ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author offers an account of the sources of Rousseau’s portrait of natural man, which he want to claim find their basis in his conception of human subjectivity. In Rousseau’s philosophical anthropology then, the causes of our present condition lie in the course of our species’ evolution from nature to culture. Jean Starobinski has suggested that Rousseau’s portrait of natural man is the product of an “anthropologie negative”. Rousseau’s rejection of “conformation exterieure” as a reason for denying the humanity of orang-outangs follows G-L. Buffon’s argument in De l’homme that climate and environment profoundly effect the physical appearance of human beings. But since the essence of humanity has to do with the character of our soul rather than physical construction, differences of appearance are simply beside the point in the question of the humanity of apes. The “Ape Debates” were really about what, if anything, differentiated humans from higher order animals like apes.
