Rousseau and the Concept of Tastes

“Rousseau insists that the key to strength and happiness is to limit one’s needs and desires, so that they can easily be met. But this is an implausible ideal, because it threatens to lead to laziness, or even to the impoverishing of a person’s life, rather than encouraging people to develop themselves fully, and make great achievements.” This objection which states that Rousseau insists upon the limiting of one’s needs so that …

…is generally agreeable is independent of opinion. And so, good taste is independent of opinion: “One has pleasure when one wants to have it. It is only opinion that makes everything difficult and drives happiness away from us” (p.354). Rousseau has now placed man with in a society, yet continues to insist that our ability to achieve happiness is contingent upon ignoring the corruptive force of society. We should instead reunite with our natural state.