 Espousing the belief that all degenerates in men's hands, Rousseau taught that men would be free, wise, and good in the state of nature and that instinct and emotion, when not distorted by the unnatural limitations of civilization, are nature's voices and instructions to the good life.Rousseau's "noble savage" stands in direct opposition to the man of culture.Rousseau believed that the savage stage was not the first stage of human development, but the third stage.