Presented by Reshma R. Pillai & Ananthakrishnan K.U.

Biography  Born in Geneva on June 28, 1712  Suzanne Bernard, his mother, died a week after he was born  Brother ran away from home  Isaac Rousseau, his father, left Geneva to avoid imprisonment  Was raised by his uncle after his father left  Was sent to study in the village of Bosey.

Philosophical Ideas Did this political thinker think people could govern themselves?  Believed people could govern themselves  Sees freedom and liberty not to do whatever you want but the opportunity to do the right thing.  includes obedience to authority, an authority agreed on by the citizens not a forced authority.

Biography (cont.)  Apprenticed to an engraver  1725; left and went to Annecy due to his master being violent  1742; went to Paris to become a composer and musician  Wrote the books – o Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality(1754) o Lettre sur les spectacles(1758) o La Nouvelle Héloise(1761) o The Social Contract(1762) o Émile(1762) o Réveries(1782)

Philosophical Ideas (cont.) What are the underlining ideas behind Rousseau’s thinking?  Was isolated from other children  No formal education  Draws influence from his relationships  Thérèse Lavasseur: o Companion to Rousseau (believed she had a ‘pure heart’) o Had five children but gave them up to an orphanage because they felt they would be better off  Found living amongst people difficult o Preferring solitary life o Felt like he maliciously attacked, particularly by Voltaire

Philosophical Ideas (cont.) Is humankind basically good or bad?  Children naturally good, innocent.  He writes “Make the citizen good by training”, “and everything else will follow”.  Training = education o Education should be personalized depending on the stage, nature of the individual.  Develop ideas for your own based on experience, not be taught other peoples ideas  Humans are by nature good - and it is society's institutions that corrupt them

Major works  Rousseau advocates a "natural education";  In Émile he recounts the ideal education of a young man, accompanied by a teacher, away from the corrupt society.  He argues that man must act according to their natural interests and not by imposition of external rules and artificial.

Major works  He wrote constitutions for Corsica and for Poland, The Letters of the Mountain and the Confessions.  His work was hotly contested, especially by the Church, and caused a great revolution in educational ideas.

Émile  Novel published in  Rousseau wants a social change made by education, arguing that the child develops affirming his being according to his own personal experience, because the society corrupts man.

Major works

Montmorency, France: Rousseau’s escape to Yverdon (Switz.)

Rousseau and Politics  Rousseau only accepted the democratic society.  The society of his age, being stratified, prevented the development of the good nature of man.

Conclusions: Jean-Jacques Rousseau was limited by the time when he lived, but his contribution to education in the West was crucial.  The view of the child as a specific being, never as a "miniature adult";  The focus of the educational process on the student;  The value of manual work;  The idea of educating women,  Opened the way for new approaches on childhood.