A Naturally Disagreeable Discourse

Abstract

Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s references to Thomas Hobbes are a scathing critique of Hobbes’s conceptions of man. These differences underlay a fundamental disagreement about the natural man and how he would act independent of the exertions of the state. Hobbes finds man as alone and primarily motivated by competition, fear, and glory. This is contested by Rousseau who instead holds that men are fearful of the new but are indifferent to the competition brought about by scarcity and are ambivalent to glory’s charm. This contradiction leads the two political theorists down different paths toward disparate conceptions about the nature and value of government. This paper traces these contrasting notions of the independent man asking which author best relates the path of socialization to the freedoms that will be enjoyed by said man.