It cannot be doubted that Rousseau, who portrayed himself not without a certain degree of immodesty, as the philosopher of modern humanity's misery and unhappiness, experienced and suffered from tremendous bouts of resentment in his life. Rousseau tried to subject the problem of civilization – the problem whether man progresses through it – to the cold scrutiny of the dispassionate philosopher, and ended up presenting a damning indictment of the moral bankruptcy of modern civilization. It is history which cultivates and disciplines the human animal, transforming a limited and stupid creature into a moral and rational one. Rousseau's attitude to history, however, is deeply ambiguous. On the one hand, he laments the rise of the reign of vanity and resentment which has been created by the decadent and corrupt rule of the rich over the poor, while, on the other hand, he recognizes that it is only by undergoing the process of social development that the human animal can become a moral being capable of the highest freedom, that of moral liberty.