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Theories on EducationEmile was written as a narrative in which Rousseau describes the development of Emile, a typical young person. Under the guidance of a tutor—viewed by some as Rousseau himself—Emile moves from earliest infancy, through youth and adolescence, and into maturity. The book is divided into five books that roughly mirror Emile’s maturation. Books I and II cover birth to age 12. Book m addresses 12 through 15. The remainder of the teenage years are revealed in Book IV, and Book V spans the years 20 to 25. According to some researchers of this book, Rousseau arranged it in these groupings because he believed significant life altering events occurred in each of the age groups. Within Emile, Rousseau laid out his beliefs about issues like alienation and human nature. He believed that there was a constant conflict within individuals between the needs and goods of a person and the demands that social and civil existence place on that person. Although Rousseau never fully resolved this conflict, Emile puts forth a comprehensive treatment of this struggle. As Dent wrote, “Fundamental to the whole work is Rousseau’s belief that humans have an intact nature which, if allowed proper scope for development, will allow them to be useful, happy and good, for themselves and for others. It is man’s interference with the normal course of nature that makes people corrupt, miserable and damaging to themselves and to others.”12 Basically, the position Rousseau takes in Emile is that man is by nature a good person, but he is corrupted by society. Therefore, life becomes an endless battle to balance the two competing forces. To some readers, this theory seems logical and reasonable. However, this theory has raised harsh criticism among scholars and historians. John Charvet, a well-known Rousseau scholar, has called this theory absurd. He believes that if it is within society that individuals learn to live and value each other’s individuality, it is absurd to think such society is corrupt.13 However, it is under this belief of the corrupt nature of society that Rousseau offered his plan for how to achieve a good education. Rousseau was an advocate of education as a tool for more than just learning. He believed it should “form the heart, judgment and spirit” of an individual.14 He thought that a person should constantly be in a state of education, not necessarily a formal one. He favored the notion of “negative education.” In other words, according to Dent, instead of controlling, directing, admonishing or cramming a child at every turn, “we should realize that there is a naturally healthy and ordered course in the development of a child’s body, understanding and feelings, and it is in the educator’s role to respect the integrity of the development, to give space and opportunity for it to take place in its due way and time, and to adjust the child’s lessons so that they engage in an immediate and straightforward way with his current level of interest and abilities.”15 In such a nurturing environment, Rousseau thought fables and stories were better suited to instill learning, rather than abstract reasoning. By today’s standards, it might be difficult to understand how such a seemingly benign theory on education could cause Rousseau to become a criminal in France and spend the rest of his life as a fugitive. But, the incriminating writing was in Book IV of Emile. There, Rousseau attacked the Catholic Church and presented views that were deemed unacceptable as they related to the idea of natural religion. At that time, it was unheard of to criticize the Church or contradict accepted religious beliefs. Therefore, he was branded a heretic and ordered to be arrested. Conclusion Today, Rousseau remains a much-studied, admired, and criticized philosopher. It is documented that he himself was confused about some of his writings. For example, he wrote of the Du Contract Social:: “Those who boast of understanding all of it are cleverer than me, it is a book that should be rewritten but I no longer have either the time or the energy.”16 One overarching criticism that has been leveled against many of his works generally, especially at the time he wrote them, was that readers were left with the impression that he denied the value of science or formal learning. However, regardless of the particular criticisms about Rousseau, it cannot be denied that he was among the great philosophers of all time.
Dent wrote, “Rousseau had a great deal to do with the gradual emergence of the moral and political impossibility of supposing that subordination is the natural lot of any man or woman—with the consequences of which, it might be added, we are still contending today. That alone makes him a significant shaping genius in the history of Western, indeed of world. thought.”17 BIBLIOGRAPHYCharvet, John. The Social Problem in the Philosophy of Rousseau. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1974. Cranston, Maurice William. Hobbes and Rousseau: A Collection of Critical Essays. Garden City, New York: Anchor Books, 1972. Cranston, Maurice William. The Noble Savage: Jean-Jacques Rousseau. 1754-1762. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991. Crocker, Lester G. Rousseau. New York: Macmillan, 1968-73. Dent, N.I.H. A Rousseau Dictionary. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1992. Eihaudi, Mario. The Early Rousseau. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1967. Gay, Peter. The Question of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. New Haven, New Jersey: Yale University Press, 1989. Green, Frederick Charles. Jean-Jacques Rousseau: A Critical Study of His Life and Writings. Cambridge: University Press, 1955. Grimsley, Ronald. Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Iotowa, New Jersey: Barnes & Nobel Books, 1983. Havens, George Remington. Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Boston, Twayne, 1978. Huizinga, J.H. Rousseau the Self-Made Saint. New York: Grossman Publishers, 1976. Josephson, Matthew. Jean Jacques Rousseau. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1961. Morley, John. Rousseau. New York: Macmillan, 1905. Perkins, Merle L. Jean-Jacques Rousseau on the Individual and Society. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1974. Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Collected Writings of Rousseau. Edited by Roger D. Masters and Christopher Kelly. Hanover University Press of New England, 1990. Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Confessions. London: Aldus Society, 1903. Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. A Discourse on Inequality. Translated by Maurice Cranston. New York: Penguin Books, 1984. Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Emile: Or On Education. Translated by Allan Bloom. New York: Basic Books, 1979. Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The First and Second Discourses. Edited, translated and annotated by Victor Gourevitch. New York: Perennial Library, 1986. Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. On the Social Contract. Translated by Judith R. Masters. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1978. Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Political Writings. Edited by C.E. Vaughan. New York: Wiley, 1962. Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Essential Rousseau. Translated by Lowell Bair. New York: The New American Library, Inc., 1974. Directory: uploads uploads -> 587 Return function, r i(X) r i(0) r i(1) r i(2) r i(3) 1 0 2 4 6 Thermal Station, I 2 0 1 5 6 3 0 3 5 6 10 uploads -> Department of science and humanities department of mathematics part-a questions and answers uploads -> The Case Against the nypd’s Quota-Driven ‘Broken Windows’ Policing What Is It? uploads -> For want of a nail uploads -> Ownership Models There are two different types of ownership models uploads -> Police Militarization uploads -> City of rising star regular meting thursday, july 14, 2016 uploads -> Township of winfield uploads -> Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act of 2014 uploads -> The Black Panther Party’s Ten-Point Program What We Want Now! Download 5.81 Mb. Share with your friends:
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