Chapter 6 Part 1 - 1

first part In order to correctly judge the natural state of human beings, it is necessary to observe human beings from the origin of human beings, that is to say, it is necessary to study human beings from the initial embryonic stage of human beings.Although this is an important method, I do not want to explore the constitution of man through his continuous development.It is not my intention, therefore, to examine how, in the animal system, man came from what he was first to what he is now.I don't want to study whether, as Aristotle thought, the long fingernails of today's people were originally just curved claws; Since a person walks on four legs, his eyes are always fixed on the ground, and he can only see a few steps away, thus determining the nature of his ideas and at the same time determining the scope of his ideas.On these questions I can only make general conjectures which almost border on the imagination.Comparative anatomy has not yet made much progress, and the observations of naturalists have not been sufficiently precise to base a sound theory upon them.Thus, if I do not resort to supernatural knowledge in the subject, and pay attention to the changes which must necessarily occur in the internal and external constitution of man as he puts his limbs to new uses and eats new food, I shall presume Since primitive times, man's structure has been the same as what I see today: he walks on two legs, uses his hands to do things like us, gazes at the whole nature, and observes the vast and boundless sky with his eyes.

If a being so constituted were stripped of all supernatural gifts to which he could be endowed, all artificial faculties which he could have acquired only by long progress, that is to say, if we only Then I can see that man is an animal which is not as strong as some, nor as quick as others, but which is, on the whole, more perfect in constitution than all.I saw him feasting under an oak, drinking in any ditch he came across, finding a place to sleep under the tree that provided him, and his needs were fully satisfied. If the naturally fertile earth[4] existed in its original state, and the boundless forests covering it had not been felled by any axe, such earth would everywhere provide food stores and refuges for animals of all kinds.Man, scattered among the various animals, observed and imitated their tricks, and thus gradually acquired brutish instincts.In addition, man has another advantage: all kinds of animals have only their own inherent instincts. Humans may not have any inherent instincts, but they can gradually acquire the instincts of various animals. Most of the various food materials can also be used as human food (5), so it is easier for human beings to find food than any other animal.

Because people are used to the abnormal climate and the severe heat and cold of the seasons from childhood, because they have acquired the habit of endurance in the exercise of daily life, and at the same time they have to fight naked and with bare hands in order to defend their lives and prey. To fight other beasts of prey, or to escape from them by having to flee quickly, man develops a strong constitution which is almost incorruptible.The child from birth inherits the good constitution of his parents, and strengthens it by the same exercises with which he was formed, and thus acquires all the vigor which is possible to man.Nature dealt with them as the laws of Sparta dealt with the children of citizens, making those who were born healthy into strong men, and killing the rest.This is in contrast to our society, where the state makes young children a burden to their parents, and thus kills them before they are born, regardless of their merits.

The body of the savage is the only tool he knows himself, and he uses it for various purposes, which we are no longer able to use our bodies as he did, for want of exercise.Because we have skill, we have lost that physical strength and agility which the savage has developed by practical necessity.If he already had an axe, would he still be able to break such a thick branch with his wrist?Had he already had a sling, could he have thrown stones with his hands so forcefully?If he already had a ladder, could he still climb trees so lightly?If he already had a horse, could he still run so fast?If a civilized man has had time enough to gather all these tools at his side, he will undoubtedly overcome the savage with ease.But if you set your mind to watch a less even battle, in which these two kinds of men confront each other naked and bare-handed, you will at once admit that the man with all the power at his disposal and always ready to meet any accident , It can also be said that the person who has everything from beginning to end has such an advantage (6).

Hobbes believed that humans are naturally bold and only want to attack and fight.On the contrary, another eminent philosopher thought (as Cumberland and Pufendorf asserted) that there is nothing more cowardly than man in a state of nature, and when he heard Trembles at the slightest sound or sight and prepares to run away.This may be true of things unknown to him, and I have no doubt that when any novel vision comes before his eyes, he cannot tell whether it is beneficial or harmful to him. He would be intimidated when he could not compare his own strength with the danger he was about to run.But this kind of situation is rare after all in the state of nature.In a state of nature, all things go on in a monotonous manner, and the sudden and continuous changes brought about by the passions and capricious actions of the populace are not easily produced on the earth.However, the savages who live scattered among wild animals have fought with wild animals very early.He therefore soon compared himself with the beast, and when he gradually felt that he excelled the beast in cunning far more than the beast surpassed him in strength, he knew that he need not fear the beast any more.Let a bear or a wolf fight a stout, swift, brave (all savages are) armed with stones and clubs, and you will see that at least there is life on both sides. It is dangerous, and after many experiments like this, beasts that have never liked to attack each other are not very willing to attack people, because they will finally find that people are as fierce as they are.As for animals, which indeed surpass man in strength, to the extent that man excels them in cunning, man is then in a similar position before them as other lesser animals, who Animals are not therefore unable to continue to live.Moreover, man has another advantage, that is, he is as agile as other animals when he runs, and he can find a fairly safe shelter in the trees. When he encounters wild animals, he can use it everywhere or leave this shelter at any time. , and thus can freely choose to escape or fight.Besides, no animal seems to be naturally inclined to fight with humans except in self-defense or when it is particularly hungry, and it never shows such strong antipathy towards humans. This antipathy seems to declare It is as if one species has been destined by nature to be food for another.

There are still more formidable enemies against which there is no proper defense, namely, natural defects of infirmity, old age, and various diseases.These are tragic symptoms of human weakness, the first two of which are common to all animals, and the last of which is chiefly that of man who lives in society.On the subject of infirmity, I have observed that among men the mother can carry her infant wherever she goes, and that she feeds it more than having to bear the fatigue of constant coming and going, looking for food, nursing or It is much more convenient for many female animals to feed their young.It is true that if the mother dies, the child is very likely to die with it, but this danger is common to innumerable other species of animals, because the young of these animals cannot for a long time find their own food; Although the period is longer, the lifespan is also longer. Therefore, on this point, humans are almost equal to other animals[7]. There are other rules, but this is not the problem I want to study.On the older side, their opportunities to move and sweat are reduced, and the need for food is reduced along with the ability to find food.Because of the savage life they led, they were protected from rheumatism and arthritis, and old age is the pain from which human beings are most powerless to relieve. Therefore, the old people finally passed away without a sound, and no one else would. Noticing the end of their lives, even they themselves are not aware of their own death.

With regard to disease, I will never repeat the superficial and absurd statements against medicine made by the majority of healthy people.But I ask whether there is some definite observation by which we may conclude that the average life span of men is shorter where medicine is most neglected than where it is most studied.How is that to be explained if we inflict more diseases on ourselves than medicine can provide us with?Great inequalities in mode of life, excessive leisure for some, overwork for others; easy arousal and satisfaction of appetite and libido; They suffer from indigestion; the food of the poor is not only poor, but so often scarce that they are gluttonous at every opportunity, and thus burden their stomachs; sleepless nights and excesses of every kind; the indulgence of every kind of passion. , physical fatigue and mental exhaustion; the innumerable troubles and pains felt by people under various circumstances, so that their hearts cannot find a moment of peace.All these are evidences of misfortune, enough to prove that most of the misfortunes of human beings are caused by human beings, and also prove that if we can always maintain the simple, simple and lonely way of life that nature has arranged for us, we can almost completely avoid To these misfortunes.If nature had ordained us to be healthy beings, I would almost venture to assert that the thinking state is one unnatural, and that the meditating man is a degenerate animal.When one thinks of the fine constitution of savages, at least those whose constitutions we have not yet corrupted with strong wine, when it is known that they know little of diseases but wounds and old age, we I have to believe that following the development history of civilized society, it is not difficult to make a history of human diseases.This, at least, was the opinion of Plato, who deduced from some of the medicines that Baudalier and Machaon used or approved of at the siege of Troy, that the various diseases caused by these medicines, It was not recognized by people at that time.Searles also said that diet therapy - so necessary for people these days - was invented by Hippocrates.

A man in a state of nature, with so few sources of disease, needs little medicine, and especially no physician.In this respect the condition of man is not inferior to that of other species of animals.It is not difficult for us to know from hunters whether they encounter many disabled animals when hunting.They had encountered not a few animals that had suffered severe wounds that were well scarred, and some had broken bones or even limbs, but their recovery was not due to the surgeon's treatment, but due to the passage of time, except for the usual Outside of life, there is no nursing care in life. At the same time, they have never suffered from the pain of surgery, the poison of drugs, and the torture of fasting, but their recovery is still intact.In short, however much good medicine may be of use to us, it may be asserted that sick savages, though left unattended, have nothing to hope for except in nature; To have nothing to fear but his own disease often makes the savage's condition better than ours.

We should, therefore, avoid confounding savages with those we have seen.Nature treats all those animals under her care with a preference which seems to express how much she values ​​her right to care for them.The horses, cats, bulls, and even donkeys in the forest generally have larger bodies, stronger constitutions, and more energy, strength, and courage than those kept in our homes.They lose most of these advantages as soon as they become domestic animals, and all the care with which we tend and rear them, so to speak, tends only to degenerate them.So man, when he becomes a man of society and a slave, becomes feeble, timid, servile; Exhausted.And the difference between savage and civilized man is necessarily greater than that between wild beast and domestic animal.Because although nature treats man and beast equally, man arranges for himself much more enjoyment than for the animals he tames. This is the special reason why man's degeneration is more obvious.

So it is no great misfortune for primitive man to be without clothes, shelter, and all the useless things which seem to us so necessary.There is even less hindrance to their self-preservation.Although they have no hair on their skins, it is because they have no such need in the tropics, and if they were born in cold regions, they would soon use the skins of the wild animals they captured.Although they only run on two legs, they have two arms that they can use to defend themselves and provide for their own needs.Their toddlers may be late and difficult to walk, but mothers carry them with ease.This is an advantage that other animals do not have.In other animals, when the mother is pursued, she is obliged to abandon her young, or else she must adapt her steps to those of the young.There may be some exceptions to this, as illustrated by an animal of Nicaragua.This animal is similar to a fox, and its feet are like human hands. According to Kolea's records, they have a meat bag under their belly, and when the mother needs to escape, she can hold the small animal in it.Doubtless it is this animal which is called Telaguachin in Mexico.According to Laet, the mother of this animal has a similar pouch of flesh under her belly for the same purpose.Anyway, barring the rare and fortuitous encounters of the kinds I'm about to speak of below (which probably never happen), it's not hard to understand anyway: the first man to make clothes or build a dwelling for himself , In fact, I just created some unnecessary things for myself.For he had lived without them before, and we cannot understand why he could not bear, when grown up, what he had been able to bear when he was a child.

The savage, solitary, at leisure, and constantly in danger, must love sleep, and be easily awakened, like other animals that do not think much, and, so to speak, sleep when he is not thinking.Self-preservation is almost his sole concern, and the faculties in which he is most proficient must necessarily be those whose principal purposes are attack and defense, in order to subdue his prey, or in order not to be the prey of other wild beasts.On the contrary, an organ which can be perfected only by pleasure and sensuality, must remain in him in a state of grossness, which is repugnant to all refinement.In this respect, therefore, his senses are divided into two very different cases: touch and taste are extremely dull, and sight, hearing, and smell are most acute.This is the general state of animals, and, so far as travelers report, of most savages.Therefore we need not wonder why the Hottentots of the Cape of Good Hope can see ships at sea with their naked eyes as far as the Dutch with a telescope; and why all these savages, who do not suffer from nakedness, stimulate their palate with chili peppers, and drink European spirits as water. Hitherto I have studied man only physically; let me now observe him metaphysically and spiritually. Every animal seems to me to be nothing but an ingenious machine, to which nature gives senses, animates itself, and defends itself to some extent against everything that would destroy it or interfere with it.In the machine of the human body, I see exactly the same thing, but with this difference: in the actions of the beast, nature dominates everything, while man participates in his own actions as a free agent.Animals decide to choose or reject based on instinct, while humans decide to choose or reject through free behavior.Therefore, although animals are beneficial to them, they will not violate the rules prescribed by nature, while people will often violate such rules even if they are harmful to themselves.It is for this reason that a pigeon may starve by the side of a great basin full of delicious meat; a cat may starve to death on a heap of fruit or corn; They live on food they don't like.It is for this reason that some licentious men indulge in pleasures which invite sickness or death, because the mind corrupts the senses, and the will makes demands when nature's wants are satisfied. All animals, having senses, also have ideas, and even connect them to some degree.At this point, man and beast are just a difference in degree.Some philosophers have even gone so far as to maintain that there is a greater difference between this man and that man than between this man and that beast.It is, therefore, not so much his understanding as his qualification as a free agent that distinguishes him among all animals.Nature dominates all animals, and beasts always obey; although man is also subject to the same domination, he thinks he has the freedom to obey or resist.And man manifests his spirituality especially because he is conscious of this freedom.For physics can in a certain sense explain the mechanical action of the senses and the formation of ideas, but in man's will or rather his power of choice and his awareness of this power we can only find something purely spiritual. activities that cannot be explained by the laws of mechanics. But though the points of difficulty surrounding all these questions leave us room for dispute as to the distinction between man and brutes, there is yet one other very marked quality which distinguishes the two which is indisputable, This quality is the capacity for self-improvement.This faculty, by the influence of circumstances, continually promotes the development of all other faculty, and it exists in individuals as well as in whole species.As for a beast, after a few months it becomes the same as it was throughout its life, and its kind, even after a thousand years, remains exactly as it was at the beginning of the millennium.Why is it that only human beings are prone to decadence?Is it that human beings are thus returned to their original state?Is it not that the brute always retains its instincts, because it gains nothing and loses nothing, while man, by antiquity or some other accident, loses what he acquired by his power of perfection? Everything, thus falling into a state worse than beasts?If we are obliged to admit that this peculiar and almost infinite faculty is the source of all human misery; the primitive state; and it is this power which, in all ages, has enabled man to display his wisdom and his errors, his vices and his virtues, and which at last made him a tyrant to himself and to nature, which is too sad for us. [nine].The inhabitants of the banks of the Orinoco stick wood chips to the temples of their children, thinking that this will preserve at least a part of their ignorance and original happiness.It would be dreadful if we were obliged to extol the originator of this method as a beneficiary of mankind. Under the sway of nature, the savage obeys only his instincts, or rather, in order to compensate the savage for any deficiencies in instinct, nature endows him with faculties which first of all make up for his deficiencies, and then He can be raised far above the instinctive state.Therefore, what the savage originally possesses is purely animal abilities[10].Sight and sense are perhaps the first instinctive states of the savage, which he shares with all animals.Willing and unwillingness, hope and fear, may be his first and almost the only mental activity until new circumstances give rise to a new development of his spirit. Whatever the ethicists may maintain, the understanding of man depends to a great extent upon the affections; but it is admitted that the affections also depend in great measure on the understanding.Our rationality is perfected by the activity of our emotions.We seek knowledge only because we desire enjoyment; it is inconceivable that a man who has neither desire nor fear should take the trouble to reason.Emotion itself comes from our needs, and the development of emotion comes from our understanding.For man desires or dreads certain things only when he is able to have definite ideas about them, or from a mere natural impulse.The savage, lacking in every kind of intelligence, can only have passions which arise from natural impulses.His desires never exceed his physical needs [11].The only needs he knows in the universe are food, sex, and rest; the only calamities he fears are pain and hunger.I say pain, not death, because most animals never know what death is; the knowledge and terror of death is one of the earliest "gains" after humans leave the animal state. It will not be difficult, if necessary, to support my view with facts, and to prove that the progress of wisdom among the nations of the world is precisely the natural need of the peoples, or the necessity arising from the requirements of the environment. proportional to their needs, and therefore to the desires that drive them to satisfy those needs.I may point out that in Egypt art arose and flourished with the flooding of the Nile.I could trace the progress of art in Greece: there it was seen to flourish among the sands and rocks of Attica to the heights of the sky, but not on the fertile banks of the Orotas. Can't root.I may also point out that the peoples of the North are generally wiser than those of the South, because they cannot live otherwise.As if nature would so adjust things to make them equal, that where she refuses to give abundance to the earth, she bestows abundance on the spirit. But who, without recourse to the unreliable evidence of history, cannot see that everything seems to make it difficult for the savage to have any attempt or method to cease being a savage?His imagination can picture nothing to him; his heart demands nothing from him.Since his limited needs are easily satisfied, and he is far from reaching a certain level of knowledge, he has no desire to acquire higher knowledge, so he can neither foresee nor wonder. Heart.Natural sights, once familiar to him, no longer commanded his attention.The order of all things and the movement of seasons are always consistent.He was not wise enough to appreciate the greatest wonders, and we cannot imagine him possessing the wisdom necessary for a man to contemplate what he daily sees.In his undisturbed mind, there is only a sense of his present existence, and he has no idea of ​​the future, no matter how near.His plans, too, were as limited as his vision, which could scarcely foresee a day's worth of events.The degree of foresight of the Garaibo people is still the same.They sell the cotton mattress in the morning, and cry bitterly at night to buy it back, without foreseeing that they will use it that night. The more we think about this subject, the more we see the distance between pure feeling and the simplest knowledge.It is inconceivable how a person can cross such a large distance by his own strength without the need of social relationships and the stimulation of needs.How many centuries passed before people were able to see fire other than thunder and lightning!How many different accidents are required in order for them to learn the most common use of this element!How many times did they let it go out before they acquired the skill to make fire?And, perhaps, how many times has this secret been lost with the death of the inventor!What shall we say about agriculture?It requires so much labor and forethought, it depends on so many other arts; and it is evident that this art can be practiced only after society has been established, at least where it has begun to be established.And farming is mostly done not in order to get some food from the land which can be obtained without farming, but to make the land produce what is most suitable to our taste.Suppose, however, that the produce of nature was no longer sufficient to feed man, as a result of his multiplication (which, I note in passing, is a sufficient proof that the way of life was, after all, very beneficial to man); , the implements of tillage have fallen from heaven into the hands of savages; suppose these men have overcome their common aversion to continuous labor; suppose they have learned to foresee their wants early; suppose they have Guess how to till the land, scatter the seeds, and plant the trees; assume they have invented the art of grinding wheat and brewing wine (all these things must have been taught to them by the gods, because it is difficult to imagine how humans could learn these things by themselves in the first place. technology), even if this is the case, if the harvest of their cultivation is to be snatched away by the first person or beast who accidentally walks up and takes a fancy to these harvests, who would be so stupid as to be willing to ask for trouble for cultivation? ?Especially when they must know that the more they need the fruit of their labor, the less they will get it. Just ask, who would be willing to work hard all their lives?In short, how can man be encouraged to cultivate the land under such conditions, that is, before the land has been distributed, that is, before the state of nature has been destroyed? If we assume that the savage has attained in the art of thought what modern philosophers call ingenuity, if we follow the example of the philosophers, and regard the savage as a philosopher, capable of alone discovering the highest truth, and are able to create, by a series of very abstract reasonings, the maxims of justice and reason from the love of the order of the universe, or from the revealed will of the Creator; So clever and wise, when in fact we find him dull and stupid, what good can humanity gain from this whole metaphysics that cannot be taught to each other and disappears with the death of the inventor?What progress can man make when he is scattered in the forest and among the beasts?People who have no fixed place to live, who don't need anyone, who may not meet each other twice in a lifetime, who don't know each other, and don't talk to each other, how far can they perfect themselves and inspire each other? Just imagine how many ideas are due to the use of language, and how much grammar is responsible for exercising and promoting mental activities; imagine the unimaginable difficulties and expenses that must have been incurred in the first invention of languages. of infinite time.Add these considerations together with the above considerations, and you can judge that it takes thousands of centuries to develop in the mind of man the mental activities that he can engage in? Allow me a little time to consider some of the difficult problems of the origin of language, and I think it will be sufficient here to quote or restate what Father Condillac has done on the subject.These studies not only fully confirmed my opinion, but perhaps also inspired my original ideas on the subject.But the way in which this philosopher solves the difficult problem he sets for himself in positing the origin of signs shows that he presupposes what I consider problematic, namely: A certain kind of society has been established among men, and I think that when citing his opinion I should add mine,1 in order to illustrate the same difficulty in terms appropriate to my subject.The difficulty that first arises is that of imagining how language could be necessary.Because since there is no communication between people, and there is no need for any communication, the invention of language is not indispensable, so we cannot imagine the necessity of such an invention, nor the possibility of such an invention. .I may well think, like many others, that language is produced in the daily contact of family life between parents and children.But this statement, not only does not solve our doubts in the slightest, but makes the same mistake as those who forcefully transfer to the state of nature the ideas acquired in society.They have always imagined a family gathered in a common dwelling, with its members maintaining to one another the same intimate and permanent bond as we have at present, bound together by many common interests.In fact, in the primitive state, where there were neither dwellings nor huts, nor property of any kind, everyone lived in a random place, and often only for one night.The combination of men and women is also accidental, or due to chance, chance, or willingness, and does not need language as a tool for them to express their meaning to each other.Their separation is equally easy[12].A mother breastfeeds her infants, at first only for her own physical needs, and later, out of habit, she finds them cute, so she feeds them for their needs.But once the child has acquired the ability to find food for himself, he does not hesitate to leave his mother; and since they have almost no other way of maintaining mutual acquaintance than being separated from each other and being seen by each other, they often go to school. They soon became strangers to each other.Furthermore, we should point out that the child has many needs to express to others, and therefore he wants to say more to his mother than his mother wants to say to him.It should be the child who does his best to invent languages, and the languages ​​he uses should be largely of his own creation.In this way, the types of languages ​​are bound to increase with the number of people who express their meanings in languages, and their life is wandering, so that there is no chance for any language to be fixed, which further encourages the development of this situation.To say that the mother teaches the child the language so that he can ask her for this or that thing is enough to say how a formed language is taught, but it does not explain at all how it is formed. Assuming that this first difficulty has been solved, let us pass for a moment the long time between the pure state of nature and the need for language; How language can begin to be built.This is a harder problem to solve than the previous one.For if men need language in order to learn to think, they need even more to know how to think in order to invent the art of language.And even if we can understand how the sound of sound is used as a conventional instrument for conveying our ideas, we still have to go further, and we have to go further. What tools will be agreed upon to convey it?We can make few plausible guesses about the birth of this art of conveying ideas and establishing spiritual connections.The sublime art of language has come so far from its origin, and yet has been studied by philosophers at such an inconceivable distance from its perfection, that no one so bold has ventured to assert how it has at last attained了它完善化的境地，纵使由于时间而必然引起的变革对于这一艺术可能不发生任何影响；纵使学者们能够捐弃他们的一切偏见，或者不再主张他们的那些偏见；纵使学术界能够毫不间断地从事这个棘手问题的研究达数世纪之久，恐怕也没有人敢作这种断言。