Rousseau and the Noble Savage.

The romantics believed that the best way to find out what humans are really like is to study the total person, not just his or her rational powers or empirically designed ideas. They believed that the emotions, instincts, and intuitions of that person were important. These philosophers emphasized that humans have a variety of these emotions and not one is the same as the other. Rousseau believed that humans were born good, but were made bad by a controlling society. He claimed that one were to find a noble savage who was not contained by society, that this human’s behavior would consists of his or her natural feelings not by the task needing to be done. These natural feelings would be feelings or harmony and goodness. Rousseau believed that humans were social animals who wanted to live in harmony, freedom and happiness, doing what is best for them and others.

To me, Rousseau portrays a thought of the fall and redemption with his idea of the noble savage. He explains how humans are born of good intentions yet fall when absorbed into the social by standards of the world. His idea that “if humans were permitted to develop freely, they would become happy, fulfilled, and socially minded.” This reminds me of redemption, his belief that human are able to go back to that state of goodness if we can change what controls us. This relates to our modern culture. For example, even with myself, I reflect what I want in life and I want to be happy, to live in harmony with others. Due to the influence of social standards, I do more of what is accepted rather than pushing those boundaries and just loving people and following my feelings. Because of all that we must get done in one week and how much a time limit has control over us, we do less for the important people in our lives and we cannot seem to fulfill what is most meaningful to us. I guess I can relate more of the fall in this idea.