Concept information
Preferred term
noble savage
Definition
- The term noble savage was first used by John Dryden in 1672; however, it is most commonly used to refer to Jean-Jacques Rousseau's romantic depiction of basic human nature in Discourse on the Arts and Sciences. This work was Rousseau's winning entry in an essay contest sponsored by the Academy of Dijon, which asked, “Has the progress of the arts and sciences contributed more to the corruption or purification of morals?” Rousseau responded in the negative, writing that man is essentially good (a “noble savage”) when in the state of nature, as it was before the creation of civilization. [Source: Encyclopedia of Human Development; Noble Savage]
Broader concept
Belongs to group
URI
https://concepts.sagepub.com/social-science/concept/noble_savage
{{label}}
{{#each values }} {{! loop through ConceptPropertyValue objects }}
{{#if prefLabel }}
{{/if}}
{{/each}}
{{#if notation }}{{ notation }} {{/if}}{{ prefLabel }}
{{#ifDifferentLabelLang lang }} ({{ lang }}){{/ifDifferentLabelLang}}
{{#if vocabName }}
{{ vocabName }}
{{/if}}