Rousseau Social Inequality

Like many social and political philosophers before him, Jean-Jacques Rousseau thought it necessary to explain social, moral, and political inequality in terms of the origin of civil society and its effect on human nature. However, unlike his peers (notably Thomas Hobbes), Rousseau’s account does not characterize the state of nature as nasty, brutish, and short, nor does it attribute to natural, pre-social man warlike propensities. Rather, Rousseau provides a decisive argument for the correlation between corruption, inequality, and unhappiness and the advent of civil society.

In the Discourse on Inequality, Rousseau characterizes the nature of pre-social man in terms of four natural and moral “principles of the soul. ” Much like animals, man

According to Freud, an individual’s psyche consists of three basic structures that begin to develop during childhood. The first basic structure, the unconscious id, is the innate desire to satisfy instinctual passions and aims that is driven by the libido. Very young children identify completely with the libidinal energy of the id. As a result, they develop a strong, loving attachment to their parents as they come to view them as powerful protectors and providers. The second basic structure of the psyche, the conscious ego, deliberates between the aims of the id and the aims of the superego. The ego is created when a child comes to accept his parents as the supreme authorities, and chooses to obey them out of a fear of punishment or a fear of the loss of parental love. The third basic structure of the psyche, or the super-ego, develops in response to parental authority and acts as the self-prohibitive conscience by providing the ego with a set of moral standards. Although children love their parents, obedience to parental authority regularly frustrates a child’s attempt to satisfy their instinctual urges or desires. This causes the child to direct feelings of aggression and hostility towards the cause of their frustration, their parents. However, the child suppresses their feelings of aggression for fear of punishment

The individual psyche is composed of two oppositional forces, Eros and Thanatos. Eros tends towards unity and connectedness, while Thanatos, tends towards dissolution and aggression. The tension between these two “immortal adversaries” is the source of an individual’s emotional ambivalence. In order to resolve this emotional ambivalence and preserve social unity, the individual must internalize the external authority, or the moral laws and customs. Then, the superego redirects feelings of aggression and hostility that cannot be externalized, inwards, towards the individual’s ego. It is then the unconscious tension or antagonism between the individual’s ego and the superego creates a sense of guilt or anxiety in the individual that dissuades them from transgressing against the moral rules or laws. So, it is both morality and the guilt act as powerful mechanisms for ensuring social cohesion and transforming the psychology of the