A Discourse Upon the Origin of Inequality - Rousseau

Rousseau's A Discourse Upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality Among Mankind (1755) weaves together philosophy, political theory, and anthropology to explore the history of human societies. It postulates a moment in time--before any notions of property or justice--in which distinctions of rank, wealth, and power did not exist.

According to Rousseau, an individual is naturally endowed with the basic means of survival. The shortcomings of the human condition (exposure to the elements, for instance) are perfectly tolerable within the limits of one's own self-sufficiency (e.g., by an ability to fashion crude clothing and shelter).

However, interactions between people create the opportunity for material wealth to be shifted to some at the expense of others. And "from the moment it appeared an advantage for one man to possess the quantity of provisions requisite for two, all equality vanished." Through socialization, such inordinate desires may be normalized, legitimized, and institutionalized: as civil society takes shape, people (like domesticated plants and animals) may be abberrated into inhumane "monsters."

With an eloquent elaboration on the "noble savage" motif, Rousseau invokes nostalgia for a simpler existence, diagnoses our modern alienation from nature, and argues in favor of our material and psychological independence, anticipating Nietzsche's moral genealogy and Veblen's critique of "conspicuous consumption."

A Discourse Upon the Origin of Inequality:

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Supplemental:

• Partially Examined Life on Rousseau's Discourse on Inequality

Deeper dive:

• "But the continual happiness, which so far as I was able to judge appeared to prevail in the valley, sprang principally from that all-pervading sensation which Rousseau has told us be at one time experienced, the mere buoyant sense of a healthful physical existence." (Typee, 17)
• "...he who dodges hospitals and jails, and walks fast crossing grave-yards, and would rather talk of operas than hell; calls Cowper, Young, Pascal, Rousseau, poor devils all of sick men; and throughout a care-free lifetime swears by Rabelais as passing wise, and therefore jolly;—not that man is fitted to sit down on tomb-stones, and break the green damp mould with unfathomably wondrous Solomon." (Moby-Dick, 96)
• "Containing the metaphysics of Indian-hating, according to the views of one evidently not so prepossessed as Rousseau in favor of savages." (The Confidence-Man, 26)
• "The inherent vigor of man’s life / Transmitted from strong Adam down, / Takes no infirmity that’s won / By institutions—which, indeed, / Be as equipments of the breed." (Clarel, 2.8)
• "Golden time for man and mead: / Title none, nor title-deed, / Nor any slave, nor Soldan." (Clarel, 3.20)

This meetup is part of a series on Fig Leaves and Fancy Pants.