Rousseau's Second Discourse

Savage or Civilized The Second Discourse, written by Jean Jaques Rousseau in 1754, discusses the human state of nature. This work compares savaged men and civilized men, mostly in physical terms. Rousseau aimed to find the source of inequality in the human race, by stripping man down to his animalistic nature. He begins by discussing how a natural man uses his instincts for self preservation, like an animal. After this, he mentions how civilized men tend to compare themselves to each other, which in turn destroys their empathy for others. Rousseau supports the fact that men who are in the natural state tend to do better in life than men who are civilized and this is shown through their physical and mental attributes. Rousseau believes
Savages are forced to teach themselves everything from a young age, which makes them much sharper than educated men. The only goal of a savage is self preservation, so his senses are thoroughly developed compared to a civilized man, who is given everything he needs to survive starting at a young age. Men in societies are always striving to be greater than other men which has a negative affect on their minds and this shown when Rousseau wrote, “excesses of every kind, immoderate transports of every passion, fatigue, mental exhaustion, the innumerable pains and anxieties inseparable from every condition of life, by which the mind of man is incessantly tormented; … and that we might have avoided them nearly all by adhering to that simple, uniform and solitary manner of life which nature prescribed” (Rousseau, paragraph 9). Through this statement, Rousseau endorses the lifestyle of a savage, by explaining that men who lead this lifestyle have no worries besides what he will be eating and how he will protect himself. This is a simple lifestyle free of comparing yourself to others and he believes that it is ideal and that man would be much happier this