Core 202: Rousseau "Discourse on Inequality"

[@MpumeleloNtaka]

I am a Political Sciences Major from the University of Kwa Zulu Natal , Pietermaritzburg , South Africa. Thank you so so much for this, it is very helpful.

[@maryamabid7732]

Great video - I missed this class in university so had to watch this to catch up. Thank you!!

[@lucyroberts5794]

this is so helpful! you explain things SO WELL!!

[@aakashchauhanf7046]

Excellent 👍

[@projectds3evo]

Thank you so much! Just loved it

[@hayleybrown8739]

thank you so much! your lecture was so helpful, i can actually understand the text now! thank you thank you thank you!!!!

[@angelalong2234]

Thank you so much. Very helpful!

[@cranejapan12]

Thank you for the video!

[@iasmina7847]

Thanks!

[@Sunfried1]

Good video. My partial disagreement is with Rousseau himself. In my opinion, we have an innate sense of possession, hence a natural notion of ownership. Inequality would have become a chronic problem once our natural inequalities were institutionalized. Once that happened, inequality became entrenched into law. It wasn't so much a case of someone fencing off a piece of property. Inequality became a social problem when property was legalized.

[@tysmith9309]

Well we now - have an innate sense of possession. That’s kinda the point - you know 10000 generations from the state of nature. I also have a lot of innate senses that wouldn’t necessarily exist during the times of the state of nature

[@tysmith9309]

And there are some interesting anthropological findings that show how inequality worked during pre civilization. Like skeletons with obvious deformations living long lives despite not being able to hunt. Showing that empathy and interchanging roles existed

[@andrewrai5752]

I think what we think as an “innate sense of possession” is actually more nurture, in the sense it’s acquired rather than instinct

[@skullcrusher9873]

​@@andrewrai5752and rosseau says so too, in the absolutely draining first part of the text. 'Natural savage' is more animal then a human, and his existence stopped once we started to see patterns in nature - then, it was a slow crawl to private property. He goes REALLY back, when we all acted only instinctively and something like concept of 'ownership' was completely alien to us.

[@amitpaul504]

You are beautiful teacher❤️❤️❤️

[@TriptiBanai]

really helpful , thankyou

[@ericschwarz5908]

If by reading this you come to the conclusion that his use of “savage man” is meant to be interpreted in a racist fashion, then you have entirely missed his connotations of the terms savage and civilized in this particular work.

[@jrshipley]

Rousseau's state of nature might better be understood as an abstract model than an empirical account. Same with Hobbes. Is Hobbes literally a radical psychological egoist. Maybe, but the point is also maybe that even with this extreme assumption we can show how moral norms and legal codes arise. For Rousseau maybe he thinks something like his state of nature existed but maybe it's also just a model to show how social hierarchy and inequality can emerge even from a radically asocial and egalitarian condition.

[@skrieni]

Why do you disagree with his thoughts about the "savage man" ? When we and the primates went our own way after the common ancestor didnt we live that way actually?

[@jennonpress]

Why? Because she’s not very bright.

[@skullcrusher9873]

Tbf, i don't think the term 'savage man' could be classifed as racist - his fetishization of native americans is really weird, though. Agree with the antropological critique, primates are - and always were - living in groups. A 'savage' men unbound by seeing patters in nature still could have - and did- live in groups, those two are not complet opposites.

[@owlnyc666]

Rousseau a proto-Marxist? Or at least a proto-sociaist? Humans went from public a collective ownership of land. Evolved to private property. Should evolve back collective ownership? 🤔😎🤗😉

[@owlnyc666]

The middle class does not mind being in chains being unequal to the upper class because they have fewer chains and are better off than the lower class!!! 🤔😉

[@skullcrusher9873]

He does not think that is possible, sadly. He says at the end that we can somewhat regulate the modern men by understanding the 'nurture' part of societal progress. A lot of things he was for politicaly could be classified as socialist, and became a standart in western europe nowdays.

[@dramsaysteele]

"He gets weirdly racist". I stopped listening here.

[@jennonpress]

Talk about out of touch !!!