Jean- Jacques Rousseau's work, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality expressed his strong concerns with personal freedom and the limitations society imposes on one's ability to live in a true state of nature. Rousseau acknowledged the limited freedoms of a "civil society" as dependent on the personal freedoms of others. However, Rousseau envisioned humans in their natural state, the state of nature. It is in this state that one is controlled purely by natural impulses as opposed to the learned behavior conditioned by society. This is perhaps why Rousseau displayed such contempt for 18th century France. It was during this European age of reason that people were groomed into model citizens, high education, fashion, politics, etc. Rousseau did not fit, or even desired to fit, the mold.
Rousseau was an idealist. He imagined people free in the state of nature. He painted a hypothetical scene of natural man who was not bound by the rules of society. Unlike his contemporaries, Rousseau considered the transition from natural man to civilized man a regression. Rousseau did not hold civil society in high regard along with the noble class of France. Actually, the poor of France, to Rousseau, were possibly the closest to the state of nature because they were more concerned with surviving than maintaining an image imposed by society. They did not waste time concerning themselves with the artificial; however, they labored in order to stay alive.
Rousseau compared the natural state to childhood. It is during childhood that one does not associate himself with anyone or anything around him. He is totally absorbed in himself and is guilt- free because other people are of no consequence. Just like childhood, the state of nature is pure and simp ...