PS112: Modern and Contemporary Political Theory

Instructor: Mr. Fritz Krieg Allawey

Discourse on the Origin of Inequality

Jean Jacques Rousseau
The Discourse

 Jean Jacques Rousseau’s Discourse on the Origin of and Basis of Inequality among Men, often
abbreviated to Discourse on Inequality, is a treatise on human nature in civil society, in which
the author inquires about what divides people from people and how those inequalities
originated in the first place
 His work is divided into four sections namely The Dedication, Preface, then the First and Second
part.

Dedication

 Rousseau dedicates the work in his birthplace, Geneva.

 In his utopian and highly idealized vision of Geneva, he notes how the laws and institutions
there are just and stable, how its inhabitants live in mutual harmony and continue with the
community spirit, and how the State of Geneva maintains a friendly and peaceful relationship
with its neighboring countries.

Preface

 The Preface opens by assigning immense importance to the study of humanity as opposed to
all other disciplines of knowledge.
 Rousseau says: “Of all human sciences the most useful and most imperfect appears to me to
be that of mankind: and I will venture to say, the single inscription on the Temple of Delphi
contained a precept more difficult and more important than is to be found in all the huge
volumes that moralists have ever written. I consider the subject on the following discourse as
one of the most interesting questions philosophy can propose”.

First Part

Why Man is Unique

 He examines man’s physical and mental characteristics and finds him to be an animal like any
other, motivated by two key principles: pity and self preservation.
Pity - Rousseau identifies as existing prior to reason and upon which he bases his theory
of natural right
Self Preservation - other key principle from which natural right flows
 The only real attribute that separates him from the animals is his perfectibility
Perfectibility – man’s inexhaustible ability to improve himself, to shape and to be
shaped by his environment
 Man in the state of nature has few needs, no idea of good and evil, and little contact with
other humans, nonetheless, he is happy.

Civilization vs. State of Nature

 Hobbes described the state of nature famously as nasty, brutish and short and as a state of
perpetual war with one’s fellow man.
 Rousseau in opposition to Hobbes opinion that man is naturally warlike by observing that war
comes from society, and living before societies means man must not have been warlike.
 He asserts that man in a state of nature is tough, self-reliant, and engages in violence only
when necessary for self preservation, in either hunting or self-defense.
PS112: Modern and Contemporary Political Theory
Instructor: Mr. Fritz Krieg Allawey
 In Rousseau’s description, savage man was fit, healthy and strong, and only through
civilization does he become lazy and weak.
 Rousseau believed we are unable to return to a state of nature as man’s survival instincts have
been dulled by existence outside of the state of nature.

Second Part

The Root of Inequality

 Rousseau considers two forms of inequality: physical and moral inequality.
Physical Inequality – is the result of nature creating human beings with morphological
differences that result in different physical abilities.
Moral Inequality – is unique to civil society and is shown in differences of wealth, social
standing and societal influence and is institutionalized by government through the
protection of property rights.
 He considered moral inequality spring from the distinction between self-love and narcissism.
Self-love – natural inclination towards one’s own person with the goal of self-
preservation
Narcissism – vanity of thinking of oneself as being better than others, and vaingloriously
striving to become superior to them for the benefit of one’s own ego, in the process
legitimizing hierarchies of wealth and power that subordinates those without.
 The invention of property and the division of labor represent the beginning of moral inequality.
 Property allows for the domination and exploitation of the poor by the rich
 Rousseau’s account of the operation of society focuses on its various stages. Beginning with
the trick played by the rich, he sees society as becoming more and more unequal, until its last
stage, which is despotism, or the unjust rule of everyone by one man.