Midterm: Rousseau And Frederick Douglass

Question 1

What was Rousseau’s Second Discourse?

Answer 1

-Geneva was the closest to his idea of society, focused his efforts there
-City-state in Italy
-Nature did not create inequality, man did—approximate “natural law”

Question 2

What was Rousseau’s Ideal Society?

Answer 2

-Leader and people have the same interests
-No one is above the law

Question 3

What are the aspects of a republic?

Answer 3

-Some type of representation for the people
-Guarantees social stability, common respect for the laws

Question 4

What do you have to do to preserve freedom?

Answer 4

-No laws= no security= no freedom
-Republic= freedom= laws
-All people are equal by rights of nature and birth

Question 5

What was man’s nature?

Answer 5

-We no longer see the human soul as a free thing
-Man was formed by nature

Question 6

What was Rousseau’s task?

Answer 6

-Separate the original from the artificial—> natural man to slave-like state
-In order to judge the state we are in—> must have accurate notions
-Imagine life in a state of nature before society, only way to get through artificiality

Question 7

What were the two principles?

Answer 7

-Pity—natural instinct to not watch people suffer
-Self-preservation

Question 8

What are the two kinds of inequality?

Answer 8

-Natural: tall/short, things you are born with
-Moral/Political: access to participation, convention, different privileges enjoyed by some at the expense of others

Question 9

What was Rousseau’s Discourse?

Answer 9

-Mark progress, moment when right became violence
-Nature subjected to the law
-Our actions corrupted our original state but it can’t be destroyed

Question 10

What is the state of nature?

Answer 10

-Satisfies human need
-Not as prone to illnesses of our own making

Question 11

How did man originally think?

Answer 11

-No time for relationships
-Savage man could turn off natural pity to survive
-Peaceful state of nature—only fought for food

Question 12

What was progress of mind?

Answer 12

-Living in the moment, not having foresight or curiosity
-No sense of future

Question 13

What was the final stage?

Answer 13

-We are already in this stage (wars, murder, crime)
-Self-reliance became difficult as food became less abundant
-Human population multiplied
-Humans can’t survive alone—became dependent on others to survive
-Natural Disasters
-Activated reason/foresight

Question 14

What were the next stages?

Answer 14

-Self-preservation became difficult
-Dependence= trouble
-Man vs. man, man vs. animals
-Organized into family groups, people became less sharp
-Leisure time procured conveniences, first source of evil

Question 15

What was the major discourse?

Answer 15

-Bonds tightened
-Man began to compare themselves, first step to inequality
-Vanity and contempt on one side, shame and envy on the other

Question 16

What was the middle period?

Answer 16

-Huts
-Families
-Society
-Nations
-tribes

Question 17

What is metallurgy?

Answer 17

-Further heightened inequality
-Discovering and learning how to use metals
-People that could utilize this and agriculture were better and those that couldn’t were worse

Question 18

What was the new order?

Answer 18

-Increasing fortune to put oneself above another
-Competition and rivalry began inequality
-Wealthy got a taste of power and would do anything to keep it

Question 19

What was the rich solution?

Answer 19

-Trap to legalize inequality
-Lied about protecting the weak from oppression, rules of justice and peace, possessing belongings
-One power governs according to laws to protect all members
-Poor ran to chain themselves out of the belief of securing liberty
-Destroyed natural liberty
-Changed usurpation to natural right
-Rush headlong into slavery

Question 20

Rousseau’s perspective on slavery…

Answer 20

-You get the best perspective of slavery from those about to become slaves, not those that already are
-Best idea to show how slavery isn’t natural
-Violence had to be done to create slavery so it is needed to undo it
-Savage man: in himself
-Civilized man: outside himself

Question 21

What were some things said about slavery?

Answer 21

-Law legalized slavery—collaborated with the higher class
-People need to disobey the law and hide fugitive slaves to create safe places, challenge legalized inequality
-Rebrand New England (MA) that was once safe for pilgrims to now be safe for slaves

Question 22

What were some details about slaves and slavery?

Answer 22

-Slaves not allowed to know their own ages
-Separated from their mothers at young ages
-Curse of Ham; religious justification for slavery
-Made doing different types of chores a reward
-Thought the greatness of their masters could rub off on them
-No family loyalty—easier to control, manipulate, and influence
-Power changes people (mentioned by both Douglass and Rousseau)
-In order to break through self-preservation people must be shaken to their cores

Question 23

What were some details surrounding Douglass and how he learned to read?

Answer 23

-Originally taught by wife of slave-owner who didn’t see why he couldn’t read, was corrupted and stopped
-He paid some young boys to teach him after that
-He learned that slavery and being a slave was not right
-Slave owners thought that when slaves could read they would be able to see the abolitionist movement

Question 24

What were Rousseau’s takes on slavery relating to Douglass?

Answer 24

-When rich people discovered it looked bad to be rich they flipped the script so they looked better
-No one is naturally immoral, power corrupts people

Question 25

What were some beliefs of slave owners?

Answer 25

-New masters tended to be more cruel than older more experienced ones
-Slave owners found religious justification for slavery

Question 26

Why were slaves treated the way they were?

Answer 26

-Often kept in the same category as animals to de-humanize them and make them seem like property
-Kept slaves ignorant so they couldn’t revolt
-No sense of values or sense of self

Question 27

What were some indications that slavery was not natural?

Answer 27

-Slave songs
-Douglass (like Rousseau) had to look past the surface beliefs about slavery to look at what is happening carefully

Question 28

What did the Colombian Orator do for Douglass?

Answer 28

-Sheridan speech on Catholic emancipation
-Gave voice to thoughts deep within Douglasses soul he had pushed away before
-A bold denunciation of slavery and powerful vindication of human rights
-Enabled him to speak his true thoughts
-The more he read the more he hated his enslavers

Question 29

What were the stages to inequality?

Answer 29

1. Equality, self-preservation
2. Resources became scarce, had to work together, hut culture
3. Metallurgy and agriculture
4. Inequality and slavery as people started to compare themselves to each other

Question 30

What were some additional ideas that Rousseau brought forth? (From the extra notes of midterm review)

Answer 30

-Slavery is man-made
-Called it the “origin of inequality”—meaning there was a starting point
-How man is originally vs. how man is throughout time (states of man)
-Like a statue the human soul is no longer recognizable, continued to change and blind to what we’ve become
-Man had to start inventing things
-Inequality was passed from generation to generation
-Stormy freedom vs. Peaceful inequality
-Need to disobey and question the law to find the truth
-Slaves didn’t know they were oppressed
-Try to cut through excuse culture, Rousseau believed reason to tune out empathy and pity