Jean-Jacques Rousseau declared that our human nature is inherently good and we are pure beings but we get corrupted by society over time. Our Human Nature is that we are born naturally pure, healthy and able to survive; we have natural compassion and innocence as we are born inherently good. Rousseau states that you would "do what is good for you with the least possible harm to others" as humans are conscientious and not solely acting in self-interest. However, he says that our human condition plays a big role in how our Human Nature emerges in people as Rousseau asserts that society corrupts people due to conflicts over resources (much like Hobbesian theory on conflict). Rousseau’s ethics to our human nature is very non-pragmatic: he believes that individuals should be brought up and developed in their own innate nature, uncorrupted by society – especially the rich, urban and fashionable society – as "human institutions are one mass of folly and contradiction". Rousseau believed that people should not be brought up in society to remain pure.
Rousseau has one big contradiction in his theory which renders his perspective on human nature idealistic. If society is made up of innately good people with good intrinsic value, how does is corrupt people? If people work towards owning things to benefit them but with the least possible harm, there should be low levels of conflict arising which means that there couldn't be any "innate bad" in society. Society cannot corrupt pure humans as society is a social construct built up by pure humans. In addition to this, Rousseau believed that children should be brought up with a tailored education to their mental state but this is practically impossible as he also wanted them isolated from the corruption of society. Essentially, his prescription was that for someone to grow up to be pure, they could not interact with the pure which makes no logical sense as the child would not understand how they are to act.
