A Discourse on Inequality, Rousseau
...ill continues to speak when nature is silent” (Rousseau 87). His instinct is gone. He can no longer choose but from reason. God punishes man never allowing him to eat from the tree again (Genesis 1:17) and also says to him, “for dust you are and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 1:19). The consequence has succeeded man’s choice to obtain “free will” or “become as gods.” The result is loss of his natural instinct or innocence never to be gained back. The power of trust is the another power that man is forced to reckon with. Trust can be viewed as a positive power when it is used as intended, trusting nature or God. God promises Abram an heir or child from his own sperm though he being quite old (Genesis 15:4). Sarai suggests to him that “the Lord has kept [her] from bearing children” (Genesis 16:2) because she is so old and that his offspring come from Hagar, her servant. Abram, electing not to trust God, realizes that “it is impossible to conceive of the idea of property arising from anything other than manual labour, for one cannot see what besides his own labour a man can add things he has not actually made in order to appropriate them” (Rousseau 118). It is irrational for Abram to think that he can have a baby through Sarai who has been barren her whole life and is also past the point of propensity for child bearing for the average woman. Abram and Hagar conceive a child; trust has fallen by the wayside. Instead of trusting, man has, in this situation, used his own reasoning and rationalization bringing about ill fate. This fate could’ve been avoided “if only [he] had adhered to the simple, unchanging and solitary way of life that nature ordained for him” (Rousseau 85). Because he did not adhere, Hagar bore to Abraham Ishmael who was to be a “wild ass of a man—his hand against all, the hand of all against him, he will encamp in despite of all his kin” (Genesis 16:12). Now, Abraham had opposition against his descendants who were to be as numerous as the stars (Genesis 15:5) since he had not chosen the path of trust. This was the consequence of his neglecting to use the power of trust. Conversely, man is given the power of trust to grapple with in another instance and, in this predicament, uses that power for it’s intended purpose. As a result, he is rewarded and avoids degeneration. “God tested Abraham” (Genesis 22:1) to see if he would trust after a failed previous attempt. God said, “Take, pray, your, son, your only one, whom you love, Isaac, and go forth to the land of Moriah and offer him up as a burnt offering” (Genesis 22:2). Man is given, here, another choice in whether to live by intended. Though offering up one’s only son may seem rather irrational, Abraham realizes “the man who least resists the impulses of nature [is] virtuous” (Rousseau 98). A man prospers when he trusts in the righteous, not in was otherwise to be gained. As a result of not looking to gain for selfish purposes, man finds himself indeed gaining. Though the Pharaoh’s wife pleaded daily with him to lay down with her, Joseph decides to trust God instead even though it cost him a prison sentence (Genesis 39:7, 9, 14-15). Joseph, though, gains from this experience as he is eventually established as overseer by the king over Egypt (Genesis 41:39-40). Not knowing of the gain proves to be what allows man to trust for guidance and direction finding out, as Justin in Histories points out: “So far has ignorance of vice been more advantageous to the Scythians than knowledge of virtue to the Greeks” (Rousseau 99). Man must trust in ignorance because that lack of knowledge give him no other choice; however, trust is the choice that is to his greatest benefit. The last form of power to be discussed is that of pride. Man has utilized this rather contemptuous power to set himself apart from all others. The first man who said “’This is mine’ and found people simple enough to believe him” (Rousseau 109) is t...