nobody around except himself. Savage man was not afraid of death but afraid of pain because man had not had an encounter with a death, therefore there was no idea. What he had not known, not seen, or not experienced did not hurt him because there was no society around to learn from. The quality of perfectibility …show more content…
Such as who is stronger then one another and who can sustain more pain, but that soon changed quickly as that was not a big deal. The beginning of moral inequality is the realization of property. Property allows man to start seeing the wide margin of difference between one another, who is poor and can’t afford as much and who is rich that can own more property. As Rousseau explains this is where the quality of perfectibility takes place. These man that now have reached a civil society are now in competition and can see there is always going to be someone higher up the ladder then them. This establishes new social classes and civil man now has a reason to have enemies. In the end however, political power turns around and enslaves all (rich and poor) and this is where Rousseau predicts, “Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains.”