Rousseau on the Social Contract and the Equality of Man

<Tab/>Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in his essay concerning the origins of the inequality of man, has a view of natural man and civil man that is markedly different than previous thinkers like Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. Rousseau sees natural man as free, self-sufficient and compassionate while Hobbes and Locke see man as mostly self-interested. This understanding of natural man is integral to Rousseau's view of civil society.
<Tab/>Hobbes states that the life of man in nature is nasty, brutish and short. Rousseau clearly sees the opposite as his natural man has a…