Today's broadcast, and more about Rousseau

Today's broadcast, Good and Company, is now available immediately for download or steaming directly on my website:

The Pious Paradox Program

In this broadcast, I reference Jean-Jacques Rousseau and his natural state of being. Whenever you reference an author, it's good to put in the margins or footnotes important information because it's far too easy to summarize or paraphrase important work. So here are the important notes about Rousseau that I did not include in the text of my broadcast:

• Jean-Jacques was born in Switzerland, so was not a French philosopher, even though he is often categorized as such. He worked for a time for the French government, had close ties in Paris, and was buried with honor in the Paris Pantheon which also houses Voltaire. This was a common oversight because his contributions to French culture were so strong.
• Rousseau wrote that people were essentially good, and that it was the involvement of others, particularly the judgment of others, that corrupts them. I'll go into this a bit more in a following broadcast.
• Rousseau's state of nature is introduced in Chapter 4, Book 1 of The Social Contract but this book only describes how the progress of society has corrupted people, and not how to solve the problem, very clearly writing that the original state of nature cannot exist now that humans live in large societies.
• His solution to the evils of society is education. In Emile, or On Education, he describes how a young boy, Emile, could resist the corrupting influence of others as he pursues prosperity and happiness in a larger society. His enduring theme is that education is the only reasonable way, and to do otherwise is to foster a society of evil.

While I do not agree with Rousseau that people are essentially good, I do think that the presence of others creates the moral dynamic, which is a logical conclusion drawn from his critique of social systems. Envy and spite do not exist in the individual; these are sentiments of a social nature. Therefore, I conclude that good and evil are not inherent qualities of an individual, but of individuals in relation to each other.

- F. F. White