Second Discourse

by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
This is one of the most fascinating things i have ever read. Rousseau entered an essay contest with this discourse and ratehr than answering the assigned question which he thought too simple, he wrote on the natural goodness of man. Contrary to a Hobbes or Machiavelli, Rousseau believes that man in his true state a nature (before concepts of justice and injustice had been conceived) was fundamentally good. This was based on his naivety, limited needs, lack of passions, and his innate ability to feel pity. as soon as man has the ability to reflect and use forthought and see beyond his immediate instant needs, then he sets off on his downward spiral of corruption, passion and eventually civilization. Rousseau also gives his account of how he believes man evoled from uncommunicating savage to the master and slave situation of the 18th century. The origin of language is something that it so hard to identify or even speculate and it was something i had not pondered before. how could language possibly arise? by pointing to individual objects and making sounds? would somethign as simple as "a tree" be identified with the same word for all trees or would each be given its own proper noun? how could adjectives and various other parts of speech possibly arise? even if one person miraculously decided to name things how could that concept possibly be passed on to others? its a totally baffling concept.