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Rousseau's State Of Nature

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Africa was once an unmoulded, pure land- untouched by the ever-growing modern day beliefs of the western world. The people of Africa have been physically and psychologically sculpted by the western world-. The African man is therefore no longer purely African and neither is he completely Western, he is both.
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) was an English philosopher. The English Civil War was the backdrop for all his writings. “Hobbes also infers from his mechanistic theory of human nature that humans are necessarily and exclusively self-interested,” (Friend, C). Hobbes State of Nature is where the Hobbesian man is only concerned with his desires to better his own situation and acquiring power, but is also reasonable. Hobbes beliefs were arguably …show more content…

Rousseau’s theory on the State of Nature shows how man, from behaving like animals, “progress” over time into civil society. The State of Nature was a peaceful time. People lived solitary and uncomplicated lives. They had few needs which were easily satisfied by nature. Competition was non-existent and thus less reason for conflict or fear. This civil society with its discoveries and inventions made life easier. This gave rise to leisure time leading men to compare which resulted in envy and pride. Rousseau’s view differs from Hobbes and Locke who believed in the transformation of men from the state of nature to a more civil society. Rousseau in his theory favours men in the state of nature in which they only have natural differences rather than having political, social or economic …show more content…

However, there is no moral liberty. To solve this problem, man enters into a social contract.
The African man came from a state of nature, one like the Lockean man. The state of nature was a state of peace, mutual assistance and morally pure. People lived simple lives in small communities or tribes. The tribes had leaders who they sought advice and wisdom from. Locke believed the purpose of government was to secure the rights of the people. Hobbes purpose of government was to impose law and order, while Rousseau believed its purpose was to unite people under the general will. The African man’s tribal rulers encompassed all three.
The African man believed as Rousseau did, that civilisation corrupted man. European men in the beginning of the modern period began to identify themselves as ‘white ’and therefore fully human and the African man as ‘other’ or non-white and therefore

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