The Influence of the Concept of “Noble Savage” in Political Philosophy. Freedom and Social Organization from the Perspective of the Utopia of Primitive Society

Abstract

The perception of primitive society as a positive one, based on freedom, natural law and virtue, has been the subject of humanities since Antiquity. Although the myth of the “Noble Savage” crystallized only in the Age of Enlightenment, the same fundamental ideas continue to arouse interest in the field of ethics or political philosophy. This paper focuses on the writings of two prominent philosophers who lived and created in different periods of human development, but who saw the distant past of mankind in the light of idealism: Lucius Annaeus Seneca and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.