Rousseau's Discourse On The Origin Of Moral Inequality

During the Enlightenment, many intellectuals sought to understand society and its underlying mechanisms. People such as Hobbes theorized that society is necessary for people to escape the chaotic and brutal state of nature. However, Rousseau, in his Discourse on the Origin of Moral Inequality, opposes such arguments by stating that it is society that causes inequality and conflict. Additionally, in The Sufferings of Young Werther, the eponymous protagonist has similarly negative views on society, while simultaneously countering the rationalism of the other authors by being a radical Romantic. While both Rousseau and Werther criticize society, and censure its flaws, they do so from completely different perspectives. Rousseau focuses on how society

On the other hand, Werther takes an extremely Romantic approach, with his life and experiences demonstrating the limitations of a rational society. In Discourse on the Origin of Moral Inequality, Rousseau rationally determines that the emergence of society and the invention of property directly cause moral inequality between people, specifically, the rich and the poor. First, he establishes the state of nature as a basic system, with no complex morality or rationality involved, unlike the states of nature described by Hobbes and Locke. At the most fundamental degree, Rousseau places mankind at the same level as other animals. “when I consider him, in a word, as he must have left the hands of nature, I see an animal less strong than some, less agile than others…” (Rousseau 40) Contrary to those described by Hobbes and Locke, Rousseau’s state of nature does not involve complex rational ideas, but rather simple instincts such as sympathy and self-preservation. The absence of things like violence and property from Rousseau’s state of nature implies that these problems are unnatural and are the product of society. Rousseau continues to state

He does so in a characteristically Romantic fashion, abandoning the cold, hard facts and logical reasoning of Rationalism and the Enlightenment, and instead basing his assessments on his own personal emotions. Right at the beginning of the letters, Werther begins to reject intellectual pursuits, begging Wilhelm to keep his old books away from him. “You ask me whether you should send me my books.—My dead, for God’s sake, I beg you, keep them away from me! I no longer want to be influenced, encourages, inspired: this heart of mine rages enough by itself.” (Goethe 20) This serves both to dismiss Enlightenment ideas and to indicate the start of Werther’s separation from society. Werther’s Romantic nature is accentuated by Albert, who serves as a model of Rationalism. While the two men get along with each other at the start, they progressively drift apart due to not being able to understand one another, made evident during their argument on suicide. “Albert, who was still not persuaded by the comparison, made a few further objections… and we parted without having understood one another.” (Goethe 55) These interactions between Albert and Werther represent the contradicting ideas of Rationalism and Romanticism by showing how Albert’s logical perspective is antithetical to Werther’s emotional perspective. Werther begins to lash out against society in