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What does Rousseau claim makes men moral, according to Aristotle's perspective?

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Rousseau, contrasting with Enlightenment thinkers, believed that humans are inherently moral in their natural state, untainted by society. He argued that civilization corrupts this innate goodness, as seen in his Discourse on the Arts and Sciences, where he claims that intellectual advancement leads to moral decline. According to Rousseau, morality stems from natural goodness and the freedom to act according to the "general will," allowing individuals to choose kindness and conscience over societal corruption.

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Although Rousseau is chronologically placed in the Enlightenment, his views on morality are quite different from those of most Enlightenment thinkers, who believed in civilization and progress. Rousseau thought that man in the state of nature was good and that it was civilized society that had corrupted him. What makes men moral, therefore, according to Rousseau, is their essentially noble nature. Whenever and wherever this nature has not been corrupted by society, they will behave morally.

Rousseau lays out his claim clearly in his first major work, the Discourse on the Arts and Sciences. He claims to be defending virtue and makes the claim that as civilizations become more intellectually sophisticated, morality inevitably declines. Rousseau regards all the skills and attributes that mark an advanced civilization as arising from the pursuit of vice, remarking,

Astronomy was born from superstition; eloquence from ambition, hate, flattery, and falsehood; geometry from avarice,...

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physics from vain curiosity; all, even moral philosophy, from human pride.

Thus, all knowledge, even the knowledge that arises from enquiry into the causes of virtue, has a corrupting influence, and human beings are moral only insofar as they adhere to the state of nature.

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What does Rousseau claim makes humans moral?

Rousseau believed in the concept of natural goodness. In his Discourse on the Arts and Sciences, he argues that humans are born in harmony with nature. They're "pre-moral" and aren't concerned with the concepts of right and wrong. In and by nature, they're equally good and virtuous, and the only thing they care about is satisfying their needs and pursing happiness.

Rousseau also values freedom and equality and claims that the ability to act with kindness, conscience, rationality, and compassion is a choice that humans can make—they can choose to go against their instincts and act with pity and self-preservation, which exist before reason. This, however, is a double-edged sword, as a person can also choose to ignore their natural goodness or to go against it and act out of self-interest and pride, as society corrupts the natural virtue and nobility of people.

Thus, morality, in this context, contributes both to civilizational development and civilizational decline, as a person's free will is endangered once they enter society. For this reason, Rousseau presents The Social Contract, in which he explains that people live in a society that has established moral laws and rules of behavior. The only way a person can be independent and exercise their free, individual will is by following the "general will." A moral person, therefore, is one who is naturally good and has the freedom to act in accordance of the general will in order to live morally by individual choice.

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