Rousseau's First Discourse on the Origin of Inequality

Question 1

What does the Discourse examine?

Answer 1

emergence of society out of a state of nature

Question 2

What does the Discourse attempt to trace?

Answer 2

psychological and political effects of modern society by reconstructing natural man

Question 3

If we are to learn about the sources of inequality, what do we need to do?

Answer 3

Distinguish that which is fundamental in man’s nature from those changes and additions modified in primitive condition

Question 4

Rousseau creates an elaborate metaphor in an attempt to present an account…

Answer 4

free from the prejudices and errors that other thinkers have made.

Question 5

What type of enquiry is this?

Answer 5

Intellectual enquiry that is purely hypothetical and has its bases in tenuous empirical evidence

Question 6

What is the story of man in a state of nature?

Answer 6

Man once lived in a state of nature in a primitive condition where he did not possess any artificial faculties. He was independent, happy and peaceful.

Question 7

Did Man’s desires exceed his needs?

Answer 7

His desires did not exceed his capacity to fulfill his needs. Did not look upon anything that was not immediately available

Question 8

Describe the type of pride and pity man possessed in a state of nature?

Answer 8

Innate sense of pride but no desire to dominate others and he felt a natural sympathy towards others

Question 9

But then man developed sociability. What happened next?

Answer 9

Man became increasingly sociable and so resulted in increased human interaction. Then man developed amour propre which requires man to make comparisons in order to feed own self esteem

Question 10

Why is Rousseau’s theory developmental?

Answer 10

Human nature undergoes fundamental changes and this corresponds to development of inequality amongst men and self interest

Question 11

Why does Rousseau think other historical narratives have failed?

Answer 11

Philosophers have not gone far enough. They have read too much capacity of understanding and attitudes in man that could only be drawn from society

Question 12

What did Hobbes say?

Answer 12

Man is naturally intrepid and is intent upon attacking and fighting

Question 13

But Rousseau says Hobbes is not abstract enough. Why is Rousseau so successful?

Answer 13

Because he recognises task is not an easy one but strips away all of man’s artificial attributes

Question 14

What does the success and vallue of this text reside in?

Answer 14

Its hypothetical nature

Question 15

Rousseau does not mislead us into believing this is a piece of historical research. How does he use facts and the empricial?

Answer 15

Expresses a disdain for facts but shows an accquaintance with a broad range of empricial evidence and scholary studies.

Question 16

What would readers describes this Discourse as?

Answer 16

fiction with dubious claims to scientific facts

Question 17

So if it does not rely on empricial evidence to make the text persuasive, what does it use?

Answer 17

Arguments he puts in place rather than the conclusions he reaches which are important

Question 18

Why does Rousseau want us to think criticially about history?

Answer 18

To expose the origins of particular human institutions, modes of thought and structures of authority that society makes legitimate which are actually unnatural

Question 19

Why does he place so much emphasis on the past and present?

Answer 19

So that we can see that we take a lot for granted and assume things are natural when they aren’t

Question 20

What are most parts of society the result of?

Answer 20

Obscure, accidental historical events where particular decisions have been made by particular people. Shows a significant departure from the way things used to be when man was in a state of nature

Question 21

Therein lies the value of this hypothetical discourse…

Answer 21

encourages us to start to think about modern society critically

Question 22

So the methodology forces us to think about aout history in a way that de-legitimises modern claims to

Answer 22

authority

Question 23

So the methodology drops…

Answer 23

out of consideration

Question 24

What does primitive man’s happiness come at the expense of?

Answer 24

Anything we place value on in modern society: literature, language, competitive striving and social recognition

Question 25

So civilization has interrupted nature and corrupted

Answer 25

freedom of savage man

Question 26

So hypothetical depicition of man is used to…

Answer 26

illustrate the unnaturalness of modern society and causes readers too call into question all structures that reinfoce authority

Question 27

Change in man’s nature illustrates

Answer 27

man’s maleable nature

Question 28

This discourse is highly persuasive because it is highly…

Answer 28

possible, not merely plausible

Question 29

How does Rousseau substantiate his suspicions abou man’s history?

Answer 29

Works through his claims consistently, subtracting from the present all those traits man could only have acquired through organised society

Question 30

Does Rousseau’s discourse lack value because of its hypothetical nature>

Answer 30

More persusasive because of it.
Doesn’t require empricial evidence because the Discourse causes to think about society in revolutionary ways and this is what R set out to achieve