Humanity and the Natural World

Paper Summary:

The paper examines Jean Jacques Rousseau's writing about humanity where he asserts that humans are good innately, but that as they grow into society, they acquire bad traits. The paper reviews John Hobbes' views of natural laws, where he questions how humans can have total liberty and yet governments can also have authority to define what these liberties should be. The paper explains how Hobbes intended for his philosophy to be understood.

From the Paper:

"The problem with humans, one can read into Rousseau's discourse, is that they are good innately, but that as they grow into society, they acquire bad traits. In his Discourse (number 2) Rousseau writes that once man (i.e. "mankind" or "humanity") acquired "new intelligence" and "increased his superiority over other animals," he now set out on "thousand tricks" and he would become "master" over some individuals and "the scourge" over others. After awhile, "men became bloody and cruel" and from the time "one man began to stand in need of the help of another...equality disappeared." So, when man left the Natural World, he changed into something ugly and unnatural, readers can glean from Rousseau."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Damrosch, Leo. Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius. New York: Houghton MifflinCompany, 2005.
• Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. In C.B. MacPherson (Ed.), Leviathan (pp. 183-192). Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968.
• Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. "Discourse on Inequality." Modern History SourceBook Fordham University, Retrieved May 5, 2007 fromhttp://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/Rousseau-inequality2.html.
• Wokler, Robert. Rousseau. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

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