Answer :
D. He looked to the Classical past for truth
While Rousseau did study the past in his pursuit of truth, he looked at man in his natural state (i.e pre-civilization). Rousseau's Discourse on Inequality is his foray into the evolution of man from his natural state into what the man of Rousseau's time. Rousseau described uncivilized man as a "noble savage". Critics argue that Rousseau was idealizing man in an uncivilized state and advocating for a return to this. What he likely meant was that man is naturally moral (driven by the well- balanced instincts of piety and survival) and that it is society that corrupts man. Classical philosophy and art is part of the society that Rousseau criticizes. In his Discourse on the Arts and Sciences he provides the link between the fall of the Roman empire and the peak of the Roman arts as an example of the detrimental effect arts (and that which was celebrated during the classical Greek and Roman periods as the best kind of human activity) has on man's natural sense of decency and morality.
While Rousseau did study the past in his pursuit of truth, he looked at man in his natural state (i.e pre-civilization). Rousseau's Discourse on Inequality is his foray into the evolution of man from his natural state into what the man of Rousseau's time. Rousseau described uncivilized man as a "noble savage". Critics argue that Rousseau was idealizing man in an uncivilized state and advocating for a return to this. What he likely meant was that man is naturally moral (driven by the well- balanced instincts of piety and survival) and that it is society that corrupts man. Classical philosophy and art is part of the society that Rousseau criticizes. In his Discourse on the Arts and Sciences he provides the link between the fall of the Roman empire and the peak of the Roman arts as an example of the detrimental effect arts (and that which was celebrated during the classical Greek and Roman periods as the best kind of human activity) has on man's natural sense of decency and morality.
