As far as the history of Europe is concerned, the theory of the good savage proposed by Jean-Jacques Rousseau is one of the pieces of political philosophy that have most influenced not only our conception of what politics should be, but also what we believe to be “natural” and “artificial” and the implications that this distinction has on our lives.

We will now review the concept of “good savage” that Rousseau used in his writings. But let’s start with the basics.

Who was Jean-Jacques Rousseau?

In mid-18th century Europe, the scientific and intellectual movement known as the Enlightenment had already begun to undermine the power that religion had held in explaining the nature of human beings. The Christian dogmas that appeared in the Bible or in its more or less arbitrary interpretations were no longer justified by themselves; it was necessary to base knowledge on empirical observations .

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was one of the great representatives of the Enlightenment. Born in 1712 in Geneva, he had a busy youth . His mother was born before he was one year old, and his father abandoned him soon after, so he was looked after by his uncle. At the age of sixteen he ran away from home and ended up first in France and then in Venice. His intention during those years was to make a name for himself as a musician.

In 1740, Rousseau met Jean d’Alembert and Denis Diderot, two encyclopaedists (in charge of creating the first encyclopaedias in history), and as a result of their influence he began to take an interest in philosophy. His ideas were transgressive even in the age of the Enlightenment, among other things because, as we shall see, Rousseau was very critical of the idea of progress made through scientific and technological improvement.

Rousseau’s texts had a great impact on the political and social sphere, but the polemics they aroused were also intense . That is why he was moving from one country to another because of the expulsions he suffered. For a while he was living in England under the refuge of David Hume, but even this refuge did not last long, as the two philosophers argued and the Swiss had to return to France under a false name (he was not allowed to be in the country). After several years the authorities allowed him to stay in Paris, where he died in 1778.

Rousseau’s theory of the good savage

These are the main theoretical foundations of the theory of the good savage.

1. Policy is the management of authority and force

Rousseau, like many other political philosophers of her generation, attached great importance to the concept of the “social contract”. The social contract is the hypothetical agreement between citizens and power holders that makes states possible and has a stable structure .

For Rousseau, then, both the existence of the state and of politics imply that there are certain people who force the rest to behave in a way that is, in principle, in the interests of the majority.

2. Private property generates violence

The existence of private property means that the State must create mechanisms to protect it. And as this mission is one of the great pillars of society, when creating laws the perspective of those who have more property is adopted . That is, the rich. This, of course, implies that the interests of a minority are imposed on those of the majority, who have less property per head. Citizens only exist as long as they have private property.

3. Systemic violence in society

As it is complicated to know what is done for the good of the majority and what is not, on the one hand, and on the other hand, one cannot ask for responsibility for everything that the State does, corruption and injustices are frequent . Moreover, these injustices are not only perpetrated by the powers that be towards civilians: the existence of economic and democratic deficiencies generates a chain effect, which is why violence among citizens is also common.

Thus, for civilization and states to exist, there must be a certain degree of injustice and violence, given that there is a decompensation between people who dominate others and others who are dominated, by not taking advantage of the mechanisms of oppression that society already offers even before we are born . Laws cause the dynamics of relationships between people who are unjust to appear.

4. Man is born free, but lives in chains

From the above, Rousseau concludes that we come into the world with a good predisposition to morally good behavior, but that society corrupts us to force us to participate in its game.

5. The concept of the good savage

It should be noted that for Rousseau the idea of “good savage” does not refer to a type of human being that necessarily existed at some remote time in our history, nor does it perfectly define tribal behaviour. It is a hypothetical assumption, something that serves to understand the nature of the State, and not to know how we lived before.