Rousseau - Discourse on the Origins of Inequality
From The Inferno
Rousseau - Discourse on the Origins of Inequality (Epistle Dedicatory, Part 1 and notes, Part 2 and notes)
Contents |
[edit] Author's Notes/Introduction
[edit] Epistle Dedicatory
- R would choose to live in a democracy, since the people and the sovereign would have the same interests
- Freedom is submission to honorable laws
- R would like to live in a society where no one is above the law (Hobbes)
- Freedom is not good for slaves; it is a “full-bodied wine” (115) that fortifies strong but overwhelms weak. A people who is subject to a tyrant should not revolt and become free, for they will descend to anarchy
- Calls on women to remind their husbands of virtue
[edit] Exordium
- 2 kinds of inequality: physical (tall vs. short) and moral/political (tall is better)
- latter kind dependent upon societal convention, pride
- “It consists in the different Privileges which some enjoy to the prejudice of others, such as to be more wealthy…or even to get themselves obeyed by them” (131)
- Purpose of Discourse: “To mark, in progress of things, the moment when, Right replacing Violence, Nature was subjected to Law; to explain by what chain of wonders the strong could resolve to serve the weak, and the People to purchase an idea of repose at the price of liberty” (131) the people don’t realize their own strength
- Others who studied the foundation of society haven’t properly described the state of nature- they transferred values of society on the natural man (Hobbes)
- R’s state of nature is not historical
[edit] Part I – description of state of nature
- Natural man an animal that may not have been the strongest or the fastest, but * “most advantageously organized of all” (134)
- Industry makes body soft – tools make our work easier, but body weakens
- Society a disease, not a cure
- First dwelling, clothes were unnecessary, since who ever invented these things had survived without them in his childhood
- Animals have instinct, humans have freedom, free will
- Humans have perfectibility, can change themselves
- Savage man’s desires do not exceed his needs, since desire has its origins in the passions, and passions have their origins in needs
- Goods savage man knows: food, sex, rest
- Evils: pain and hunger
- Does not fear death
- Nature equalizes – better minds where there is weak soil (Tocqueville would probably say that this is retarded)
- Society, language, industry necessary for there to be farming and division of property – hence, division of property not natural
- Family, language also unnatural – natural man is solitary, meets other humans only by chance
- Ideas of moral good and bad are unnatural (dependent on economic conditions, not innate– Marx)
- Man is happier in the state of nature when he expects nothing of his fellow creatures than in society when he dependent on others. He must receive from others (superiors), but others are not obligated to give him anything
- Man is not naturally wicked, even if he has no natural conception of the good
- Hobbes—natural man intrepid; R timid
- Man in state of nature does not attack others; flees rather than fights
- Natural man cares only for himself, does not concern himself with others, thus he does not harm others
- The violent passions that Hobbes thinks that the savage man needs to satisfy are the products of society; they are unnatural. Hobbes is here wrongly attributing aspects of society to natural man.
- 2 kinds of self-love: amour de soi (unprejudicial towards others; contributes toward preservation of species) and amour propre (vanity)
- Hobbes only sees amour propre in savage, misses amour de soi
- Hobbes forgets pity. Pity checks amour propre
- Man has a natural repugnance of seeing his kind suffer; therefore he wouldn’t randomly attack others as if he were in a state of war
- All social virtues flow from pity, not reason
- Reason engenders amour propre, our first impulse is to help someone in need, but upon reflection one realizes that helping might put us in danger, be an inconvenience
- Pity draws humans together; shared sense of dependence
- Reason pushes apart—others can suffer, as long as I’m not
- Maxim of natural man: “Do your good with the least possible harm to others” (154)
- Natural man has sluggish, easily satisfied desires and cares more about his self-preservation than about destroying others; also, small population, people rarely see each other; therefore, state of nature a state of peace
- 2 kinds of love: physical and moral
- moral (originates from society’s opinions on what is desirable) is unnatural; ploy by women to ensnare and dominate men (weaker controlling the stronger)
- laws only to lead to their transgression
- few innate inequalities in people
- moral inequality must have originated from society
- any man in state of nature that tried to dominate another would be unsuccessful – easy for subjugated man to escape
- “it is impossible to subjugate a man without first having placed him in the position of being unable to do without another” (159)
- inequality comes from dependence
[edit] Part II
- IMPORTANT QUOTE: “The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, to whom it occurred to say this is mine, and found people sufficiently simple to believe him, was the true founder of civil society” (161)
- Property leads to war (Locke)
- “You are lost if you forget that the fruits are everyone’s and the Earth no one’s” (161)
- agrees with H and L that “Man’s first sentiment was that of his existence” (161)
- first feelings of superiority were felt over animals, people trapped, hunted them “considering himself in the first rank as a species, he was from afar preparing to claim first rank as an individual” (162)
- nature presented challenges, man able to distinguish when uniting with others was to his own interest
- if men joined in common interest, they formed non-binding groups that stayed together only until challenge met
- men started building huts, along came notions of property and family (but R doesn’t explain why family comes with hut)
- living together in a hut, being in daily contact, awakened “sweetest sentiments”
- family was first society, “all the better united as mutual attachment and freedom were its only bonds” (164)
- differences in sexes observed, women stayed at home to look after the hut (Tocqueville – women naturally suited to housework)
- both sexes softened, but developed their people skills
- with division of labor, people had time for leisure
- people invented conveniences in their leisure time “and this was the first yoke…they imposed upon themselves” conveniences weakened mind and body, people came to see them as necessary
- from families, to troops, to nations. A nation is united “in morals and character, not by rules or laws” (165)
- love of opposite sex engenders jealousy
- people notice differences in each other, make comparisons, value certain qualities, and inequality is born
- Philosophers, anthropologists think that man is naturally cruel because they take savages (American Indians, African tribesmen) to be natural men. But these groups are far from the state of nature
- “nothing is a gentle as he in his primitive state when, placed by Nature at equal distance from the stupidity of the brutes and the fatal enlightenment of civil man, and restricted by instinct and by reason alike to protecting himself against the harm that threatens him, he is restrained by Natural pity from doing anyone harm, without being moved to it by anything, even after it has been done to him. For in the words of the wise Locke, “Where there is no property, there can be no injury” (166)
- man’s happiest epoch was when he lived only in families, for his faculties had been developed and he still retained a great measure of his pity and physical strength. He was not yet dependent on others. People will be happy, even if they live in groups, as long as they limit themselves to tasks that an individual could perform
- “the moment one man needed the help of another; as soon as it was found to be useful for one to have provisions for two, equality disappeared, property appeared, work became necessary, and the fast forests changed into smiling Fields that had to be watered with the sweat of men, and where slavery and misery were soon seen to sprout and grow together with harvests” (167)
- “Metallurgy and agriculture were the two arts the invention of which brought about this great revolution. For the Poet it is gold and silver; but for the Philosopher it is iron and wheat that civilized men, that ruined Mankind” (168)
- Europe was abundant in iron and wheat, this explains why it is more civilized than other areas of the world
- “From the cultivation of land, its division necessarily followed; and from property, once recognized, the first rules of justice necessarlily followed: for in order to render to each his own, each must be able to have something” (169)
- property is thought of in terms of labor. The clearest way for a man to claim something is to labor on it.
- Inheritances furthered inequality. Soon all the land was claimed. “men could no longer aggrandize themselves except at others expense” (171) People grew poor without having lost anything because they did not rush to gain anything
- Conflict arose between those who had force and those who first claimed property; men plunged into a state of war
- The rich realized that the state of war was unprofitable for them (their goods could be seized), so they entered into a union with the poor
- Conditions- protect weak, restrain ambitious, secure property rights, institute laws, institute a “supreme power” that would govern people according to laws
- “All ran toward their chains in the belief that they were securing their freedom” (173)
- this is how society and laws were formed, how inequality became institutionalized
- pity dies in the hearts of men as societies organize
- “prior to the Laws, a man had no other means of subjugating his equals than by attacking their goods or making some of his own over to them” (175)
- state always imperfect because it was “almost a product of chance” (175) Machiavelli. As society went along, it patched up the constitution
- thing to do is start all over and write a new constitution (Social Contract)
- It is ridiculous that people would have thrown themselves into the arms of an all-powerful prince (Hobbes). The reason people seek the aid of their superiors is to ward off oppressors, not to be oppressed by superiors
- Other philosophers think that man has a natural inclination to serve. This is not true. People think that they have found peace in societies, but only servitude
- If you don’t agree with R, then too bad “I feel that it is not for Slaves to reason about freedom” (177) you’re just a member of society, you can’t comprehend the goodness of freedom. And you’re also stuck in the bourgeois mind-set (Marx)
- Freedom is our dearest possession, others (Barbeyac, Locke) write that it would even offend God to give it up
- We shouldn’t submit ourselves to a tyrant, what right do we have to relinquish freedom, renounce our goods
- People try to form governments by contract. Each party agrees to obey laws. Such a contract could not be irrevocable, each party is its own judge, each has the right to renounce the contract if they feel that they other party doesn’t live up to the terms
- There is much dissention in governments. It is clear that reason alone cannot create and sustain a good government. The contract and the sovereigns must attain religious aspects if they want order (divine right of kings, mystical lawgivers)
- Democracy is most natural form of government
- 3 stages of inequality: 1. property and laws formed – rich and poor 2. magistracy formed – weak and strong 3. legitimate power into arbitrary power – master and slave (most unequal)
- states go from 1-3, then revolution and repeat cycle
- laws will be broken “the same vices that make social institutioins necessary will make their abuse inevitable” (182), “laws…contain men without changing them” (182),
- a country where everyone obeyed laws would not need laws (Luther)
- tyrant is a slave, “consent to bear chains so that they might impose chains on others in turn” (183) tyrants prefer dominion to independence
- the more preoccupied a society is with money, the more unnatural it is
- p. 185, paragraph 55, description of rise of despotism—R calls tyrant a “monster” Leviathan?
- Last stage of inequality is Hobbes’ ideal state – everyone is equally subjected to despot
- Wheel comes full circle, everyone equal again, but “Here all private individuals again become equal because they are nothing” (185) the equality of slavery
- Subjects have no other laws left but rule of master, master ruled by his passions, all notions of good and virtue vanish
- The uprising that dethrones the tyrant is lawful “Force alone maintains him, force alone overthrows him” (186)
- The savage lives in repose and freedom. “By contrast, the Citizen, forever active, sweats, scurries, constantly agonizes in search of ever more strenuous occupations: he works to the death, even rushes toward it in order to be in a position to live, or renounces life in order to acquire immortality” (187)
- “the savage lives within himself; sociable man, always outside himself, is capable of living only in the opinion of others” (187)
- “in the midst of so much Philosophy, humanity, politeness, and sublime maxims, we have nothing more than a deceiving and frivolous exterior, honor without virtue, reason without wisdom, and pleasure without happiness” (187)
- CONCLUSION: “It follows from this account that inequality, being almost nonexistent in the state of Nature, owes its force and growth to the development of our faculties and the progress of the human mind, and finally becomes stable and legitimate by the establishment of property and Laws” (188)
[edit] Lecture
Thoughts from lecture and section that I don’t think I’ve mentioned yet:
- Rousseau gives an account of man’s fall, but not of original sin
- Human nature is constituted historically (because humans are perfectible). We made ourselves, we can change ourselves. We are not divided beings (human vs. beast). We only feel divided in society. We didn’t do anything to deserve original sin. Society is bad, we are bad in society, man is innately good
