Jean-Jacques Rousseau, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
The state of nature is not a place one can visit, nor a period of history one can date. It is a hypothetical reconstruction — a method of stripping away everything that history, convention, and accumulated habit have layered over the human animal, in order to see what remains when those layers are gone. What remains, I argued in the Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality, is not the snarling predator Hobbes imagined.
The natural man is peaceful and fearful; at the slightest danger, his first motion is to flee.1 He has not yet learned to be a soldier, because he has not yet become a citizen.1 The Hobbesian war of all against all is a fantasy that collapses under its own logic: a conqueror who has killed everyone enjoys nothing from the very fact that he would have everything.2
What would wealth be for, with no one to witness it?2 The desire to appropriate everything is simply incompatible with the desire to destroy everyone; and so the universal war Hobbes dares to trace never existed.2 Two things characterize the natural human being above all others. The first is amour de soi — the care for one's own preservation, which is the first and strongest of all natural impulses, and to which all other natural duties remain subordinate.3
There is nothing malicious in it; it is simply the animal attending to itself. The second is pitié — pity, a disposition appropriate to beings as weak and subject to as many ills as we are, a virtue so natural that even the beasts give perceptible signs of it.4 It is pity that moderates amour de soi, that carries us without reflection to the aid of those we see suffer, that in the state of nature takes the place of laws, morals, and virtue — with the advantage that no one is tempted to disobey its gentle voice.5
The savage does not stop to reason about whether he should help; he simply helps, heedlessly yielding to the first feeling of humanity.6 Here is the crucial point: savages are not evil precisely because they do not know what it is to be good.7 It is neither the growth of enlightenment nor the restraint of law, but the calm of the passions and the ignorance of vice that prevent them from doing evil.7
They have no notion of thine and mine, no genuine idea of justice, no vanity, no consideration, no esteem, no contempt — and therefore no motive for the kind of sustained malice that civilization produces so abundantly.8 This is why I concluded, against all the sophisms of the reasoners, that the pure state of nature is the one above all others where men would be the least wicked, the happiest, and the most numerous on earth.9
The noble words of society — justice, laws, mutual defense, philosophy, progress of reason — are too often lures invented by clever political thinkers to deceive the simple-minded.9 That is the diagnosis. The point is not that we should return to the forest; the point is that we should understand what we lost, and what we corrupted, in leaving it.
Man is naturally peaceful and fearful, at the slightest danger his first motion is to flee; he hardens himself only as a result of habit and experience. It is only after having made a society with some man that he decides to attack another one; and he does not become a soldier until after having become a citizen.Plan for Perpetual Peace and Government of Poland, pp. 64–65
This unbridled desire to appropriate everything for oneself is incompatible with that of destroying all one's fellows; and the victor, who—having killed everyone—had the misfortune of remaining alone in the world, would enjoy nothing from the very fact that he would have everything.Plan for Perpetual Peace and Government of Poland, pp. 64–65
the duties of man in the state of nature are always subordinate to the care of his own preservation, which is the first and strongest of all.Social Contract and Political Writings, pp. 51–52
I speak of Pity, a disposition that is appropriate to beings as weak and subject to as many ills as we are; a virtue all the more universal and useful to man because it precedes in him the use of all reflection; and so Natural that even Beasts sometimes give perceptible signs of it.Discourse on the Origins of Inequality, pp. 67–68
It is very certain, therefore, that pity is a natural feeling which, moderating in each individual the activity of love of oneself, contributes to the mutual preservation of the entire species. It carries us without reflection to the aid of those whom we see suffer; in the state of Nature, it takes the place of Laws, morals, and virtue, with the advantage that no one is tempted to disobey its gentle voice.Discourse on the Origins of Inequality, pp. 69–70
Savage man does not have this admirable talent, and for want of wisdom and reason he is always seen heedlessly yielding to the first feeling of humanity.Discourse on the Origins of Inequality, pp. 69–70
one could say that Savages are not evil precisely because they do not know what it is to be good; for it is neither the growth of enlightenment nor the restraint of Law, but the calm of passions and the ignorance of vice which prevent them from doing evil.Discourse on the Origins of Inequality, pp. 67–68
since they consequently knew neither vanity, nor consideration, nor esteem, nor contempt; since they did not have the slightest notion of thine and mine, nor any genuine idea of justice.Discourse on the Origins of Inequality, pp. 69–70
the pure state of nature is the one above all others where men would be the least wicked, the happiest, and the most numerous on earth... all the noble words of society, justice, laws, mutual defense, assistance to the weak, philosophy, and progress of reason, are only lures invented by clever political thinkers or cowardly flatterers in order to deceive the simple-minded.Social Contract and Political Writings, pp. 51–52