2075042 rousseaus first and second discourses guide

8/8/2019 2075042 Rousseaus First and Second Discourses Guide

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Reason can smother nature because it is partly determined by social values.It is not natural for a man to harm another human, unless his life is at stake.

Animals and natural law (I defer to Sparknotes):

As they are not rational, he says, animals cannot have any part in a natural law, but as sentient beings they take part in natural right, that is,

eel and are the subjects of pity. This gives animals at least the right not to be mistreated by man.In modern society, whether someone is weak or strong, rich or poor, depends on chance.

Without the serious study of natural man, well never understand the influence of the divine and what humans have done.

Exordium

There are two sorts of inequality:

- Natural or physical = difference established by chance, like health or strength

- Moral or political = depends on social convention, men consent to it, differentprivileges and prejudices

The point of the Discourse is to mark when nature was subjected to law.

Philosophers have examined the foundation of society before, but they have not felt that going back to the state of nature is necessary.

- They put unnatural things, like private property, in the state of nature.

Rousseau, Second Discourse, First Part.

He says that to understand the state of nature, he must return to the beginnings of society. But the study of evolution has not advafar enough to get a fully accurate depiction of what life was like in the beginning.

Men at first live in the forests with the other animals. They have a tough disposition because they have to live together with theanimals. Nature ensures that the strong survive and flourish.

Without industry and tools, men must have been strong to take care of the necessary actions that tools help us to do today. (Ex:Humans would use their hands to break branches, whereas today, we would use an axe.)

He says that men didnt have to fear wild animals because their superior skills and intellect made up for their disadvantage in stren Man also has the instinct of fight or flight, and he will put this instinct to good use when the situation calls for its use. He says that most of our ills that we face today are of our own constructs. We could have avoided almost all of them by preservin

the simple, uniform, and solitary way of life prescribed to us by nature.

There were fewer sources of illness in the state of nature, so man had little need for medicine or remedies. Mans only care was his self-preservation. He spent all of his time working to get food or to protect himself from being the prey o

another animal.

Man differs from animals because he is a free agent. Animals do not have the faculties of reason and cannot deviate from detrimenbehavior.

He writes that ourperfectibility moves us away from the animals and primal instincts. [Perfectibility] is the faculty which, in the run makes him the tyrant of himself and nature.

Men continue to build their faculties of thought. Ex: Foresight is important. Agriculture, for example, is seemingly counterintuitivYou must put seed in the ground that you could eat to get more food.

Language: Language was born out of the intercourse between family. In the beginning, humans interacted without any need to communicate directly. As mens ideas began to multiply and get more complex, humans needed to make a more complex manner to converse and to get

across.

Mans original communications had much broader meanings for each word. Ideas and understanding come to the mind through words. This is what separates us from the animals. He says that there would be less misery in the state of nature because misery means the suffering of the body and the soul. There i

misery, because their hearts are at peace and their bodies are healthy.

Contrary to Hobbess understanding, the state of nature was the place best suited for peace and tranquility. He says that pity is a natural sentiment which, moderating each individual the activity of love oneself, contributes to the mutual

preservation of the entire species.

He says that as the humans passions get more violent, the more important it is for laws to contain those passions. Some people in todays society dominate by violence. But savage men would not show these qualities because they are so simple,

they could not explain the concepts of servitude or domination. Men are enslaved from the mutual dependence of men and the reciprocal needs that unite them. It is impossible to enslave a ma

without first putting him in the position of being unable to act without the presence of another. There would not be this position in

state of nature.

. The Second Discourse: Part 2A. The transition from the state of nature to pre-civil society: p. 141-156 -In the second part of the second discourse, Rousseau begi

detail his account of the transition of man from the state of nature to civil society, a transition of both metaphysical and moral

importance, as it is crucial in the differences between man and brute.

1. The first person, who, having fenced off a plot of ground, took it into his head to say this is mine and found people simpleenough to believe him, was the true founder of civil society.

2. The condition of nascent man was simple: his first care was for self-preservation. It was the life of an animal limited at first tpure sensations.

a. He had few needs apart from food, sleep and sex.


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b. Man scarcely dreamt of exploiting or profiting from nature, but as difficulties arose man adapted and evolved. Man becamagile, ran, fought and overcame the obstacles of nature. As man learnt to hunt animals, he began to consider himself

preeminent among the species this signaled the beginning of pride in himself as an individual.

c. As the human race spread, difficulties multiplied among them. Different climates produced different lifestyles.3. From experience man learnt that the promotion of well-being is the sole motive for human actions, and from this knowledge

sprang the first cooperation between men.

4. Men invented tools and built huts. This was the epoch of a first revolution, which produced the establishment of families anintroduced the concept of property.a. This led to conjugal and paternal love, as each family was like a small society.

b. This was also the beginning of differences between the way of life of the two sexes.c. With the establishment of their slightly softer life, men and women lost some of their ferocity and vigor and began to

enjoy very great leisure which they used to procure many kinds of commodities unknown to their fathers; and that wafirst yoke they placed on themselves. These commodities became the first source of evil, as people were unhappy to lo

them without being happy to possess them.

5. Various natural catastrophes made language necessary.6. With the coming of the family, a division of labor between the sexes also came into existence, as the institution of the family

led to the natural formation of larger societies. Eventually a distinct nation arose united in character and manners, not by

regulations or laws, but by uniformity of life and food, and the common influence of climate.

7. Those societies which excelled in some respect came to be so most consideration this was the first step towards inequalityat the same time towards vice.

8. From the preceding it is clear that Rousseau distinguishes between three stages of transition:a. the state of nature prior to the formation of temporary associations for the purpose of solving transitory problems

b. the state of nature subsequent to the formation of such temporary associationsc. the existence of permanent pre-civil societies such as families, tribes, and even nations

(1.)In the third stage man is no longer the natural and innocent creature he was in the state of nature. Indeed it is the statnature, which Rousseau refers to as the happiest and most stable of epochs, in which there is an expansion of the

human faculties, keeping a just mean between the indolence of the primitive state and the petulance of our egoism.

Although subsequent advances seem to be so many steps towards the perfection of the individual, in reality they hbeen so many steps towards the decrepitude of the species.

9. Effects: inequality, introduction of property, labor became necessary, slavery and misery.a. Man had formally been free and independent; due to a multitude of new needs man became deceitful and sly imper

and harsh and always held the hidden desire to profit at the expense of others. All these evil are the first effect of prope

and the inseparable consequence of nascent inequality.

B. The transition from pre-civil to civil society: p. 158-1681. Rousseau begins his account of the transition from pre-civil to civil society with the observation that at some point men,

particularly the rich, came to reflect on their wretched condition and upon the calamities overwhelming them.2. In a seeming theoretical account of history, Rousseau states that it was the rich man, alone against all, who conceived th

most deliberate project that ever entered the human mind.

a. The conceived notion, in order to create civil society and laws, was to use in his favor the very forces of those who attachim, to make his defenders out of his adversaries, inspire them with other maxims, and give them other institutions which

were as favorable to him.

b. Rousseau continues his account in a descriptive literary sketch, in which the rich man, reminds his neighbors of the miand wretchedness of their condition, in which every man was armed against the rest, and in which neither rich nor poor w

safe.

3. This was the origin of society and laws, which harmed the weak and gave new forces to the rich, destroyed natural freedomall time, established forever the law of property and inequality subjected the whole human race to work, servitude and mise

4. Once one political entity was created, the formation of others became necessary to protect those outside the first entity from thcombined power of its members. Accordingly, political societies soon multiplied and covered the entire surface of the earth;

it was no longer possible to find a single corner in the universe where one could free oneself from the yoke.

5. Civil law and civil right replaced the law of nature in governing the relationships of individuals within a political community6. The state of nature degenerated into a state of war, in which more violence, bloodshed, suffering and death occurred in a singl

day than had occurred in the state of nature during whole centuries over the entire face of the earth. These were the first effthat followed the division of mankind into different communities.

7. At the end of Part 2, Rousseau presents a direct attack against Hobbes. Rousseau asserts that it would be absurd to suppose ththat a monarchic or aristocratic sovereign was established prior to the establishment of a political society or the enactment of

8. Rousseau continues to attack Hobbes by arguing that it would be illogical to believe that at first peoples threw themselves inthe arms of an absolute master without conditions and for all time, and that the first means of providing for the common secur

imagined by proud and unconquered men was to rush into slavery.

9. He contends that men institute political chiefs in order to defend themselves from oppression and to protect their lives, libertyand property, and that the institution of an absolute monarch would be contradictory with the preservation of their liberty,

allotting them only exposure to the oppression of the monarch, an oppression greater than any from which they could suffer in

state of nature.C. Different forms of government:

1. Different forms of government derive from the original differences between individuals:a.

If one man was preeminent, then a monarch was formed


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b. If several men were present, then an aristocracy was formedc. The state that stayed close to the state of nature formed democracies.

D. Progression of inequality:1. Establishment of law and property authorizes state of rich and poor2. Institution of monarchy state of powerful and weak3. Conversion of legitimate to arbitrary power relationship of master and slave4. Despotism devours and tramples laws and people

I. Summary of Part 2 of the Second Discourse:A. Transition from the state of nature to pre-civil society:

1. Savage man consumed with self-preservation food, sleep, sex most happy and stable2. Man evolves in response to the obstacles of nature3. Desire for well-being leads to temporary associations for the purpose of solving transitory problems4. Invention of tools and huts family and property inequality leisure and commodities slavery and misery5. Formation of distinct nations

B. Transition from pre-civil society to civil society:1. Rich man proposes the idea of society and laws2. Once one political entity was formed, others became necessary soon covered the Earth3. Civil law and civil right replace the law of nature4. Creation of a state of war violence, bloodshed, suffering and death5. Men turn to political chiefs to protect their lives, liberty and property institution of absolute monarchy6. Creation of different forms of governmentmonarchy, arbitrary power, despotism

C. A few notes from me:1. Rousseau asserts that man was happiest and most stable in the state of nature, as the advancement of society has lead to thedecrepitude of the species.2. While Rousseau presents a theoretical version of history, he seems to be more concerned with the effect of civil society on ma

and not with the precise way in which it was first formed.

3. Society has hurt the weak, strengthened the strong, destroyed natural freedom, instituted the law of property and inequality, anlead to general work, servitude and misery.

4. Near the end of Part 2, Rousseau directly attacks Hobbes (see above).

2075042 rousseaus first and second discourses guide

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