Discourse on the Arts and the Sciences (1750)
The title of the essay that won Rousseau fame and a first prize was "Has
the restoration of the arts and sciences had a purifying effect on
morals?". Rousseau argued that it had not. Culture, he says, had undermined
the moral fibre and strength of nations. To illustrate his point he
contrasts ancient Egypt with the American Indians. Egypt had cradled
philosophy and the fine arts and she was conquered (Rousseau 1750 p. 8),
but:
"The American savages, who go naked, and live entirely on the
products of the chase have always been impossible to subdue. (Rousseau 1750
p. 5 footnote)"
It was this image of the nobel savage that caught peoples imagination.
Rousseau argues that it is people without civilization who have virtue:
The honest man is an athlete who loves to wrestle stark naked. (Rousseau
1750 p.6)
Here he gives an individualistic rather than a social view of human beings.
He thinks of "savages" as being in a state of nature - outside society.
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