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A review by hanan_sheikh
A Discourse on Inequality by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
3.0
Rousseau's view of the natural man is the original state of Frankenstein's daemon. Solitary, physically strong, living to pursue simple pleasures that are necessary to sustain life and a lack of insight into the future. The two governing principles of the natural man is the desire for self-sustenance and discomfort on the suffering of other sentient beings.
While I do believe the two principles govern our psyche to a great extent, Rousseau makes an error at the very beginning of the formulation of his natural man. Man was never solitary. Aristotle hit the bullseye when we claimed 'Man is a social animal'. Being social is ingrained in the essence of humans. But while the groundworks of this discourse are flawed, it still is a worthwhile read. For instance, Rousseau declaring metallurgy, and agriculture as the beginning of inequality are quite plausible, and the importance he set on the role of language on our epistemology is quite good. Like for instance, the idea of nothingness couldn't have been grasped by us without language. Nothingness isn't something we can imagine, yet when we say nothingness we can grasp the idea. Also, some of the political ideas he expounds on are worth noting. That's all I have to say about this book.
While I do believe the two principles govern our psyche to a great extent, Rousseau makes an error at the very beginning of the formulation of his natural man. Man was never solitary. Aristotle hit the bullseye when we claimed 'Man is a social animal'. Being social is ingrained in the essence of humans. But while the groundworks of this discourse are flawed, it still is a worthwhile read. For instance, Rousseau declaring metallurgy, and agriculture as the beginning of inequality are quite plausible, and the importance he set on the role of language on our epistemology is quite good. Like for instance, the idea of nothingness couldn't have been grasped by us without language. Nothingness isn't something we can imagine, yet when we say nothingness we can grasp the idea. Also, some of the political ideas he expounds on are worth noting. That's all I have to say about this book.