A perfectibilidade segundo Rousseau

Abstract

The man in the pure state of nature begins his existence “with purely animal functions”. In the first part of his Discourse on Inequality, as a matter of fact, Rousseau's effort consists in almost “animalizing” the human being, making him incapable of performing certain types of operations that the social or socialized man (endowed with an already developed mental apparatus) can do. However, although animalized, man maintains his own dignity and unique nature. The author never reduces the human behaviour to the animal. The aim of this article is to investigate the character of such a unique nature and to show that, against some interpreters, perfectibility (a sign of human distinction) already acts in the pure state of nature. In this sense, we cannot consider it as mere virtuality or as a potential faculty.