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Unit 8: Jean Jacques Rousseau

Rousseau implied the irreversibility of the process of corruption in the same way as the process of Notes
civilization, which was irreversible. There were two reasons for this. The first was geopolitical.
Like Edward Gibbon (1737-1794), Rousseau accounted for renewal of virtue and the destruction of
corrupt imperial societies through their conquests by barbarians on the edges of civilization. The
second reason was linked to Rousseau’s assessment of history and social development in moral
terms. In his unpublished Essay on Wealth, he tried to see the effects of a nexus between wealth and
poverty on the moral person. He dismissed modern society as false and artificial, for it destroyed
natural and true culture. The problem remained about what was perceived as natural, and how to
answer the question of what was natural.
8.3 Rousseau’s Political Philosophy

In Rousseau’s view, the most fundamental relationship of the human individual was with the
society, though the original person lived in a state of nature which was pre-social and pre-political.
In spite of his idealization of the state of nature, there was no going back to it, and because of this
an examination of what the human person was like in the state of nature, what had become of him
as a result of the pernicious process of civil society and the nature of the ideal society, were
important questions. He noted the wide differences that existed between the civilized and the
natural person.
In a state of nature, the individual was guided by instinct and not by reason. He differed from
animals only because he possessed a will and the desire for perfectibility. The basic interest of
Rousseau’s natural person was very similar to that of Hobbes, as both were guided by a primary
need and compulsion of life, namely self-preservation. The difference lay with regard to the state
of nature. In the case of Hobbes, this primary need was constantly under threat, whereas for
Rousseau:
The more we reflect on it, the more we shall find that this state was the least subject to revolutions,
and altogether the very best man could experience, so that he can have departed from it only
through some fatal accident, which, for the public good, should never have happened. The example
of savages, most of whom have been found in this state, seems to prove that men were meant to
remain in it, that is the real youth of the world, and that all subsequent advances have been
apparently so many steps towards the perfection of the individual, but in reality towards the
decrepitude of his species (Rousseau 1958: 198-199).
The youth of the world, as Rousseau described this period of the state of nature, was a time when
human beings (noble savage) were equal—or more appropriately, unequal—as he mentioned the
distinct possibility of some inequalities in this period. Interestingly, even in Hobbes’ writings the
word ‘savage’ found mention. It was the discovery of America and with it its ‘savage people’ that
influenced the writers of seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The most important thing that he
emphasized was that these inequalities did not hinder the independence and self-sufficiency of
humans, as they could continue to lead “free, healthy, honest and happy lives” (Rousseau ibid:
199). The rise of civilization was attributed to human beings’ discovery of metals and agriculture,
bringing in division and specialization of labour. It was linked to the institution of private property.
Rousseau did not see reason as an innate quality in the individual. It was mostly dormant until a
situation arose in which it was needed. The natural person was able to fulfil his needs without
much assistance from reason. A happy individual was not much of a thinking being. Reason, for
Rousseau, was an instrument to attain ends, and if one’s ends were satisfied effortlessly, then it
played a marginal role. The natural person had limited physical desires, but the moment he
reasoned, the range of desires also increased, causing him to think about his desires increasingly.
The appetite of a rational person was unlimited. Since happiness was dependent on satisfaction of
desires, a rational person remained miserable. Reason created artificial and false needs. It was not
merely the satisfaction of needs, but also the desire to be a certain kind of person that entailed

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