ABSTRACT

This chapter shows that the faculty of perfectibilite constitutes a unifying concept in the entire body of Rousseau’s thought. The problem of language origin reveals a problem in Rousseau’s account of the species’ evolution from nature to culture. Social life presupposes at least a minimal degree of language and rationality. Rousseau’s solution to intractable paradox lies in his account of our nature in the original condition of humanity, which is to say, in what he names as our distinctively human characteristics. Insofar as original nature represents a standpoint from which to analyze and judge social life critically, it must entail some human characteristics. The possibility of improvement remains a constant feature of human nature, and so provides the basis for a recovery of original nature within the context of social life. In Rousseau’s description of the species’ passage from nature to society then, there is a sense in which the species’ development occurs in spite of itself.