Perfectibility in Rousseau's 2nd Discourse
In his second discourse, Rousseau demonstrates how perfectibility and reason allow men to evolve, while making happiness more elusive. He describes man starting in an imaginary State of Nature and first progressing to hut society, where men hunt and women stay at the hut. From the hut society, man progresses to modern day culture, where civilization is corrupt. This change in society is brought about by the quality of perfectibility. Perfectibility is the characteristic of man that desires self-improvement. Men improve upon themselves by having a capacity for change which allows them to be molded to fit their environment. Perfectibility takes man from the State of Nature and develops his reasoning and knowledge of society. Rousseau’s State of Nature depicts man at his simplest times. This savage man living in the State of Nature is driven by the basic needs of food, sex, and rest. He is solitary, not needing anyone else in order to ensure his survival. In the State of Nature, man lives under two fundamental principles that are natural to him: self preservation and compassion. Self preservation is the more primitive of the two, and is defined as the desire to defend oneself at all costs. Compassion is the idea that
Another element of human psychology that perfectibility interacts with is compassion. Compassion, or pity, exists in the State of Nature. It is natural for men to feel repugnance when he sees other men suffering or feeling pain. For the savage man, compassion is to not go out of one’s way to harm another (345). Self-preservation will always take precedence over compassion; a man will always kill another in self-defense. Compassion works in opposition to what perfectibility aided in amour-propre. The envy created through the comparison of humans is countered through pity. As the development of reason furthered, resentment among humans won the battle over compassion. Perfectibility was the catalyst that brought man out of the State of Nature and into modern day society. It provided for all of man’s enlightenment and his exceptional adaptability to whatever environment he is placed. These virtuous effects of perfectibility are balanced out by vices created at the same time. Man developed reason, and created new needs for himself. The addition of needs immediately reduced man’s freedom. The only place where man can be free from his needs and consequently happy is in the State of Nature. Civilized man always will be comparing himself with the other members of the species, fighting the tension between jealously and compassion. When men became enlightened with reason, it affected every aspect of life. As man became more knowledgeable, he noticed his superiority over the other animals (349). It was obvious that humans could comprehend general ideas that animals could not. After the comparison between man and animal was finis
Some topics in this essay:
Rousseau’s Nature,
,
Nature Civilized,
development reason,
modern day,
modern day society,
hut society,
day society,
self preservation,
brought nature,
individual perfection,
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Approximate Word count = 1116
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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