Rousseau lamented the “fatal” concept of property and the “horrors” that resulted from the departure from a condition in which the earth belonged to no one.Ĭivil society, as Rousseau described it in the Discourse, came into being to serve two purposes: to provide peace for everyone and to ensure the right to property for anyone lucky enough to have possessions. The introduction of private property marked a further step toward inequality, since it made law and government necessary as a means of protecting it. What Rousseau called “nascent societies” were formed when human began to live together as families and neighbours that development, however, gave rise to negative and destructive passions such as jealousy and pride, which in turn fostered social inequality and human vice. Rousseau, in Discours sur l’origine de l’inegalité (1755 Discourse on the Origin of Inequality), held that in the state of nature humans were solitary but also healthy, happy, good, and free.

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Jean rousseau the social contract