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Rousseau's Discourse On The Origins Of Inequality Among Man

662 Words3 Pages

Jean-Jacques Rousseau,an 18th century writer whose expansion into political and self-discovery literature became a portal for expressing his standpoint on human inequality, arguably set ablaze the beginning of the French Revolution. Rousseau promptly divides inequality into 2 extraneous categories in his Discourse on the Origins of Inequality among Mankind: natural and moral. Natural (also physical) inequality deals with the differences between men that are solely under the control of nature, such as weight, height, gender, appearance, strength, race, etc. Au contraire, moral inequality stems from differences spawned from greed and instinctual human behaviour, with causes and consequences such as unjust law systems, corrupt government structure, gender inequality, racism, etc. …show more content…

His idea of a natural state entails the lack of qualities one would believe to be the centre to human existence, such as language and reason. Rousseau disposes of structures of law, property, government, and human communication in his argument over what is natural and what is not. Another difficult-to-grasp concept which Rousseau sheds some personal light on is the idea that isolation and lack of human communication are major components of the ‘natural man’. This is quite controversial, especially when taking into account that Jean-Jacques’ predicaments take place prior to Charles Darwin’s theories of evolution, which may have subtly placed the late Rousseau in an uncomfortable position given that is partially disproves his

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