3.1: Discourse on Inequality
Read this text. Rousseau uses history and travel experience to show that humans have slowly evolved from brute animality to moderate sociability and eventually corruption and inequality as the rich have taken over government. Rousseau is famous for developing the idea that freedom exists in three forms: civil, natural, and moral.
Study Guide Questions:
- Does Rousseau advocate a return to the state of nature?
- What role does the notion of private property play in Rousseau's thought?
- Reading this selection, taking notes, and answering the study guide questions should take approximately 6 hours.
3.1.1: Human Nature: Free, Self-Interested, Perfectible
Watch this lecture.
3.1.2: Dependence, Property, and Inequality
Watch this lecture. Rousseau proposes a social contract that "defends and protects with all common forces the person and goods of each associate, and by means of which each one, while uniting with all, nevertheless obeys only himself and remains as free as before." Also consider Smith's description of the emergence of government types. Layer by layer, they have developed as philosophical reasoning expanded the boundaries of Western society's political thinking.
Answer these questions on the major themes in Rousseau's Discourse on Inequality.
Rousseau lived in a very different era, but his exploration of the place of the individual in society has significant relevance in the 21st century. His works address many of today's worries, especially about social inequality and dysfunctional democracy. What would Rousseau have to say about the U.S. political system if he were alive today?
Post your response in the course's discussion forum, and check back to see what some of your classmates have written. Feel free to leave comments on the posts of your classmates.