Jean-Jacques Rousseau - The Origins and Effects of Inequality Essay

Jean-Jacques Rousseau - The Origins and effect of Inequality - Essay ExampleThe Dedication to the Republic of Geneva summarized the essence of Rousseaus views in the following asseveration If I had had to make choice of the place of my birth, I should have preferred a society which had an finale proportionate to the limits of the kind-hearted faculties in which every person is equal to his occupations, no angiotensin converting enzyme should be oblige to commit to a nonher(prenominal)s the functions with which he was entrusted a State, in which all the individuals being well known to one a nonher, and in which the pleasant custom of seeing and knowing one another(prenominal) should make the love of country preferably a love of the citizens than of its soil(Rousseau, 1993, pp.32-33). The Republic of Geneva was perfectly lining with Rousseaus sagaciousness of an ideal arouse a moderate democracy occupying an adequate territory, governed mostly by the laws based on traditions with citizens living relatively plain and calm life.The main paradox emphasized by Rousseau is the following people prescribe laws to other people without proper knowledge about the native state of human being. However, this natural law did not exist in contemporary European society that offered a corrupt form of the species and the inequality inborn in its societies should not be taken as a standard for assessing either other cultures or other species (Moran, 1993, p.140). For Rousseau who believed that human character was deeply shaped by society (Divine, 2000, p.291) it seemed impossible to unveil the authorized nature of humans in the European context where people had been squeezed by unfair laws and customs for centuries. The philosopher argued that the real measure of a man that would not depend upon contemporary laws and customs could be found exclusively in natural places such as African jungles. Rousseau drew strong parallels between the natural state of human beings and the state of animals. Human beings began as animals having no potent mean of communication such as language, and could not convey much of their knowledge and experience to their offspring, lacked foresight and history. These seemingly disadvantageous features gave the natural workforce one essential benefit they did not suffer from the fear of finale while contemporary humans feared death virtually every moment of their life (Rousseau, 1993, p.52). Rousseau positioned the natural man at equal distances from the stupidity of brutes and the pitch-black enlightenment of civil man (Rousseau, 1993, p.53). For Rousseau the fatality of enlightenment or civilization meant that it deprived man of the natural desire to exploit the potential of his body to full extent making it an instrument in achieving the counterpoise with nature The body of a savage man being the only instrument he understands, he uses it for various purposes, of which ours, for want of practice, are incapable for our industry deprives us of that force and agility (Rousseau, 1993, p.53). Civilization brought the understanding that cooperation and mutual help would improve the results of labour, and in the process of such cooperation humans came to realize that some men were better hunters, some were better thinkers, some were stronger, etc. The understanding of inequalities between human beings was, in Rousseaus opinion, the crucial point from the moment one man began to stand in need of the help of another from the moment it appeared advantageous to any one man to have enough provisions for two, equality disappeared, place was introduced, work became indispensable, and vast forests became smiling fields, which man had to water with the sweat of his brow, and where slavery and misery were soon seen to evolve and grow up with the crops (Rousseau, 1993, p.74).