The social contract & discoursesRousseau, Jean-Jacques
Philosophy
The social contract & discourses
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques
Economics; Political science -- Early works to 1800; Social contract
These first advances enabled men to make others with greater rapidity.
In proportion as they grew enlightened, they grew industrious. They
ceased to fall asleep under the first tree, or in the first cave that
afforded them shelter; they invented several kinds of implements of
hard and sharp stones, which they used to dig up the earth, and to
cut wood; they then made huts out of branches, and afterwards learnt
to plaster them over with mud and clay. This was the epoch of a
first revolution, which established and distinguished families, and
introduced a kind of property, in itself the source of a thousand
quarrels and conflicts. As, however, the strongest were probably the
first to build themselves huts which they felt themselves able to
defend, it may be concluded that the weak found it much easier and
safer to imitate, than to attempt to dislodge them: and of those
who were once provided with huts, none could have any inducement to
appropriate that of his neighbour; not indeed so much because it did
not belong to him, as because it could be of no use, and he could not
make himself master of it without exposing himself to a desperate
battle with the family which occupied it.
The first expansions of the human heart were the effects of a novel
situation, which united husbands and wives, fathers and children, under
one roof. The habit of living together soon gave rise to the finest
feelings known to humanity, conjugal love and paternal affection. Every
family became a little society, the more united because liberty--and
reciprocal attachment were the only bonds of its union. The sexes,
whose manner of life had been hitherto the same, began now to adopt
different ways of living. The women became more sedentary, and
accustomed themselves to mind the hut and their children, while the
men went abroad in search of their common subsistence. From living a
softer life, both sexes also began to lose something of their strength
and ferocity: but, if individuals became to some extent less able to
encounter wild beasts separately, they found it, on the other hand,
easier to assemble and resist in common.
The simplicity and solitude of man's life in this new condition, the
paucity of his wants, and the implements he had invented to satisfy
them, left him a great deal of leisure, which he employed to furnish
himself with many conveniences unknown to his fathers: and this was the
first yoke he inadvertently imposed on himself, and the first source
of the evils he prepared for his descendants. For, besides continuing
thus to enervate both body and mind, these conveniences lost with use
almost all their power to please, and even degenerated into real needs,
till the want of them became far more disagreeable than the possession
of them had been pleasant. Men would have been unhappy at the loss of
them, though the possession did not make them happy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account