Analysis Of Discourse On The Origin Of Inequality By Rousseau

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In his essay, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, Rousseau attempts to explain the relationship between the formation of political and social institutions and the state of human nature. Before going into depth regarding the state of human nature, Rousseau starts by first demonstrating the first crucial steps in human evolution and the effects these steps had on the development of inequality. Rousseau believes that the combination of these concepts are important to understanding where we came from, who we are now as a society and what our society will resemble in the future.
For Rousseau, the state of nature was a world in which we more or less behaved like animals. He believes one way to assess the way humans behaved in this state of nature; …show more content…

Animals need or want very few things as opposed to human beings. Animals, after finding food, water, and a place to sleep will often relax or find leisure time. Animals will never try to satisfy an excess of desires, because animals do not have any, nor do they have any concept of luxury.Contrastingly, human beings never seem to be satisfied with what they have in front of them, no matter how much that figure is. Constant technological and societal development has produced a way of satisfying human’s multiplying desires and simultaneously make more desires …show more content…

48) The basis for why Rousseau found this advancement to be evil pointed out that he believes that conveniences and satisfaction of desires softens the body and mind, and makes humans weaker. In addition to this Rousseau also believes that conveniences; through habit, lose their pleasure and eventually become a need rather than a desire. Now that the desire has become a need and longer produces the same pleasure, the state of being deprived of the desire is more cruel then possessing it was sweet. Rousseau basically believes, “they were unhappy about losing them without being happy about possessing them.” (Rousseau pg.

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