Chris Morales

March 30, 2016

Rousseau, First and Second Discourses
Rousseaus overall outlook considers civilization to have a corrupting and tyrannical
influence on humanity. In contrast to other contract theorist who imagine the primal state of
nature to be one of discord, Rousseau imagines a primal freedom and peace that is displaced by
pursuits in the arts, sciences and technology. This is will all later be echoed by Durkheim, for
whom the primal "mechanical" solidarity holding people together on the basis of physical and
cultural similarities, is replaced by the "organic" solidarity typical of advanced economies where
societies are unified on the basis of their mutual dependence. In Discourse on the Arts and
Sciences, Rousseau takes up the question of whether the Restoration of the arts and sciences
has corrupted morality (3). His answer is that civilization generally has corrupted the original
liberty natural to humans (5). He champions a Roman ideal of strength, virtue and citizenship
(24), claiming that society restrains us and that idol arts and sciences are the product of vices
(15). In an almost Nietzchean tone, he claims that virtues of power and masculinity have been
corrupted by scientific and artistic pursuits (19-21). In a footnote, he makes the point that
Sovereigns will enjoy the spread of economically unproductive arts since they nourish "littleness
of mind... [and] the increase of artificial wants" which stymie human freedom (5).
"A Discourse on the Origin of Inequality" responds to the question of inequality among
humans by again imagining a primal state of equality and showing how this has been displaced
by modern institutions. In the opening dedication to the Republic of Geneva, he sketches briefly
an ideal society that is a thinly veiled reference to Geneva itself. Such a society should not be too
large to be well governed, the interest of the Sovereign and of the people should be identical, all
people should be free but no one should be above the law, it should be an aged, stable and
patriotic republic, situated geographically between other republics which would have an equal

interest in protecting it, and lastly it should be a representative democracy (32-36). Many of
these will be the traits of the well ordered society that he describes in "The Social Contract."
The main thesis of Rousseau's argument is similar to the basic idea behind modern theories
of disability which claim disabilities are socially constructed and imposed by an inattention and
lack of concern in our built environments for the natural variations in human capacity. But
Rousseau is not a theorist of disability, he recognizes certain natural and physical inequalities
among the human race. His main project is to show how societies introduce inequalities in terms
of privilege, honor and power (49). The first part of the discourse traces the march of humanity
from the state of nature to the appearance of private property and the beginnings of mutual
dependence and servitude among people. The second part shows how that dependence and
servitude become the basis for laws and government, and how government can eventually lead to
a new state of nature in despotism.
For Rousseau, humanity begins in a state of primal equality and inequality is introduced by
society. It is on this account that Nancy, in The Inoperative Community, critiques Rousseau for
putting forth a nostalgic dream of a primal society that never existed and never could exist.
However, Rousseau does not make such a strong claim here for the actual existence of such a
society, but rather introduces the primal equality among humans as a thought experiment that
might shed light on the current state of affairs (44-5).
In the state of nature, humanity is driven at the most basic, pre-rational level by the desire
of each person to preserve himself and a revulsion at witnessing the pain or death of others.
Natural law is articulated on the basis of the understanding's combination of these two principles.
Reason builds up other justifications for natural law, but really "the internal impulse of
compassion" is all we need to begin building up a sense of duty towards others (47). This innate

sense of compassion inhibits humans from all sort of violence against one another in the state of
nature and is finally replaced in society by laws and rules of justice. Instinct gave us all we
needed for life in the state of nature, but our developed understanding is barely able to give us
what we need to survive in society. Because of this, survival in the modern world is much more
vexing that in the primitive world (71).
Rousseau is so suspicious of progress in society that he makes the bold claim that the
faculty for self-improvement and perfectability is itself the source of all misfortune (60). When
life is made difficult by natural circumstances, primitive humans overcome these challenges by
exercising their bodies and minds. Thus, it is the passion with which humans pursue the
fulfillment of desires and needs which drives the development of the intellect (61-62). But this
pursuit of development and perfection in the human is what distinguishes humans from other
animals and leads down the path to sociality, mutual dependence and inequality. This capacity
for perfection is what takes the apparently relatively harmless inequality imposed by nature and
turns it into the more problematic inequality based on morality and the consideration of other
people. While physical capacities are what most distinguish primitive humans, it is differences in
respect and honor that distinguish modern individuals.
While the development of reason leads to the suppression of human compassion and the
emergence of socially constructed inequalities, the development of industry and technology lead
to the withering of natural human capacities. Whereas natural needs and the struggle to acquire
the goods necessary for survival pushed primal humans to develop their skills, technological
devices aimed at more easily meeting those same needs remove this impetus on humans (54).
This claim is developed in greater detail by Paul Virilio in his The Vision Machine, which traces
the atrophy of the human body thanks to a reliance on technological aids to perception.

What really begins humanity on the march towards inequality is the invention of private
property (63), which eventually puts humans in a state of mutual dependence. In the state of
nature we are able to pursue our own goals of preservation without interfering with others (72),
but in society we enter into direct competition with each other for the consideration of our peers.
This is all similar to Hegels claim, in Phenomenology of Spirit, that self-consciousness finds its
satisfaction only in another self-consciousness--a dynamic which leads to the struggle for
recognition. Rousseau claims that with society comes amour-propre, which goes beyond simple
self-preservation towards the desire for honor, and brings about emotions of jealousy and
vengeance (73). When it is not just the means of self-preservation, but also the consideration of
others that an individual pursues, people find benefit in presenting themselves to others with
cunning, so they can appear to be other than they actually are. This is the beginning of ideology,
when one person presents his own interests as if they were also the interests of others (95). In
this situation first a state of war emerges, followed by the introduction of the social contract
aimed at restraining vice by introducing the rule of law (98).
It is the introduction of mutual dependence that leads some humans to become obedient
to others, and develops into the possibility of servitude and slavery (81). The social contract not
only restrains the vice of some, it also institutionalizes inequality, the desire for consideration,
and enmity between people (111). Under these conditions the possibility of despotism emerges,
and where despotism actually takes hold a new state of nature is born, where equality is restored
insofar as every individual is equally nothing in regards to the state (113).