What did Jean-Jacques Rousseau mean by the idea that people are naturally good?

For Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the belief that people are naturally good means that humans were originally healthy, happy, and free in a "state of nature" before the corrupting influences of society and civilization took hold.1

Rousseau argued that original humans were solitary beings who lacked the vices that define modern life. He posited that these vices—such as destructive vanity or inequality—did not exist in the primitive state but emerged only after people began forming societies, establishing civil society, and introducing the concept of property.1

By asserting that humans are "good by nature," Rousseau sought to exonerate nature and place the responsibility for human corruption on the development of sophisticated, unequal social structures. This concept is closely linked to the idealized notion of the noble savage, symbolizing an individual who retains innate goodness because they have not been exposed to the harmful effects of traditional education and societal artifice. Ultimately, Rousseau believed that while society had led humanity away from its original innocence, it was possible to recover a form of liberty through a genuine social contract.12