How does Rousseau distinguish the natural and the civilized and what makes the natural world a better place?
Jean-Jacques Rousseau introduces the savage man in Part One of his Discourse on Inequality in order to highlight the differences between the natural world of the savage and the civilized world of modern man. Rousseau then uses these differences to present how the life of the savage man is happier than civilized man. Rousseau begins this process by first stripping civilized man down to his bare necessities: “If I strip the being thus constituted of all the supernatural gifts that he may have received, and of all the artificial faculties…if I consider him in a word, as he must have emerged from nature, I see an animal less strong than some, less agile, than others, but taken as a whole the most advantageously organized of all” (81). By removing man of all his artificial faculties, Rousseau shows that the man that is left is in some ways weaker but that as a whole he is improved. In setting this initial distinction between civilized and savage man, Rousseau is able to then set the stage for the differences in the world of the natural and the modern civilized world. Through providing the differences of the two worlds Rousseau is able to display what characteristics of the natural world ultimately make savage man the happier individual.
Rousseau compares the lifestyles of the savage and the civilized man by speaking of health and medicine. Rousseau asks whether modern day medicine place civilized man at an advantage above natural man, “How indeed could that be the case if we bring upon ourselves more diseases than medicine can furnish remedies” (84). Rousseau directly critiques modern day medical practices and asks whether man is any better now than he was in the natural world. He explains that man’s illnesses are mostly self-induced by faculties that did not exist in the natural world. He lists several different things that torment the human soul such as: “The excess of idleness among some and the excess toil among others, the over-elaborate foods of the rich, the bad food of the poor, … excesses of all kinds: these are the fatal proofs that most of our ills are of our own making” (84). The extreme inequality and excesses that exist among man do not exist for man in the state of nature. Therefore, natural man has no need for all of the remedies or physicians that civilized man needs. This comparison of medicine is significant because it gives the reader a clear distinction between the natural and civilized world and shows Rousseau’s critique of the things he observes in his modern day society.
Rousseau finds that the savage man is happier without any private property. He describes leisure as one of the major downfalls of savage man. As man had more leisure time in the home: “man used it to procure many sorts of commodities unknown to their fathers” (113). These commodities that began as simple wants eventually became engrained needs in the society of savage man. This directly sets the foundation for the excess and inequality that Rousseau describes in the beginning of his Discourse. The increase in wants eventually lead to a society where no man is satisfied with what he has. This greed and jealousy that was created decreased the society’s happiness as a whole.
The distinction between the natural and civilized world centers on the excess that characterizes civil man and the bare minimum that it takes the natural man to exist. Rousseau says, “Being naked, homeless and deprived of all those useless things we believe so necessary is no great misfortune for these first men, and above all no great obstacle to their preservation” (86). Rousseau describes a man that has been deprived of all useless things that civilized man holds with great importance, and shows that he still can survive without the things that civilized man considers essential. Rousseau does not say that savage man thrives without any of civilized man’s things but that savage man does not experience any great misfortune because of it. The lack of property that exists in the society of the savage directly correlates to the happiness that exists in the natural world. By experiencing no great misfortune or success, Rousseau shows how savage man can live in contentment by living a life of simplicity.