Second Discourse of Jean-Jacques Rousseau
This is an excerpt from the paper...
The Second Discourse of Jean-Jacques Rousseau deals with the origin of inequality among men. In looking at the savage condition of man Rousseau attempts to identify the specific traits that separate human beings from animals. In physical terms the savage man will perfect those senses that are important to his survival -- he will do this in much the same way that animals do. It is in metaphysical and moral terms that man is truly distinguished from animals. Savage man may have operated in much the same way as the animals but while the animals' choices were based on instinct, human choices could be made by virtue of men being free agents. The animal cannot deviate from nature's rules, even if it would be to his benefit. Men, however, can even make choices that are detrimental to them. Rousseau believed that it was in man's consciousness of this freedom of choice that "the spirituality of the human soul" was shown (148). A second trait which follows logically from the freedom to choose is the human "faculty of perfecting oneself" (149). This faculty, depending on circumstances, develops all the other human faculties and is present in the species as well as in the individual. By perfectibility Rousseau meant that man had the ability to improve on the qualities that he possessed and to pass these improvements on as part of the human heritage.But the idea of perfectibility also raises the problem of imperfection. After a few months, Rousseau says, the animal is everyth
. . .
in the imagination (156).
It is an important point regarding perfectibility that "by the decision of a very wise Providence . . . the faculties [men] had in potentiality were to develop only with the opportunity to exercise them" (158). Natural instinct was all that man needed to function in the state of Nature and "in cultivated reason he has only what he needs to live in society" (159). Rousseau believed that men developed no ideas that were ahead of their time, nor did they develop ideas too late for them to be useful.
Men in the state of Nature have neither virtue nor vices for they have no moral relationships with each other and no conception of duty. But they have been given "natural pity", a trait that Rousseau believed even animals possess to a certain degree. Social virtues then flow from the combination of this pity and reason. Even if it is nothing more than commiseration this pity becomes stronger as the relationship between the observer and the sufferer becomes more intimate. But natural pity is also dulled by the state of reasoning because man develops vanity. In this manner, reason, by turning man back in upon himself "separates him from everything that troubles and afflicts him" -- pity is blocked out (16
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Nature Rousseau's, Nature Human, rousseau believed, Harper Torchbooks, natural pity, Languages Ed, Harper Row, York Harper, potential perfectibility, rousseau attempts, remained equal, tree tree, rousseau's analysis, development human, york harper, society rousseau,
Approximate Word count = 1706
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
More Essays on Second Discourse of Jean-Jacques Rousseau
|
Customer Service
to Over
32,000 Professionally Written Papers!!!
