Rousseau’s Discourse on Inequality discusses natural and artificial inequality, with the former being viewed as advantageous. It helps analyze social inequality and frames it as a natural progression in hierarchical structures fundamental to most societies.
The Inequality Discourse is a commonly known philosophical work by a philosopher named Jean-Jaques Rousseau. This document, also called Rousseau’s Second Discourse, was written in the mid-1700s. It discusses various aspects of human nature and psychology related to the critical problem of inequality.
Many aspects of Rousseau’s Discourse on Inequality are timeless. The judgments that are made about different types of human characteristics can be applied to many societies over many centuries. Reading the Discourse on Inequality brings the reader to a more complete understanding of Rousseau’s broader philosophies.
In the Discourse on Inequality, Rousseau relates a kind of natural inequality to one that is artificial, or built over time by social conventions. A critical piece of Rousseau’s philosophy concerns the natural man, who is a figure of primitive humanity unencumbered by what the philosopher saw as the artificial constructs of social civilization. Experts point out that, in general, Rousseau viewed the natural man as a figure of glory and in a position of advantage over the average citizen within a civilized society.
As an analysis of inequality, Rousseau contrasts natural physical inequality, or differences in physical power, with another type of inequality which might be called social, political, moral, or ethical. This second type of inequality, the philosopher argues, is built on specific constructs that appeared quite late in the shaping of human development, as written language and other tools helped humans shape their communities into more formal arrangements that might be called society. Throughout the discourse on inequality, Rousseau makes rather strong judgments about a number of social conventions; for example, property ownership is often referred to as an artificial element of human nature that Rousseau suggests as part of a larger movement towards the artificial power of some humans over others.
Students and others writing about specific cases of social inequality can use Rousseau’s Discourse on Inequality as part of a platform for analyzing the conditions of inequality. This seminal philosophical work helps frame individual cases of inequality as natural progressions from the broader formulation of hierarchical structures that are fundamental to most societies. Since Rousseau’s time, many other philosophers and writers have taken up the same theme in different ways, many of them agreeing with Rousseau’s general view on the role of a developed society in human psychology and behavior.
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