Social Interaction as the Source of Human Cruelty by Rousseau - Assignment Example

EESAY: PHILOSOPHY: SOCIAL INTERACTION AS THE SOURCE OF HUMAN CRUELTY BY ROUSSEAU Introduction Jean Jacques Rousseau was born in 1712 in the independent Calvinist city of Geneva. His contributions both in the political and moral philosophy made him famous and for a very long time, he remained a very important figure in the field of philosophy. Rousseau was also a writer, composer and his works influenced the French revolution as well as development of modern political, sociological, and educational thought. His famous work Discourse on the Origin of Inequality provided a major milestone on the modern social thoughts of human nature, the origin of the modern society and that of cruelty among communal members Press (Hogarth 1751). Societal Interaction as the Origin of human cruelty In his work, Rousseau holds that the social interactions of individuals with each other are the root cause of all the wrongs happenings in the world and all the elements of corrupt individuals. He believed that when people are born, they are very free in state, their minds are not corrupted and they are pure as created by God. At that moment of time, the humans possess sense of love which is pure valuing someone’s existence in the world (Kant 1781). The individuals therefore hold a sense of harmony about themselves and those around them. But he adds that once humans become integrated with the social settings of the world like property ownership and interdependence, there is where unhealthy happenings occur in societies. It is where the sense of love disappears. He connects these unhealthy behaviours to the competition for resources and antagonism in the world among people. The following illustration outlines how cruelty originates from societal interactions (Hogarth 1751). In the text book, Rousseau believed that “human were originally pure and morally good in the eyes of others and originator” (Text book pg. 132). Humans lived together in a society that acted as a single large family where everyone loved and cared for one another. If one family lacked some basic need, the family could easily obtain it from the other family who had, they had shared responsibility. People grew together and lived together in harmony and mutual coexistence existed among them. They carried out their activities in unison (Hogarth 1751). There was division of responsibility where women became more sedentary and accustomed themselves to looking after the children while men went out to seek their common subsistence. The two sexes lived softer lives but unfortunately, the single individuals couldn’t fight the common enemy; the wild beasts. This therefore led to the grouping of the families together in order to unify their strength and fight them together (Rousseau 1762). This led to the creation of interdependence, where each family became concern with each other. However, this co existence led to the pricing of self esteem and hence according to Rousseau, was the origin of inequality, cruelty and vice in the society. In the book he holds that “From the first preferences, there arose vanity and scorn on one side of the society and on the other shame and envy, and the fermentation produced by these new leavens finally produced compounds fatal to happiness and innocence” (Book pg. 133) that existed initially (Kant 1781. Rousseau noted that cruelty began once men realized the value of one another, how important one be could be, what another party is good at. This created the idea of consideration in their minds and each party claimed a right to it and could not be denied a right to that consideration. From these, every intentional wrong became an outrage because the injured party viewed this as an injury to his humanity rather than the actual injury to his body. As people punished the contempt shown to them by others on their personal self esteem, revenge became terrible among the people that once lived peacefully. Men therefore became so cruel and bloodthirsty. This eroded the peaceful coexistence and mutual responsibility that existed when human was still considered pure and morally good (Rousseau 1755). People lost the love for one another and each person therefore started to focus and fight for his own personal self esteem not considering anything that happened to his neighbor. The spirit of sharing vanished away and people became independent. This is the stage where most humans have reached known to the general public. Immanuel retaliated in the book that “The manner in which one perceives, depends on the specific qualities of the perceiver’s mind” (Textbook pg. 134) it is therefore true that hatred erupts on people’s perception of each other (Hogarth 1751). Personal View on Societal Interaction as the Root cause of Cruelty From the above, I agree with Rousseau’s notion that human cruelty originated from the social interaction that exists among the different societal members. This is because when people interact freely in the society, they are able to discover the secretes of the others, they can identify the potential of one another and their weaknesses too (Kant 1781. In the noble modern society, people are fighting for survival doing anything possible in their way to remain valid and logical in the modern competitive society. This competition for the common good of each individual in the societies having the scarce resources makes men fight and hates each other. William holds that “Men’s first feeling was that of his own existence, his concern was that of his preservation” (Book Pg. 134). People became self centered and individualized rather than having a unified view of the society (Hogarth 1751). Dating back to the origin of human, Rousseau noted in the textbook that “God created everything good and moral but man’s actions have meddles with them making them evil” (Textbook Pg. 131). He adds that “human beings may be good by nature but they are ultimately corrupted by society and its institutions” (Textbook pg. 131). Man could have remained pure and good if he had chose to remain in the primitive stage but since man had to develop, discover new things in the world and make progress to acquire much industry and knowledge, to increase and transmit from age to age. This kind of progress posed man with different challenges and problems that he had to overcome in order to remain valid in the world. Due to the desire for self satisfaction by humans, made them to perpetuate his own existence and there reduced the love that existed initially between the two sexes in the society. Each no longer recognized the other but his personal satisfaction and fulfillment (Rousseau 1762). This strengthens Rousseau’s view that societal interaction is the main origin of cruelty and inequality in many societies. It is also important to note that since man had abandoned their initial lives of communal living where they lived freely, healthy and happy and they decided to seek the help and assistance of one another, equality disappeared and property ownership was introduced. They therefore had to work to find for themselves and their families (Rousseau). This therefore germinated hatred, miseries, hunger and slavery and subjection to poverty (Rousseau 1755). From the above historical outlay of how man has developed cruelty over a period, this made Rousseau and William to believe that “Nature has been kind to man and until that period when he separates himself from nature that he now starts to degenerate both in his morals and physical making Human to now brutal and continuously uncontrollable” (Textbook pg. 132). I fully support their view that truly societal interactions germinate hatred as illustrated below: Reasons for Validity of Rousseau Arguments Socialization and Mutual Responsibility As mentioned above in the origin of cruelty in the society due to societal interaction, it is important to note that Rousseau arguments can be proved to be valid due to the social interactions that existed among humans during their ancient times of history. People lived together in harmony and mutual responsibility not considering the potential of each other. This therefore made them to live happily and peaceful with each other. This kind of social life therefore made the people not hate one another but once human realizes the importance of one another, and then cruelty emerged because completion erupted and people seek ways of survival (Kant 1781). This is evident even in the modern society where people continuously fight for existence to find their basic needs. People no longer care about the welfare of one another but just the betterment of his individual wellbeing. This has corrupted the noble societies causing severe hatred, hunger, disunity and mistreatments (Rousseau 1762). Primitivism of the Ancient Humans Rousseau arguments can also be proved by the presence of primitive lives that people that lived when they were considered “pure and morally good, they grouped themselves in small groups which were temporary to do a particular task. Once the tasks were completed, the small feeder groups were dissolved as soon as they came together” (Text book pg. 132). This therefore gives the members very limited chance of clearly identifying one another to know their potential and weaknesses (Rousseau 1755). This kind of the primitive lives where people just concentrated on the communal activities, traditional ways of lives which included wearing skin made clothing, using skin made sandals made people to rarely realize the benefits of their self esteem and how they could maximimize their satisfaction by using their resources. When interdependence came into being and its importance realized, then people started to have the perception that when they interacted freely, a third party infringes them of their self esteem and they feel insulted. The people viewed that the best compensation is to fight back and revenge. Cruelty came in (Hogarth 1751). Desires for Progress and Innovation Rousseau in his argument in his work of the causes of inequality and cruelty in society, in the Second Discourse describes various stages under which human evolved in history to the present stages of humans. When human started to discover new technologies, arts like those of Agriculture and metallurgy, these came with the need for division of labor between the two sexes of humans and between the skilled populace and the unskilled. It his realized that people are skilled in different areas, some in certain types of physical labor, others in engineering works like making tools and others in governing and management of affairs and other workers (Rousseau 1762). This kind of division of labor clearly brought with it the different and distinct social classes that exist in the modern societies. The division of labor also brought strict notion of property and its ownership. Property was no longer viewed as unified but rather individual based where each individual just considered the benefits that could accrue to them and not the whole society. This ownership of property, division of labor, emergence of social classes in the society therefore created conflicts among the people and an ultimate war (Hogarth 1751). It is therefore important to note that Rousseau reasons for the origin of cruelty is the social interaction is truly valid and clearly explains why the modern societies people just fight for their individual benefits, hates one another and loses the dignity for each other because each person views himself as the best. This had led to the extravagance social lives where people drink excessively; live carelessly not considering the lives of others Press (Hogarth 1751). This is what Rousseau says that “God makes all things good, man meddles with them and then they become evil” (Text book 131) he therefore condemned the artificiality of civilized life because it brings with it individualism and capitalism. He had tried to advocate for a “noble savage”(pg.131) kind of a society as the model of the uncorrupted individual. This can lead to a society that people cares one another, where people use the available resources for the betterment of the whole society and not just the individuals. He believed that if this happens then human can regain their lost freedom and innocence that existed long before when man was still considered primitive and lacked the modern morals (Kant 1781). Conclusion In summary, I wish to retaliate that from the above it is clear that society is the main cause of a person’s pride making them to aim at very unrealistic goals not considering the side effects on others. This makes the person to lose his sense esteem due to lack of the freedom. People continuously became chained in the societal corruption, death and immorality becomes inevitable. The innocence of man therefore disappears due to property ownership (Rousseau 1755). This lack of lack of humanity can however be rectified according to Rousseau through good political system and right government that ensures equality distribution of resources making the people only to own what they need not what transcends to jealousy, envy and contempt (Rousseau 1762). References Hogarth, W. (1751). “The Marriage Transaction: Stylish Marriage”, Delaware, University Kant, I. (1781), “Critique of Pure Reason” Cambridge, Hackett Publishing Of Delaware Press Rousseau, J. (1755). “Discourse on the Origin of Inequality among Men” London, Chicago University Press Rousseau, J. (1762). “The Social Contract”, London, Wordsworth Editions Read More