Discourse on the Origin of Inequality

According to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the most important topic in philosophy is expressed in the inscription at the temple at Delphi in Greece: γνωθι σeαυτον, or gnothi seauton, meaning “know thyself.” Understanding Human Nature becomes more difficult, however, as society introduces new ideas and customs that take people further from their original condition. The duty of the philosopher is to discover the character of human beings before these accretions were added. The “state of nature” may not have existed historically, and it is certainly impossible to resurrect it, but it is nonetheless critical to understand human nature in seeking a happy and fulfilling life.

Rousseau argues that other philosophers have mistaken as natural what came about as a result of socialization. To find what is genuinely natural, philosophic inquiry must see how similar human beings are to other animals. Rousseau believes that the two primary dictates of human nature are the desire for self-preservation and feelings of pity for other sentient beings when they suffer. By discovering what is natural, human beings can see what God truly intended them to be and possibly recover a chance for happiness.

Rousseau distinguishes between two forms of inequality, the first being differences in physical strength, intellectual capacity, and health which are “established by nature” (101), and the second being differences in wealth, social status, and power, which human beings create for themselves.