The evil of man according to Rousseau
According to the philosopher Rousseau, the man was not, but became unfair and evil, reproducing the imbalance of society. Therefore, it is understood that man in his state of nature is ‘originally straight, biologically healthy and morally straight and, therefore, fair, not bad and not oppressive’. That is, society has mortified the spontaneity of the feelings of man, making him abandon his ‘state of nature’ by ‘marital status’, which caused the return of humanity.
Although Rousseau was a philosopher of the Enlightenment, he focused on the idea that nature leads to the triumph of feelings and passions instead of reason. I did not agree with the belief that human reason would be an artifice to make society and man perfect, because man is not just reason -although everything that concerns him can be investigated through it -theMan is also wrapped by passions and feelings that should not be despised by the social order. This is illustrated with the myth of the ‘good savage’, which is subject to a few passions and only experiences its true needs, does not see its neighbor with evil and, therefore, is good.
There is, therefore, a confrontation between how man was and how he has become, or even, ‘man made by man with man works of nature’. In view of this, Rousseau encouraged a significant change in humanity that would restore its nature, which is good.
It is claimed that society corrupts man. Therefore, culture is understood as a determining factor for this reality and the central point of this decline is the decline that has been established in society that exalted its social products – arts, letters and sciences – and made humanity backInstead of generating progress. To change this situation, Rousseau proposed a return, which would be the ‘renaturalization of man’, with a view to the denial of cultural goods to block evil and favor good.
The spirit of man must then suffer a transformation, balancing the inner and outside self. In any case, it is necessary for man to recover his inner feeling of goodness and begin to operate it, so that the reconstruction of the social world in perfect harmony with the inner and exterior being can rescue the true meaning of virtue.
Rousseau proposes this change to man, remembering that it must occur within the individual. And to be effective, the social products that previously consolidated the vices, must now point to the development of man, so that he can achieve his freedom. The result of all this would be the effective reconstruction of the human being with a community vision and no longer individualistic.
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