POLS 2900 Lecture : POLS 2900 Feb. 5- Rousseau's human nature.doc

• School: York University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POLS 2900
• Professor: Stephen Newman

Document Summary

: a being wandering in the forest feeling hunger and thirst. Once satisfying those needs, would forget all about it. In the beginning, equality could be achieved since there was little of desire. Any little food or water could satisfy the desires of people. He thinks that men are naturally evil because he attributes to the natural man a multitude of passions. And it is those passions that lead to all sorts of crimes. Because the savage is a creature of instinct, it wants only few things that result in its self-preservation. How could this possibly be prejudicial to other human beings: hobbes did not actually say that people are naturally evil. What rousseau is truly concerned about is the competition and state of war between individuals, which remains a legitimate claim. It is only because they are creatures of instinct that the savages are so easily gratified.