William Golding and Jean-Jacques Rousseau had different views on humanity/society. Although they didn’t live in the same time period, their views have been compared to one another. William Golding’s views on humanity which were reflected in the book, “Lord of the Flies”, stated that all humans are naturally selfish, rude and greedy. Rousseau believed that all humans are naturally good and it was society that corrupted them. I agree more with Rousseau’s argument about human beings being naturally good.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a French philosopher; he lived during the expressionist time period, where new ideas were being suggested and accepted. He was raised by his dad mostly, and little bit by his aunt and uncle. His mom died just a couple days after he was born. He had five children and they all ended up going to orphanages right after they were born.(Sparknotes) He believed that all humans are born naturally good and society is what contaminates their personality. Rousseau believed in order for the society to be naturally good then there must be freedom for everyone. He states how “unnatural” inequality is; he doesn’t like how some men will be able to do something just by their appearance and other men will not be able to participate in the event.
William Golding has a whole different idea on humanity. He strongly believes that all people are born naturally evil and society is the thing that shapes them to be kind to each other. Compared to Rousseau, Golding is more
Jean- Jacques Rousseau was born on June 28, 1712, in Switzerland. The European philosopher wrote a book called A Discourse on the Arts and Sciences. His belief is that society is corrupted by evil and that man is good in his “state of nature” (Notes). He believed that man are naturally good and if we let them act on their own instinct, that they will act their true nature. He claims that politics are evil and corrupt the society with their systems.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a philosopher, writer, and composer born in 1712 who believed in that a government should be run by the people and citizens , who are equals, and not a small group of the powerful and rich. He has many qualities; including being optimistic, idealistic, talented, creative, and faithful. Rousseau is an optimist and is positive because he believes that humans are inherently good and that they will work together and make the best decisions for everybody and how communities should operate. On the other hand, Rousseau could be considered Idealistic because of his views. The philosophy that people are naturally good and will work together to make the right decisions can be considered very unrealistic and a romanticized
William Golding and Jean Jacques Rousseau had very different points of view on society. Golding thought what all humans are born evil and that is what makes society horrible. Rousseau things the complete difference he thinks that all humans are born pure, nice, and innocent and that society is what corrupts humans. I agree with Rousseau because I don’t believe that all humans are born evil. This topic about these different views on society is what the book Lord of the Flies is about. The book written by Golding shows a bit of Rousseau’s view and a lot of his view on society.
Later social philosophe, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, believed that people are naturally good, but due to society, they become bad. In later years, Rousseau put all of his ideas and thoughts into The Social Contract. In this work, Rousseau states that society and government limit people’s behavior too much that in the end it creates a negative. He believed that people need some rules to act as guidelines and such, and that these rules should only be passed by freely elected governments to enable everyone’s
William Golding utilizes Lord of the Flies to prove that the inherent nature of man is truly savage and cannot be contained by any form of civil government. Characters, setting, atmosphere, and other elements are all used by Golding in the novel as metaphors and symbols to ultimately reveal the natural intention of man. In Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan, John Locke’s Concerning Civil Government , and Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s The Social Contract, they share their own personal interpretations on man’s inherent nature, with the closest to Golding being Hobbes. Although both Golding and Hobbes state that man’s true nature is evil and selfish, Hobbes advocates for an absolutist government as capable of controlling man through fear of punishment, as opposed to Golding’s belief that no form of government is sufficient to control man. Conversely, Rousseau argues that men are born with morality and inalienable freedom, and John Locke believes that man is free but is neither inherently reputable nor immoral but a blank slate. Both want the people to be in control to prevent corruption from changing man, although Rousseau insists that a direct democracy to completely give power to the people would be more effective rather than only a representative democracy where the people would have individuals represent them which Locke suggests.
Throughout "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding, the theme of dissent starts to become prevalent as the life progresses on the island due to constant disagreement and undesirable situations. Similarly, dissent has also played a large role in my life, most notably at my time at school as well as my experiences in my neighborhood. From these experiences, I learned that dissenting from society's expectations allows you to become unique and gain a societal voice, eventually leading in the creation of internal and external reform.
Rousseau thought that man was born weak and ignorant, but virtuous. It is only when man became sociable that they became wicked. (Cress, 80) Since civil society makes men corrupt, Rousseau advocated “general will”, more precisely the combined wills of each person, to decide public affairs. General will would become the sovereign and thus it would be impossible for its interests to conflict with the priorities of the citizens, since this would be doing harm to itself. Virtue came from the freedom of men to make decisions for the good of the
After World War II countries were in shambles, overran with fear that was fueled by the abundance of hate and violence that stemmed from Germany. The plentiful amounts of evil William Golding was witnessing drove him to write Lord of the Flies. Form this, we can conclude that aspects of his story are an allegory to what Golding observed throughout the war. In his story, William Golding expresses the importance of a civilization’s nature to be ethically correct and explains that without the precise guidance, the natural savageness of humans can prevent society from thriving. Golding’s statement is correct because without society’s moral compass humans would revert to their savage nature, pray on the weak, and would be driven toward aggression.
Two philosophers of different eras tackle the same topic, human nature, and a great argument breaks out. Is man inherently evil, like William Golding believes? Or is man good at heart but inevitably becomes corrupted by the society he lives in, as said by Jean Jacques Rousseau? Both philosophers have very strong opinions and well reasoning for what they believe. Golding’s views are displayed well throughout his novel, Lord of the Flies; a tale about strong minded, young boys stranded on an island who must find a way to survive on their own. After reading this novel, I found myself agreeing much with Rousseau’s views on human nature.
4. '84: Compare and contrast the views of Machiavelli and Rousseau on human nature and
The book, Lord of the Flies shows William Golding’s beliefs with description and symbolism, William Golding believed that man was naturally selfish and wants to protect himself more than anyone else and because of this, man is at constant war with other men. His quote “The world, that is understandable and lawful world, was slipping away” (William Golding, Lord of the Flies, goodreads.com) means that if a person is away from society, he would not stay by the rules and go into anarchy by time and this contributes to his beliefs and it shows in his book. A major contributor to his beliefs is a English philosopher named John Hobbes which made the regulations that Golding stands by and makes up his beliefs.
In the novel “Lord of the Flies,” it can be argued that William Golding was trying to support an Enlightenment Philosopher. During the Enlightenment, there were three prominent philosophers named John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, and Jean Jacques Rousseau. The three philosophers revolved around common ideas, however each philosopher had different opinions on these ideas. Some ideas included the Virtual Natural Government, State of War, and Political Societies. However, out of the three philosophers, there is a sufficient amount of evidence to show that William Golding was supporting John Locke in his novel.
In contrast, Rousseau had a generally positive view on human nature though a rather negative view on modern society. He proposed that humans had once been solitary beings and had learned to be political. He believed that human nature was not fixed and was subject to changed. Likewise, he believed that man was good when in a state of nature, but was corrupted by society as shown in his quotation, "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.” Also differentiating himself from other humanists, Rousseau taught that the sciences and the arts were not beneficial to man. Rousseau believed the general will must always be right and to obey the general will is to be free.
This then lead to some jobs being looked at as more honorable or important than others. From this people began to develop social classes and that eventually leads to oppression and inequality.
On the other hand, Rousseau is of the idea that human beings are good in nature but they are latter to be vitiated by the political societies which are not part of the man’s natural state. Men need to live in collaboration and help each other to face life challenges. However, with the establishment of political and social institutions, men begin to experience inequalities as a result of greed. Rousseau claims that, in man’s natural state, they only strive for the basic needs and once those needs are satisfied they are contented in that state (Hobbes & Malcolm, 2012). Additionally, Rousseau points out that after the inception of social and political institutions, humans began to be self-centered