Blog 2: Rousseau

Summary:

Rousseau argued that inequality is not natural to mankind. In fact, man in his natural state recognizes no status or class distinctions because he is too concerned with meeting his own base needs. By this, Rousseau meant that man in a state of nature is guided by amour de soi, or self-love. This makes the natural man an egoist, in the respect that he is driven by self-preservation. In nature, man takes only what he needs. The bounty of nature is plentiful, as long as each man takes what he needs and nothing more. Self-love extends beyond simply looking out for one’s own needs. It also allows for compassion for fellow man. Natural man may be an egoist, but amour de soi also allows for him to rush to the aid of his fellow man when he is in distress. It also prevents him from stealing from children or the weak and frail. This is Rousseau’s spin in the Golden Rule: “Do good to yourself with as little evil as possible to others” (Rousseau 1755; p. 47). This allows for the preservation of the species and allows for man to live in relative harmony with one another. Rousseau does identify inequality in the natural state, but this inequality is natural in itself. This inequality is physical; it is differences in age, health, strength, and mind.

Anal.ysis:

            Amour de soi has a variant: amour-propre.  When we begin to organize ourselves into communities and societies, we add a social component to our interactions; we also add reason. At some point, after the organization, after the introduction of the social, man felt it advantageous to possess more than he needed to survive, as Rousseau writes “equality disappeared, property was introduced, work became indispensable, and vast forests became smiling fields, which man had to water...” (Rousseau 1755; p. 61). Rousseau goes on to argue that equality may have been maintained, had the labor of man been equal. However, specialization of labor became necessary as technology and society advanced. When specialization of labor became present then one man was able to place himself above another. Men, then, became beholden to other men for their survival. This is the second type of inequality that Rousseau identified, moral inequality. This type of inequality had no natural basis; it existed only when some men experience privileges that others do not, often at the expense of others. Amour-propre is self-satisfaction. It is self-satisfaction that we derive by judging ourselves to be better than someone else. We took the outwardly looking amour de soi, which caused us to look out only for our own needs and to help others only when necessary, and turned it inward. Self-regard gives way to vanity and narcissism; there then is no limit to the inequalities that we can visit upon our fellow men.