The social contract & discoursesRousseau, Jean-Jacques
Philosophy
The social contract & discourses
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques
Economics; Political science -- Early works to 1800; Social contract
It is not therefore so great a misfortune to these primitive men, nor
so great an obstacle to their preservation, that they go naked, have no
dwellings and lack all the superfluities which we think so necessary.
If their skins are not covered with hair, they have no need of such
covering in warm climates; and, in cold countries, they soon learn
to appropriate the skins of the beasts they have overcome. If they
have but two legs to run with, they have two arms to defend themselves
with, and provide for their wants. Their children are slowly and with
difficulty taught to walk; but their mothers are able to carry them
with ease; advantage which other animals lack, as the mother, if
pursued, is forced either to abandon her young, or to regulate her
pace by theirs. Unless, in short, we suppose a singular and fortuitous
concurrence of circumstances of which I shall speak later, and
which would be unlikely to exist, it is plain in every state of the
case, that the man who first made himself clothes or a dwelling was
furnishing himself with things not at all necessary; for he had till
then done without them, and there is no reason why he should not have
been able to put up in manhood with the same kind of life as had been
his in infancy.
Solitary, indolent, and perpetually accompanied by danger, the savage
cannot but be fond of sleep; his sleep too must be light, like that of
the animals, which think but little and may be said to slumber all the
time they do not think. Self-preservation being his chief and almost
sole concern, he must exercise most those faculties which are most
concerned with attack or defence, either for overcoming his prey, or
for preventing him from becoming the prey of other animals. On the
other hand, those organs which are perfected only by softness and
sensuality will remain in a gross and imperfect state, incompatible
with any sort of delicacy; so that, his senses being divided on this
head, his touch and taste will be extremely coarse, his sight, hearing
and smell exceedingly fine and subtle. Such in general is the animal
condition, and such, according to the narratives of travellers, is that
of most savage nations. It is therefore no matter for surprise that
the Hottentots of the Cape of Good Hope distinguish ships at sea, with
the naked eye, at as great a distance as the Dutch can do with their
telescopes; or that the savages of America should trace the Spaniards,
by their smell, as well as the best dogs could have done; or that
these barbarous peoples feel no pain in going naked, or that they use
large quantities of piemento with their food, and drink the strongest
European liquors like water.
Hitherto I have considered merely the physical man; let us now take a
view of him on his metaphysical and moral side.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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