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Catch-All/Student Discussion Questions

“How Equality Suggests to the American the Idea of the Indefinite Perfectibility of Man”

Tocqueville focuses his text on the improvement of human kind. He expresses that man tries to exceed the “idea of human perfectibility.” That being said, Tocqueville talks about one trait that differentiates humans from “brutes,” mankind has the capability to improve oneself each day. However, Tocqueville carries his views in a direction that may define society. He believes that man contradict their own personal improvement and work towards the view of “perfection” that society has held for them. In striving for perfection from society, humans deny their own personal improvement and betterment for themselves. Society shows ranks and professions are held at a standard, but these standards change throughout the years and allows for mankind to constantly change as well. Man kind follows along with society hoping and striving for one day the overall perfection and improvement they have longed for. Toacqueville continues by even those who have cast away from society and began their own path, with their own beliefs, still conform to what society has laid out for them. As I began to understand and analyze Tocqueville words, I realized that he is right. If you look around, society plays a huge role in one’s life and each individual strives to be perfect and be better than those around them.

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