Why should those concerned with education study Rousseau? He had an
unusual childhood with no formal education. He was a poor teacher. Apparently
unable to bring up his own children, he committed them to orphanages soon after
birth. At times he found living among people difficult, preferring the solitary
life. What can such a man offer educators? The answer is that his
work offers great insight. Drawing from a broad spectrum of traditions
including botany, music and philosophy, his thinking has influenced subsequent
generations of educational thinkers - and permeates the practice of informal
educators. His book Émile was the most significant book on education
after Plato's Republic, and his other work had a profound impact on
political theory and practice, romanticism and the development of the
novel (Wokler 1995: 1).
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712
- 1778) was born in Geneva (June 28) but became famous as a 'French' political
philosopher and educationalist. Rousseau was brought up first by his father
(Issac) and an aunt (his mother died a few days after his birth), and later and
by an uncle. He had happy memories of his childhood - although it had some odd
features such as not being allowed to play with children his own age. His
father taught him to read and helped him to appreciate the countryside. He
increasingly turned to the latter for solace.
At the age of 13 he was
apprenticed to an engraver. However, at 16 (in 1728) he left this trade to
travel, but quickly become secretary and companion to Madame Louise de Warens.
This relationship was unusual. Twelve years his senior she was in turns a mother
figure, a friend and a lover. Under her patronage he developed a taste for
music. He set himself up as a music teacher in Chambéry (1732) and began a
period of intense self education. In 1740 he worked as a tutor to the two sons
of M. de Mably in Lyon. It was not a very successful experience (nor were his
other episodes of tutoring). In 1742 he moved to Paris. There he became a close
friend of David Diderot, who was to commission him to write articles on music
for the French Encyclopédie. Through the sponsorship of a number of society
women he became the personal secretary to the French ambassador to Venice - a
position from which he was quickly fired for not having the ability to put up
with a boss whom he viewed as stupid and arrogant.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
returned to Paris in 1745 and earned a living as a music teacher and copyist.
In the hotel where he was living (near the Sorbonne) he met Thérèse Lavasseur
who worked as a seamstress. She was also, by a number of accounts, an odd
figure. She was made fun of by many of those around here, and it was Rousseau's
defence of her that led to friendship. He believed she had a 'pure and innocent
heart'. They were soon living together (and they were to stay together, never
officially married, until he died). She couldn't read well, nor write, or add
up - and Rousseau tried unsuccessfully over the years to teach her. According
to his Confessions, Thérèse bore five children - all of whom were
given to foundling homes (the first in 1746) (1996: 333). Voltaire later scurrilously
claimed that Rousseau had dumped them on the doorstep of the orphanage. In fact
the picture was rather more complex. Rousseau had argued the children would get
a better upbringing in such an institution than he could offer. They would not
have to put up with the deviousness of 'high society'. Furthermore, he claimed
he lacked the money to bring them up properly. There was also the question of
his and Thérèse's capacity to cope with child-rearing. Last, there is
also some question as to whether all or any of the children were his (for
example, Thérèse had an affair with James Boswell whilst he stayed with
Rousseau). What we do know is that in later life Rousseau sought to justify his
actions concerning the children (see, for example 1996: 345-346); declaring his
sorrow about the way he had acted.
Diderot encouraged Rousseau
to write and in 1750 he won first prize in an essay competition organized by
the Académie de Dijon - Discours sur les sciences et les arts. 'Why
should we build our own happiness on the opinions of others, when we can find
it in our own hearts?' (1750: 29). In this essay we see a familiar theme: that
humans are by nature good - and it is society's institutions that corrupt them
(Smith and Smith 1994: 184). The essay earned him considerable fame and he
reacted against it. He seems to have fallen out with a number of his friends
and the (high-society) people with whom he was expected to mix. This was a
period of reappraisal. On a visit to Geneva Jean-Jacques Rousseau reconverted
to Calvinism (and gained Genevan citizenship). There was also a fairly public
infatuation with Mme d'Houderot that with his other erratic behaviour, led some
of his friends to consider him insane.
Rousseau's mental health
was a matter of some concern for the rest of his life. There were significant
periods when he found it difficult to be in the company of others, when he
believed himself to be the focus of hostility and duplicity (a feeling probably
compounded by the fact that there was some truth in this). He frequently acted
'oddly' with sudden changes of mood. These 'oscillations' led to situations
where he falsely accused others and behaved with scant respect for their
humanity. There was something about what, and the way, he wrote and how he
acted with others that contributed to his being on the receiving end of strong,
and sometimes malicious, attacks by people like Voltaire. The
'oscillations' could also open up 'another universe' in which he could see the
world in a different, and illuminating, way (see Grimsley
1969).
At around the time of the
publication of his famous very influential discourses on inequality and
political economy in Encyclopedie (1755), Rousseau also began to fall
out with Diderot and the Encyclopedists. The Duke and Duchess of Luxembourg
offered him (and Thérèse) a house on their estate at Montmorency (to the north
of Paris).
During the next four years
in the relative seclusion of Montmorency, Rousseau produced three major works: The
New Heloise (1761), probably the most widely read novel of his day);
The Social Contract (April 1762), one of the most influential books on
political theory; and Émile (May 1762), a classic statement of
education. The 'heretical' discussion of religion in Émile caused
Rousseau problems with the Church in France. The book was burned in a number of
places. Within a month Rousseau had to leave France for Switzerland - but
was unable to go to Geneva after his citizenship was revoked as a result of the
furore over the book. He ended up in Berne. In 1766 Jean-Jacques Rousseau went
to England (first to Chiswick then Wootton Hall near Ashbourne in Derbyshire,
and later to Hume's house in Buckingham Street, London) at the invitation of David Hume. True
to form he fell out with Hume, accusing him of disloyalty (not fairly!) and
displaying all the symptoms of paranoia. In 1767 he returned to France under a
false name (Renou), although he had to wait until to 1770 to return officially.
A condition of his return was his agreement not to publish his work. He
continued writing, completing his Confessions and beginning private
readings of it in 1770. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was banned from doing this by the
police in 1771 following complaints by former friends such as Diderot and
Madame d'Epinay - who featured in the work. The book was eventually published
after his death in 1782.
Rousseau returned to
copying music to make a living, working in the morning and walking and
'botanizing' in the afternoon. He continued to have mental health problems. His
next major work was Rousseau juge de Jean-Jacques, Dialogues,
completed in 1776. In the next two years, before his death in 1778, Rousseau
wrote the ten, classic, meditations of Reveries of the Solitary
Walker. The book opens: 'So now I am alone in the world, with no
brother, neighbour or friend, nor any company left me but my own. The most
sociable and loving of men has with unanimous accord been cast out by all the
rest' (1979: 27). He appears to have come upon a period of some calm and
serenity (France 1979: 9). At this time 'he found respite only in solitude, the
study of botany, and a romantically lyrical communion with nature' (Wokler
1995: 15).
In 1778 he was in
Ermenonville, just north of Paris, staying with the Marquis de Giradin. On July
2, following his usual early morning walk Jean-Jacques Rousseau died of
apoplexy (a haemorrhage - some of his former friends claimed he committed
suicide). He was buried on the estate (on a small picturesque island - Ile des
Peupliers). Later, in 1794, his remains were moved to the Panthéon in
Paris (formerly the Church of Sainte Geneviève. The Pantheon was used to house
the bodies of key figures of the French Revolution.) His remains were placed
close by those of Voltaire, who had died in the same year as him.
Rousseau argued that we are
inherently good, but we become corrupted by the evils of society. We are born
good - and that is our natural state. In later life he wished to live a simple
life, to be close to nature and to enjoy what it gives us - a concern said to
have been fostered by his father. Through attending to nature we are more
likely to live a life of virtue. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was interested in people
being natural.
We are born capable of
sensation and from birth are affected in diverse ways by the objects around us.
As soon as we become conscious of our sensations we are inclined to seek or to
avoid the objects which produce them: at first, because they are agreeable or disagreeable
to us, later because we discover that they suit or do not suit us, and
ultimately because of the judgements we pass on them by reference to the idea
of happiness of perfection we get from reason. These inclinations extend and
strengthen with the growth of sensibility and intelligence, but under the
pressure of habit they are changed to some extent with our opinions. The
inclinations before this change are what I call our nature. In my view
everything ought to be in conformity with these original inclinations. (Émile,
Book 1 - translation by Boyd 1956: 13; see also, 1911 edition p. 7).
As Ronald Grimsley has
written, 'From the outset Rousseau had drawn inspiration from his own heart and
found philosophical truth in the depth of his own being' (1973: 135). His later
writings, especially Reveries of the Solitary Walker, show
both his isolation and alienation, and some paths into happiness. 'Everything
is in constant flux on this earth, he writes (1979: 88):
But if
there is a state where the soul can find a resting-place secure enough to
establish itself and concentrate its entire being there, with no need to
remember the past or reach into the future, where time is nothing to it, where
the present runs on indefinitely but this duration goes unnoticed, with no sign
of the passing of time, and no other feeling of deprivation or enjoyment,
pleasure or pain, desire or fear than the simple feeling of existence, a
feeling that fills our soul entirely, as long as this state lasts, we can call
ourselves happy, not with a poor, incomplete and relative happiness such as we
find in the pleasures of life, but with a sufficient, complete and perfect
happiness which leaves no emptiness to be filled in the soul. Such is the state
which I often experienced on the Island Of Saint-Pierre in my solitary
reveries, whether I lay in a boat and drifted where the water carried me, or
sat by the shores of the stormy lake, or elsewhere, on the banks of a lovely
river or a stream murmuring over the stones. (Rousseau 1979: 88 - 89)
Rousseau's is sometimes
described as a romantic vision. ‘Romanticism’ is not an easy term to define -
it is best approached as an overlapping set of ideas and values.
The ‘Romantic’ is said to
favour the concrete over the abstract, variety over uniformity, the infinite
over the finite,; nature over culture, convention and artifice; the organic
over the mechanical; freedom over constraint, rules and limitations. In human
terms it prefers the unique individual to the average person, the free creative
genius to the prudent person of good sense, the particular community or nation
to humanity at large. Mentally, the Romantics prefer feeling to thought, more
specifically emotion to calculation; imagination to literal common sense,
intuition to intellect. (Quinton 1996: 778)
In many respects Rousseau's
vision could be labelled as 'green'. But with this comes a classic tension
between the individual and society, solitude and association - and this is
central to his work.
Chapter 1 of his classic
work on political theory The Social Contract (published in 1762) begins
famously, 'Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains'. It is an
expression of his belief that we corrupted by society. The social contract he
explores in the book involves people recognizing a collective 'general will'.
This general will is supposed to represent the common good or public interest -
and it is something that each individual has a hand in making. All citizens
should participate - and should be committed to the general good - even if it
means acting against their private or personal interests. For example, we might
support a political party that proposes to tax us heavily (as we have a large
income) because we can see the benefit that this taxation can bring to all. To
this extend, Rousseau believed that the good individual, or citizen, should not
put their private ambitions first.
This way of living, he
argued, can promote liberty and equality - and it arises out of, and fosters, a
spirit of fraternity. The cry of ‘liberty, equality and fraternity’ is familiar
to us today through the French Revolution (1789 - 1799) - and the impact of the
thinking and experiences of that time have had on political movements in many
different parts of the world since. Just how the ‘general will’ comes about is
unclear - and this has profound implications. If we are to put the general will
over the individual or ‘particular’ will then there needs to be safeguards
against the exploitation of individuals and minorities. Rousseau’s belief in
liberty, equality and fraternity, and his emphasis on education (see below) may
go some way in counteracting the dangers of the general will, but others have
hijacked the notion so that the majority rules the minority - or indeed a minority
a majority - it just depends who has the power to define or interpret the
general will.
The focus of Émile
is upon the individual tuition of a boy/young man in line with the principles
of 'natural education'. This focus tends to be what is taken up by later
commentators, yet Rousseau's concern with the individual is balanced in some of
his other writing with the need for public or national education. In A
Discourse on Political Economy and Considerations for the Government
of Poland we get a picture of public education undertaken in the interests
of the community as a whole.
From the first moment of
life, men ought to begin learning to deserve to live; and, as at the instant of
birth we partake of the rights of citizenship, that instant ought to be the
beginning of the exercise of our duty. If there are laws for the age of
maturity, there ought to be laws for infancy, teaching obedience to others: and
as the reason of each man is not left to be the sole arbiter of his duties,
government ought the less indiscriminately to abandon to the intelligence and
prejudices of fathers the education of their children, as that education is of
still greater importance to the State than to the fathers: for, according to
the course of nature, the death of the father often deprives him of the final
fruits of education; but his country sooner or later perceives its effects.
Families dissolve but the State remains. (Rousseau 1755: 148-9)
'Make the citizen good by
training', Jean-Jacques Rousseau writes, 'and everything else will follow'.
In Émile Rousseau
drew on thinkers that had preceded him - for example, John Locke on teaching -
but he was able to pull together strands into a coherent and comprehensive
system - and by using the medium of the novel he was able to dramatize his
ideas and reach a very wide audience. He made, it can be argued, the
first comprehensive attempt to describe a system of education according to what
he saw as ‘nature’ (Stewart and McCann 1967:28). It certainly stresses wholeness
and harmony, and a concern for the person of the learner. Central to this was
the idea that it was possible to preserve the 'original perfect nature' of the
child, 'by means of the careful control of his education and environment, based
on an analysis of the different physical and psychological stages through which
he passed from birth to maturity' (ibid.). This was a fundamental point.
Rousseau argued that the momentum for learning was provided by the growth of
the person (nature) - and that what the educator needed to do was to facilitate
opportunities for learning.
Exhibit 1: Jean-Jacques Rousseau on educationNow each of these factors
in education is wholly beyond our control, things are only partly in our
power; the education of men is the only one controlled by us; and even here
our power is largely illusory, for who can hope to direct every word and deed
of all with whom the child has to do. Viewed as an art, the
success of education is almost impossible since the essential conditions of
success are beyond our control. Our efforts may bring us within sight of the
goal, but fortune must favour us if we are to reach it. What is this goal? As we
have just shown, it is the goal of nature. Since all three modes of education
must work together, the two that we can control must follow the lead of that
which is beyond our control. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1762) Émile (1911 edn.), London: Dent, pp.6.
|
The focus on
the environment, on the need to develop opportunities for new experiences and
reflection, and on the dynamic provided by each person's development remain
very powerful ideas.
We'll quickly list some of
the key elements that we still see in his writing:
· a view of children as very different to adults - as innocent, vulnerable, slow to mature - and entitled to freedom and happiness (Darling 1994: 6). In other words, children are naturally good.
·
the
idea that people develop through various stages - and that different forms of
education may be appropriate to each.
·
a
guiding principle that what is to be learned should be determined by an
understanding of the person's nature at each stage of their development.
· an appreciation that individuals vary within stages - and that education must as a result be individualized. 'Every mind has its own form'
·
each
and every child has some fundamental impulse to activity. Restlessness in time
being replaced by curiosity; mental activity being a direct development of
bodily activity.
·
the
power of the environment in determining the success of educational encounters.
It was crucial - as Dewey also recognized - that educators attend to the
environment. The more they were able to control it - the more effective would
be the education.
· the controlling function of the educator - The child, Rousseau argues, should remain in complete ignorance of those ideas which are beyond his/her grasp. (This he sees as a fundamental principle).
·
the
importance of developing ideas for ourselves, to make sense of the world in our
own way. People must be encouraged to reason their way through to their own conclusions
- they should not rely on the authority of the teacher. Thus, instead of being
taught other people's ideas, Émile is encouraged to draw his own conclusions
from his own experience. What we know today as 'discovery learning' One
example, Rousseau gives is of Émile breaking a window - only to find he gets
cold because it is left unrepaired.
·
a
concern for both public and individual education.
We could go on - all we
want to do is to establish what a far reaching gift Rousseau gave. We may well
disagree with various aspects of his scheme - but there can be no denying his
impact then - and now. It may well be, as Darling (1994: 17) has argued, that
the history of child-centred educational theory is a series of footnotes to
Rousseau.
Rousseau believed it was
possible to preserve the original nature of the child by careful control of his
education and environment based on an analysis of the different physical and
psychological stages through which he passed from birth to maturity (Stewart
and McCann 1967). As we have seen he thought that momentum for learning was
provided by growth of the person (nature).
In Émile, Rousseau divides
development into five stages (a book is devoted to each). Education in the
first two stages seeks to the senses: only when Émile is about 12 does the
tutor begin to work to develop his mind. Later, in Book 5, Rousseau examines
the education of Sophie (whom Émile is to marry). Here he sets out what he sees
as the essential differences that flow from sex. 'The man should be strong and
active; the woman should be weak and passive' (Everyman edn: 322). From this
difference comes a contrasting education. They are not to be brought up in
ignorance and kept to housework: Nature means them to think, to will, to love
to cultivate their minds as well as their persons; she puts these weapons in
their hands to make up for their lack of strength and to enable them to direct
the strength of men. They should learn many things, but only such things as
suitable' (Everyman edn.: 327). The stages below are those associated with
males.
Stage 1: Infancy (birth
to two years). The
first stage is infancy, from birth to about two years. (Book I). Infancy
finishes with the weaning of the child. He sets a number of maxims, the
spirit of which is to give children 'more real liberty and less power, to let
them do more for themselves and demand less of others; so that by
teaching them from the first to confine their wishes within the limits of their
powers they will scarcely feel the want of whatever is not in their power'
(Everyman edn: 35).
The only habit the child
should be allowed to acquire is to contract none... Prepare in good time form
the reign of freedom and the exercise of his powers, by allowing his body its
natural habits and accustoming him always to be his own master and follow the
dictates of his will as soon as he has a will of his own. (Émile, Book 1 -
translation by Boyd 1956: 23; Everyman edn: 30)
Stage 2: 'The age of
Nature' (two to 12).
The second stage, from two to ten or twelve, is 'the age of Nature'. During
this time, the child receives only a 'negative education': no moral
instruction, no verbal learning. He sets out the most important rule of
education: 'Do not save time, but lose it... The mind should be left
undisturbed till its faculties have developed' (Everyman edn.: 57; Boyd: 41).
The purpose of education at this stage is to develop physical qualities and
particularly senses, but not minds. In the latter part of Book II,
Rousseau describes the cultivation of each of Émile's five senses in turn.
Stage 3: Pre-adolescence
(12-15). Émile in
Stage 3 is like the 'noble savage' Rousseau describes in The Social Contract.
'About twelve or thirteen the child's strength increases far more rapidly than
his needs' (Everyman edn.: 128). The urge for activity now takes a mental form;
there is greater capacity for sustained attention (Boyd 1956: 69). The educator
has to respond accordingly.
Our real teachers are
experience and emotion, and man will never learn what befits a man except under
its own conditions. A child knows he must become a man; all the ideas he may
have as to man's estate are so many opportunities for his instruction, but he
should remain in complete ignorance of those ideas which are beyond his grasp.
My whole book is one continued argument in support of this fundamental
principle of education. (Everyman edn: 141; Boyd: 81)
The only book Émile is
allowed is Robinson Crusoe - an expression of the solitary, self-sufficient man
that Rousseau seeks to form (Boyd 1956: 69).
Stage 4: Puberty
(15-20). Rousseau
believes that by the time Émile is fifteen, his reason will be well developed,
and he will then be able to deal with he sees as the dangerous emotions of
adolescence, and with moral issues and religion. The second paragraph of the
book contains the famous lines: 'We are born, so to speak, twice over; born
into existence, and born into life; born a human being, and born a man'
(Everyman edn: 172). As before, he is still wanting to hold back societal pressures
and influences so that the 'natural inclinations' of the person may emerge
without undue corruption. There is to be a gradual entry into community life
(Boyd 1956: 95). Most of Book IV deals with Émile's moral development. (It also
contains the the statement of Rousseau's' his own religious principles, written
as 'The creed of a Savoyard priest', which caused him so much trouble with the
religious authorities of the day).
Stage 5: Adulthood
(20-25). In Book V,
the adult Émile is introduced to his ideal partner, Sophie. He learns about
love, and is ready to return to society, proof, Rousseau hopes, after such a
lengthy preparation, against its corrupting influences. The final task of the
tutor is to 'instruct the the young couple in their marital rights and duties'
(Boyd 1956: 130).
Sophie. This last book includes a
substantial section concerning the education of woman. Rousseau subscribes to a
view that sex differences go deep (and are complementary) - and that education
must take account of this. 'The man should be strong and active; the woman
should be weak and passive; he one must have both the power and the will; it is
enough that the other should offer little resistance' (Everyman edn: 322).
Sophie's training for womanhood upto the age of ten involves physical training
for grace; the dressing of dolls leading to drawing, writing, counting and
reading; and the prevention of idleness and indocility. After the age of ten
there is a concern with adornment and the arts of pleasing; religion; and the training
of reason. 'She has been trained careful rather than strictly, and her taste
has been followed rather than thwarted' (Everyman edn: 356). Rousseau then goes
on to sum her qualities as a result of this schooling (356-362).
Rousseau's gift to later
generations is extraordinarily rich - and problematic. Émile was the most
influential work on education after Plato's Republic, The Confessions
were the most important work of autobiography since that of St Augustine
(Wokler 1995: 1); The Reveries played a significant role in the
development of romantic naturalism; and The Social Contract has provided
radicals and revolutionaries with key themes since it was published. Yet
Rousseau can be presented at the same time as deeply individualist, and as controlling
and pandering to popularist totalitarianism. In psychology he looked to stage
theory and essentialist notions concerning the sexes (both of which continue to
plague us) yet did bring out the significance of difference and of the impact
of the environment. In life he was difficult he was difficult to be around, and
had problems relating to others, yet he gave glimpses of a rare connectedness.
Books by Jean-Jacques
Rousseau. Here we
have listed the main texts:
Rousseau, J-J. (1750) A
Discourse: Has the restoration of the arts and sciences had a purifying effect
upon morals? Available in a single volume with The Social Contract,
London: Dent Everyman. The essay that first established Rousseau.
Rousseau, J-J (1755) A
Discourse on Inequality. Translated with an introduction by M. Cranston
(1984 edn.), London: Penguin. Also available as an Everyman Book in a single
volume with The Social Contract. Said to be one of the most
revolutionary documents to have come out of eighteenth-century Europe. Seeks to
show how the growth of civilization corrupts man's natural happiness and
freedom by creating artificial inequalities of wealth, power and social
privilege. Rousseau contends that primitive man is equal to his fellows because
he can be independent of them, but as societies become more sophisticated, the
strongest and most intelligent members of the community gain an unnatural
advantage over their weaker brethren, and the constitutions set up to rectify
these imbalances through peace and justice in fact do nothing but perpetuate
them.
Rousseau, J-J (1755) A
Discourse on Political Economy. Available as part of The Social
Contract and Discourses, London: Everyman/Dent.
Rousseau, J-J. (1761) La
Nouvelle Heloise (The New Heloise: Julie, or the New Eloise : Letters of Two
Lovers, Inhabitants of a Small Town at the Foot of the Alps), Pennsylvania
University Press. Story based on the relationship between Abelard and Heloise.
Rousseau, J-J. (1762) Émile,
London: Dent (1911 edn.) Also available in edition translated and annotated by
Allan Bloom (1991 edn.), London: Penguin. Rousseau's exploration of education
took the form of a novel concerning the tutoring of a young boy.
Rousseau, J-J (1762) The
Social Contract, London: Penguin. (1953 edn.) Translated and introduced by
Maurice Cranston. Also first published in 1762. (also published by Dent
Everyman along with the Discourses).
Rousseau, J-J. (1782) Rousseau
juge de Jean-Jacques, Dialogues (Rousseau, judge of Jean-Jacques,
dialogues / edited by Roger D. Masters and Christopher Kelly ; tran slated by
Judith R. Bush, Christopher Kelly, and Roger D. Masters) (1990 edn),
Hanover : Published for Dartmouth College by University Press of New England.
Conversation between a seeker of truth about Jean-Jacques (Rousseau) and the
'Frenchman' - someone who had been a victim of the various 'slanders' made
about J-J.
Rousseau, J-J (1782) The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1953
edn.), London: Penguin. Extraordinary
reading. 'By writing his Confessions Rousseau not only wanted to know
himself and alleviate his guilt, he sought also to recapture the happiness of
the past, to saviour again those brief but precious occasions when he felt that
he had been truly himself and had lived as nature had wanted' (Grimsley 1973:
137)
Rousseau, J-J (1782) Reveries
of the Solitary Walker. Translated with an introduction by P. France,
London: Penguin. Unfinished series of reflections combining argument with
anecdote and description. 'As he wanders around Paris, gazing at plants and
day-dreaming, Rousseau looks back over his life in order to justify his actions
and to elaborate on his view of a well-structured society fit for the noble and
solitary natural man' This edition includes an introduction, notes and a brief
chronology.
Many of these are available
as e-texts (see below).
Books on Jean-Jacques Rousseau. There is a large number of books to choose from (especially you are
fluent in French!) Listed here you will find those books we have found most
useful in putting together this page:
Boyd, W. (1956) Émile
for Today. The Émile of Jean Jaques Rousseau selected, translated and
interpreted by William Boyd, London: Heinemann. Boyd does a good job in
cutting down the book to its central elements for educators - and provides a
very helpful epilogue on natural education and national education.
Cranston, M. (1983)
Jean-Jacques, (1991) The Noble Savage, (1997) The Solitary Self.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau in exile and adversity, Chicago: University of
Chicago Press (also Allan Lane). The standard English language treatment of
Rousseau in three volumes. Wonderful stuff.
Grimsley, R. (1969) Jean-Jacques
Rousseau: A study in self-awareness, 2e, Cardiff: University of Wales
Press. Provides some good insights into Rousseau's character and psychology.
Grimsley, R. (1973) The
Philosophy of Rousseau, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Useful summary
and overview of Rousseau's thinking. Chapters on society; nature; the
psychological and moral development of the individual; religion; political theory;
aesthetic ideas; and the problem of personal existence.
Mason, J. H. (1979) The
Indispensable Rousseau, London: .Good overview of Rousseau plus a good
selection of extracts from his work.
Masters, R. D. (1968) The
Political Philosophy of Rousseau, Princeton NJ: Princeton University
Press. Detailed study of Rousseau's political and educational thinking as they
form a systematic doctrine.
Wokler, R. (1996) Rousseau,
Oxford: Oxford University Press. Published in the 'Past Masters' series,
this book provides an good overview of Rousseau's work and contribution.
See, also, P. D. Jimack's
helpful introduction to The Social Contract and Discourses, London:
Everyman.
For a brief introduction to
his life see:
Smith, L. . and Smith, J.
K. (1994) Lives in Education. A narrative of people and ideas 2e, New
York: St Martins Press.
See also:
Hampson, N. (1990) The
Enlightenment, London: Penguin. Good overview of key themes and contexts -
and how these informed romanticism and later revolutionary crises.
Barry, B. (1967) "The
Public Interest", in Quinton, A. (ed.) Political Philosophy,
Oxford: Oxford University Press
Bloom, A. (1991)
'Introduction' to Rousseau, J-J. (1762) Émile, London: Penguin.
Darling, J. (1994) Child-Centred
Education and its Critics, London: Paul Chapman.
Dent, N.J.H. (1988) Rousseau:
An Introduction to his Psychological, Social and Political Theory, Oxford:
Basil Blackwell
Melzer, A.M. (1990) The
Natural Goodness of Man: On the Sytem of Rousseau's Thought, Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
Miller, J. (1984) Rousseau:
Dreamer of Democracy, London: Yale University Press
Quinton, A. (1996)
'Philosophical romanticism' in T. Honderich (ed.) The Oxford Companion to
Philosophy, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Soëtard, , M. (1995) 'Jean-Jacques Rousseau' in Z. Morsy (ed.) Thinkers on Education Volume 4, Paris: UNESCO.
Stewart, W. A. C. and
McCann, W. P. (1967) The Educational Innovators. Volume 1 1750--1880,
London: Macmillan.
How to cite this article: Michele Erina Doyle and Mark K. Smith (2007) ‘Jean-Jacques Rousseau on education’, the encyclopaedia of informal education, http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-rous.htm. Last update:
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