THE ORIGINAL MAN IN THE STATE OF NATURE BEFORE THE FORMATION OF A POLITICAL SOCIETY. FROM THE ANALYSIS OF FIRST AND THE SECOND DISCUSS OF J.J ROUSSEAU.

                                                                                 

Okafor Chika Okafor.                                            vitcee25@gmail.com

INTRODUCTION.

The forming of a Political society was never on the interest of the common man as the rich looks for a way to protect themselves and their properties. Man was never jealous  nor greedy in the state of nature. He needed few things to sustain himself and not to save for the future use. In our world today, does justice favor the common man? Why should one man get up and fence a free  gift of nature that was supposed to be enjoyed by all, as his personal property? The spirit and interest of brotherhood was no more since every man were busy acquiring his own. I shall highlights how man relate with his fellow and the free gift nature provided for all in the beginning.

TOWARDS A DELINEATION OF ROUSSEAU'S NOTION.

 In Rousseau's view, the most fundamental relationship of the human individual was with the society, though the original person lived in a state of nature which was pre-social and pre-political. In spite of his idealization of the state of nature, there was no going back to it, and because of this an examination of what the human person was like in the state of nature, what had become of him as a result of the pernicious process of civil society and the nature of the ideal society, were important questions.

 J.J Rousseau, noted the wide differences that existed between the civilized and the natural person.

Rousseau disagreed with Thomas Hobbes, that the state of nature was a state of conflict, strife and war. On the contrary, the state of nature was, according to Rousseau, a state of innocence and peace. Conflict, strife, war, etc. Came with the formation of Political Society. Prior to the advent of political society (in the state of nature) man was good, peaceful and happy.

He knew no evil and did no harm to anybody. He was at peace with both nature and his fellow men. Man was not greedy, not aggressive, and not violent as Thomas Hobbes describes him. Man needed very few things and was happy.

There was no private ownership of things. This peaceful and happy state of affairs was however disturbed when one man got up one day and claim a piece of land as his own private property. Unfortunately nobody challenged him. He was allowed to claim for himself what nature has provided for everybody. Others seeing that he was allowed to get away with it, followed his example and also laid claim to certain things as their own.

This was followed by scramble, ruthless struggle, strife, competition and fight as each person tried to acquire as much property for himself as he could. The strong and powerful ones amassed a lot of wealth for themselves at the expense of the weak that became poor. This was the origin of inequality among men. While some became excessively rich, others became poor.

 When the poor saw that the rich had deprived them of their fair share in the goods which nature had provided all men, some decided to become slaves of the rich in order to survive. But others refused to become slaves and decided instead to plunder them, and take back some of their excessive wealth which they had greedily acquired.

When the rich saw that their lives and properties were no longer safe, they came up with the idea of forming a Political Society with laws and law enforcement agents, to protect them and their property from the attack of the poor. This was the origin of Political Society and Morality. For it was the origin of the notion of right and wrong, justice and injustice.

CONCLUSION.

  Rousseau contends that political society was a clever devise by the rich to protect themselves and their property from the attack of the poor. Political Society was thus, set up to Carter for the interest of the rich, not that of the poor.

Man's natural liberty which he enjoyed in the State of Nature was lost. Inequality and injustice were given official sanction and protected by law. The advent of Political Society, Rousseau says, bound new fetters on the poor and gave new powers to the rich, irretrievably destroyed inatural liberty, fixed externally the law of property and inequality, converted clever usurpation into unalterable right, and for the advantage of a few ambitious individuals, subjected all mankind to perpetual labor, slavery and wretchedness.

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