On Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Theory Of Alienation Of Human Nature

Jean-Jacques Rousseau(1712-1778) was one of the most radical ideologist in 18th the Age of Enlightenment, pioneer in French Revolution and the illumination in the thoughts of alienation. In contrast to Voltaire, Diderot and many other enlightening thinkers who triumph for the advancement of reason and civilization, Rousseau incisively noticed the contradictory between nation and civilization. He disclosed the alienation of human beings in civilized society, the preposterous attitude of the impurity and decline of human nature.In virtue of his prerequisite logic natural state, Rousseau put forward the theory of human nature that is the goodness of human nature. He also thought that under this natural state, human can have both self-respect and compassion for others, they can corporate under this state which has not been formed into a socialized connection. Moreover, human enjoy equal status, they can lead a free and happy life. While with the development of human’s self-improvement and the emergence of private ownership, their state was evolved from natural into socialized one. Their eagerness for equality and freedom was following disappeared, and was substituted by dependence, jealous, prejudice, doubt, enslavement and so on. It results in the human’s shift from freedom to bondage, from equality to inequality. The more human society advanced, the deeper human’s alienation would be.In his many works, Rousseau depicted the performance of alienation of human nature, and then deeply analyses the causes of human nature alienation are self-perfection ability, rational egotism, imbalance of person’s ability and desire,the generation private ownership; Finally the society hope to enforce natural education, sign social contract, and appeal for conscience to overcome alienation. Although Rousseau’s alienation thoughts was the production of the specific historical era, his solutions to solve alienation are hardly avoid theory flaw, and carry with Utopian concept, and thus cannot be directly copied to solve the present alienation. But In large part, his human nature alienation can also provide reference for us.