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Unit 8: Jean Jacques Rousseau

8.7 Civil Society Notes

Rousseau, like Hobbes, failed to provide a logical answer to explain the transformation of human
instinct into reason, except that change was abrupt, brought into existence by the will and effort of
a few individuals. There would be no going back to the state of nature. Society was accepted as
inevitable, for human life was not possible without it. He spoke of a golden past with virtually no
hope of recapturing it. In the Emile, he distinguished between the state of nature and civil society
and stated his preference for the latter:
Oh! Emile, where is the man who owes nothing to the land in which he lives? Whatever
that land may be, he owes to it the most precious thing possessed by man, the morality
of his actions and the love of virtue. Born in the depths of a forest he would have lived
in greater happiness and freedom; but being able to follow his inclinations without a
struggle there would have been no merit in his goodness, he would not have been
virtuous, as may be of his passions. The mere sight of order teaches him to know and
love it. The public good, which to others is a mere pretext, is a real motive for him. He
learns to fight against himself and to prevail, to sacrifice his own interest to the common
weal. It is not true that he gains nothing from the laws; they give him courage to be
just, even in the midst of the wicked. It is not true that they have failed to make him
free; they have taught him to rule himself.
This statement by Rousseau explained his outline of civil society, which was elaborated and
developed in the Social Contract. In the state of nature the individual was guided by instincts of
self-preservation and compassion. While all living creatures shared these qualities, the difference
was in the fact that in others these were instinctive, whereas in individuals it was subject to their
will:
Nature lays her commands on every animal, and the brute obeys her voice. Man
receives the same impulsion, but at the same time knows himself at liberty to acquiesce
or resist: and it is particularly in his consciousness of this liberty that the spirituality
of his soul is displayed.
It was because human beings were endowed with a will that they were different from other
animals. However, its presence did not destroy their instinctive goodness. Two things followed
from this presumption. First, though civilization had a corrupting influence on the individual, the
real self would still remain undisturbed. This led to the second proposition that a higher form of
political organization was both desirable and feasible. Such a structure would be in accordance
with the needs and nature of the individual.
For Rousseau, vanity among human beings and difference in property and possessions led to
inequality. The rich became richer and the poor, poorer. Laws were enacted to protect property
rights. Civil society degenerated into a state of war, extreme inequality, ostentation, cunning,
ambition and enslavement. Through laws and other political devices, the rich were able to corner
power and dominate, while the poor descended into slavery. Civilized man was born a slave and
died as one. Smith, while reviewing the Discourses criticized Rousseau for sharing Bernard
Mandeville’s (1670-1733) view that there was no powerful instinct in the human being that made
him seek society for its own sake and that society was itself an instrument of the cunning and the
powerful to maintain their superiority over the weak.
The natural man lost his ferocity once he began to live in society. He became weak. Desires
expanded and comforts in due course became necessities, leading to a loss of natural independence.
Increasing dependence created problems in human relationships, for it made people vain and
contemptuous. While self-esteem was good for a person, vanity led to an individual’s social ills.
Vanity could not be satisfied for it made the satisfaction of desires difficult. Once an individual
became vain, it was difficult to get rid of his vanity.

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