POL SCI 6C Lecture 8: Stages of Rousseau
27 Oct 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
The whole idea of the state of nature is very important because it answers the question - If you strip away a civil society what are people like. For example, if two wolves are fighting for dominance one wolf wins -- has his mouth over the neck of the other but doesn"t kill him. Another way of behaving in nature would be to kill the one who loses. We fear punishment from the state and others even fear punishment from god -- most of us do not do things because it is the right thing to do but because we fear the consequences. Rousseau"s nature is much more sophisticated and complex than locke. P. 40 -- rousseau even acknowledges that a state of nature might not even exist. Rousseau is openly saying that it perhaps never existed yet we have to understand it -- need it to understand the nature of man.
