Explaining the Origins and Evils of Society in Second...

Second Treatise of Government by John Locke and Discourse on the Origin of Inequality by Jean-Jacques Rousseau are books written to try and explain the origin of society. Both try to explain the evils and inequalities of society, and to a certain degree to discuss whether man in his natural state is better than man in society. These political science based theories do not appear, at first, to have anything in common with J. Hector St. John De Crà ¨vecoeur’s Letters from an American Farmer, which are letters written by Crà ¨vecoeur during the settling of America and the beginning of the American Revolution, however with examination we can see reflection of both Locke’s and Rousseau’s ideas about things such as human nature, government, and†¦show more content†¦Specifically he states ‘This latter type of inequality consists in the different privileges enjoyed by some at the expense of others, such as being richer, more honored, more powerful than they, or even causing themselves to be obeyed by them.’ (Rousseau, 45). Crà ¨vecoeur reflects this when he discusses slavery because he speaks about how the slaves are controlled because the other race has wealth and the slaves are forced to obey them. Slavery is an example of Rousseau’s idea of political equality, which he states does not exist in the state of nature but is created by the consent of man (Rousseau, 45). Something that Crà ¨vecoeur talks about in his Letters is the kind of government in America and his opinion on it. At the beginning this is all very positive, and the first mention of the government is him discussing that there is no absolute power, stating that ‘We have no princes, for whom we toil, starve, and bleed; we are the most perfect society now existing in the world’ (Crà ¨vecoeur, 597). He is quite straight forward with his opinion that the fact that the government being not absolute is a good thing, an opinion shared by both Locke and Rousseau. Locke states ‘It cannot be supposed that they should intend, had they the power to do so, to give to any one,Show MoreRelated On the Virtues of Private Property in Locke and Rousseau Essay2221 Words   |  9 PagesOn the Virtues of Private Property in Locke and Rousseau John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau, following their predecessor Thomas Hobbes, both attempt to explain the development and dissolution of society and government. They begin, as Hobbes did, by defining the â€Å"state of nature†Ã¢â‚¬â€a time before man found rational thought. In the Second Treatise[1] and the Discourse on Inequality[2], Locke and Rousseau, respectively, put forward very interesting and different accounts of the state