If the first part of speech is a meticulous reconstruction of the natural man, the second part is an exploration of the roots of inequality: Second part of the Discourse on inequality The state of nature in Rousseau is a theoretical fiction, an intellectual artifact to understand the origin of man. Voltaire caricatured myth of the noble savage, thinking that Rousseau wanted to regress humanity, what is wrong. The language, initially practice slowly becomes abstract and metaphysical. Thus, the first words used had more meaning today, language and specializes as and when it develops. Rousseau also describes the evolution of language: cry of nature at the outset, the language is changing because his ideas are more complex. So he studied the man in two forms: physical appearance and its moral and psychological. This will be the source of perfectibility leaving the natural state and the cause of his misfortune, according to Rousseau. In many respects, similar to the wild animals, except for its ability to improve. Thus, inequality is hardly noticeable in the state of nature. In marital status, laws and virtues play the roles of these two instincts. The natural man is well balanced by his two trends, pity (which pushes it to the other) and self-preservation (which isolates). However, the wild feeling of pity, empathy source, contrary to civilized man dominated by vanity and selfishness. The savage is a naive, self-sufficient and peaceful. There is no reason why the wild man ceases to be wild. Her passions are those of nature: food, sex and rest are the only things good for him and his only evils are pain and hunger. He has few needs, and for that he easily manages to satisfy them. His thought is composed of simple operations. Dépouvru of moral sense, the natural man neither knows neither good nor evil, he is a sub-moral (and vice refutes Rousseau attributed by Hobbes to human nature). His body is his only tool, and his only weapon (even Rousseau said that man of civilization would be easily beaten by the natural man in a fight). Rousseau described the man in nature: it is a strong, agile, smaller but more organized than the animals in his environment. To achieve this, Rousseau uses a thought experiment, the state of nature, which is therefore not a historical truth. Rousseau will therefore explore the origin of this convention. The moral inequality is established by a convention of men. The natural inequality stems from differences in age, health, or other physical characteristics. Rousseau distinguishes two types of inequality: natural (or physical) and moral. In terms of methodology, Rousseau traces the journey of humanity from its origin (but outside any religious context), the paints in his state of nature to better understand how humanity, decadent according to him, got there. This speech, unlike an essay, is written with a pen passionate, even fiery at times, making reading a pleasure. Rousseau describes the ravages of modernity on human nature and civilization inequality are nested according to the Genevan thinker. Rousseau’s Discourse on Inequality is one of the strongest critics of modernity ever written.
1.3 Conclusion of the Discourse on the origin of inequalityĭiscourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men by Jean Jacques Rousseau : The story of the mankind.1.2 Second part of the Discourse on inequality.1.1 First part of Discourse on inequality.