Episode 23: Rousseau: Human Nature vs. Culture

Discussing Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Discourse in Inequality and book 1 of The Social Contract. What’s the relationship between culture and nature? Are savages really slavering beasts of unquenchable appetites, or probably more mellow, hangin’ about, flexin’ their muscles, just chillin’, eh? Rousseau engages in some wild speculation about the development of humanity from the savage to Read more...