Page 138 - DPOL201_WESTERN_POLITICAL_THOUGHT_ENGLISH

Western Political Thought

Notes problems. The natural person ceased to be happy, peaceful and became dependent and miserable,
losing both natural equality and innocence. The natural person did not lose his compassion, but
the feeling got subsumed under reason.
Reason is what engenders egocentrism and reflection strengthens it. Reason is what turns man in
upon himself ... . Philosophy is what isolates him and what moves him to say in secret at the sight
of a suffering man, “Perish if you will; I am safe and sound” (Rousseau ibid: 199).

8.4 Social Contract

The Social Contract is, like the Discourse on Political Economy, a work that is more philosophically
constructive than either of the first two Discourses. Furthermore, the language used in the first
and second Discourses is crafted in such a way as to make them appealing to the public, whereas
the tone of the Social Contract is not nearly as eloquent and romantic. Another more obvious
difference is that the Social Contract was not nearly as well-received; it was immediately banned
by Paris authorities. And although the first two Discourses were, at the time of their publication,
very popular, they are not philosophically systematic. The Social Contract, by contrast, is quite
systematic and outlines how a government could exist in such a way that it protects the equality
and character of its citizens. But although Rousseau’s project is different in scope in the Social
Contract than it was in the first two Discourses, it would be a mistake to say that there is no
philosophical connection between them. For the earlier works discuss the problems in civil society
as well as the historical progression that has led to them. The Discourse on the Sciences and Arts
claims that society has become such that no emphasis is put on the importance of virtue and
morality. The Discourse on the Origin of Inequality traces the history of human beings from the
pure state of nature through the institution of a specious social contract that results in present day
civil society. The Social Contract does not deny any of these criticisms. In fact, chapter one begins
with one of Rousseau’s most famous quotes, which echoes the claims of his earlier works: “Man
was/is born free; and everywhere he is in chains.” But unlike the first two Discourses, the Social
Contract looks forward, and explores the potential for moving from the specious social contract to
a legitimate one.

8.5 Analysis of Inequality

In the Discourses, Rousseau provided the moral foundations of his social criticism and explored
the basis of natural rights by tracing the source of moral values to natural equality and compassion
that could be found among individuals. He described the natural person as some kind of a dumb
animal. Rejecting the notion of the original sin, he contended that human beings came into this
world as pure and good beings, but in the process got corrupted, tarnished, disfigured and degraded
by society. This constituted his main point of enquiry.
Rousseau demonstrated how humans who were naturally healthy, good, dumb and roughly equal
to one another became sickly, evil, intelligent and highly unequal when they mixed in society. The
greatest horror of modern society was the fact that it was a highly unequal one. Having provided
the reasons for the “fall” of the human being, his verdict on behalf of modern society was essentially
negative. He concluded that for all their efforts, human beings had only succeeded in making
themselves miserable.
Rousseau described the human person as endowed with the ability to choose since he was a free
agent and not entirely subject to instinct and natural impulse, as other animals were. Moreover,
the human being was capable of being perfect, which enabled him to come out of the state of
nature, but in the process created an imbalance between one’s needs and the ability to satisfy
them. Civilization had multiplied the desire for needs, but the inability to fulfil them made human
beings unhappy. Rousseau did not see material progress ushered in by modern technology as

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