The State of Nature

The nature of man compels him to seek an environment within which he can reach his optimum level of happiness. Many men throughout history have conceptualized the idyllic society, the utopia, within which mankind lives in peace and contentment, thus fulfilling this desire. Some, such as Thomas More in his Utopia, have seen it necessarily as an artificial construction, built upon a system of law ensuring the rights of and providing for the individual. Others, such as Ovid in his vision of the Golden Age, and more radically Rousseau in his Discourse on the Origins of Inequality, emphasize the uncorrupted man, living before complex society frustrated his existence in harmony with nature. But rather than propose a "retire[ment] to the woods, " Rousseau went on to write The Social Contract, recognizing that if man is to reclaim his past happiness it needs to be through a system of government which ensures that happiness.…