Philosophy of Rouseau and Lord of the Flies by William Golding
666 Words3 Pages
Living in modern societies, it can be difficult to decipher what person would be like in a natural state; without civilizations, rules, and punishments for misbehavior. Does society corrupt our morals or does it keep us civil? The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed that people are inherently good. Without civilizations, humans are good beings with empathy, kindness, and well-developed morals. However, he believed that societies corrupt our morals and are what make the change in us to become “evil” or “bad”. The author of the novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding, however, believed that in a primitive environment, humans are evil. Without a society watching over us, humans will become barbaric brutes. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (born 1712) was a philosopher whose beliefs were that humans, in a natural, primitive state without the influence of any societies, are good beings. People’s “uncorrupted morals” are not washed away when they are without societies. Rousseau also believed that a society is what corrupts a human. He believed “ownership” of land or property is a lie, because the products of Earth are for all humans to share, saying: The first man who, having fenced in a piece of land, said "This is mine," and found people naïve enough to believe him, that man was the true founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up