Did Rousseau believe his idyllic picture of primitive man had any basis in reality? Certainly he could, and did, recite pages of research about tribal societies in America and Africa to bolster his point. But in the final analysis Rousseau wanted to use his noble savage, whose “ignorance of vice prevents him from doing evil,” to act as a kind of Platonic ideal: a model of human perfection who sets the shortcomings of modern man in sharp relief.
