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Emile: Or Treatise on Education (Great Books in Philosophy) Paperback – August 1, 2003

by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Author), William H. Payne (Translator)

4.3 14 ratings

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In his pioneering treatise on education the great French philosopher presented concepts that had a significant influence on the development of pedagogy, and yet many of his ideas still sound radical today. Written in reaction to the stultifying system of rote learning and memorization prevalent throughout Europe in Rousseau's time, Emile is a utopian vision of child-centered education, full of the sentiments of Romanticism, which Rousseau himself inspired.Imagining a typical boy named Emile, Rousseau creates an ideal model of one-on-one tutelage from infancy to manhood with himself as the child's mentor. "Everything is good as it comes from the hands of the Author of Nature; but everything degenerates in the hands of man." This is the first of many provocative statements that characterize this work and are a hallmark of Rousseau's arresting rhetoric. As in so many of his other famous works, here too Rousseau asserts his main thesis that human beings by nature are good; it is only the distorting influences of civilization that have corrupted them.If this is true, then in educating children one must do nothing to interfere with human nature in its natural course. Far from being the chief means by which society inculcates its rules and principles, education should be the method of helping youths discover the inherent truths of their own human nature. From infancy to young adulthood learning should come purely from personal experience. Rather than imparting facts, teachers should foster self-discovery, so that knowledge is acquired through following innate curiosity, not vicariously through the statements of others.Educators as well as students of philosophy will find much to admire in Rousseau's original and still radical ideas.

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About the Author

JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU was born in Geneva on June 28, 1712, and raised by his father after his mother died giving him life. The reproachment Rousseau experienced at his father's hand produced feelings of guilt and inferiority that were to haunt him throughout his life. During his youth, Rousseau wandered throughout Europe from job to job. Having moved to Paris from the city of Lyon in 1742, Rousseau sought the intellectual life and soon became associated with Denis Diderot and the philosophes.

Rousseau's literary career began with his entry in an essay contest in 1749 on the subject of the relationship of science and the arts to morals. His winning essay, Discourses on Sciences and the Arts, soon became the foundation for his later work entitled the Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (1753). With its publication, he became a figure of some controversy in France. Ideological differences between his views and those of his Enlightenment contemporaries soon surfaced, and Rousseau once again found himself alienated from the intellectual establishment.

His differences with the philosophes proved to be the impetus for Rousseau's future work on the content of human nature and man's relationship to society and the state. Contrary to the individualism and intellectual enlightenment advocated by his contemporaries, Rousseau sought to sublimate individuality in the security of the collective personality known as the general will. This new society would be typified by concern for the community and would be ruled by laws developed through a plan of controlled participation. Rousseau's social theory was developed in his work Julie, ou la Nouvelle Heloise (1761) and in Emile (1762). The institutional structure was constructed in The Social Contract (1761).

In Emile, Rousseau presents his utopian vision of child-centered education, full of the sentiments of Romanticism, a movement that Rousseau inspired.

Rousseau's later years were spent fighting off persecution, both real and imaginary. He died near Paris on July 2, 1778.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1591021111
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Prometheus (August 1, 2003)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 315 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781591021117
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1591021117
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1130L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 16 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.5 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,990,208 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4,237 in Philosophy & Social Aspects of Education
- #5,447 in History of Education
- #13,643 in Literary Criticism & Theory

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4.3 14 ratings

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Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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Jean-Jacques Rousseau (/ruːˈsoʊ/; French: [ʒɑ̃ʒak ʁuso]; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Francophone Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of the 18th century. His political philosophy influenced the Enlightenment in France and across Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolution and the overall development of modern political and educational thought.

Rousseau's novel Emile, or On Education is a treatise on the education of the whole person for citizenship. His sentimental novel Julie, or the New Heloise was of importance to the development of pre-romanticism and romanticism in fiction. Rousseau's autobiographical writings — his Confessions, which initiated the modern autobiography, and his Reveries of a Solitary Walker — exemplified the late 18th-century movement known as the Age of Sensibility, and featured an increased focus on subjectivity and introspection that later characterized modern writing. His Discourse on Inequality and The Social Contract are cornerstones in modern political and social thought.

During the period of the French Revolution, Rousseau was the most popular of the philosophes among members of the Jacobin Club. Rousseau was interred as a national hero in the Panthéon in Paris, in 1794, 16 years after his death.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Maurice Quentin de La Tour [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

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Elperrocanservero

Good translation

Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2018

Great book

Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2014

Excellent novel.

Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2017

Verified Purchase

I bought this book because I needed to read the profession of faith of a savoyard priest but I cannot find it in this copy. Neither could my professor. I can't help but wonder what else was left out but I don't have the time to compare it to copies I know to be complete. Really sad when the iBook store has a full digital copy but a print copy doesn't have the whole book. I would have rather read the print copy but I guess I'll have to make due with the digital (which I hate).

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aixa correa

I was disappointed to see that one of the pages was ripped

Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2015

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I was disappointed to see that one of the pages was ripped. About a quarter of the page was ripped out. I did intend to read the entire book.. So I returned it, got a refund and I'm ordering a different one.

Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2007

Verified Purchase

While the translation is readable, this book is missing sizable chunks of the original text, which is entirely unforgivable. The entire discourse on private property through beans is missing, as well as a discussion on the Savoyard Vicar. This is hardly suitable for either a general reading or deep study, I suggest the Bloom translation instead.

54 people found this helpful

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J. Knapp

The new, expurgated edition.

Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2012

Where the censors in 18th century France failed, the people at "Great Books in Philosophy" succeeded admirably, sanitizing Rousseau's convoluted masterpiece of all its deluded glory. They edited out the "profession de foi" and the more sadistic of the tutor's elaborate exercises, the abhorrent "hidden hand" behavioral manipulation, the eerie panopticon voyeurism, the abnormal obsession with order and control. These are the parts that inspired Robespierre and Danton, Marx, Lenin, and Stalin, which is to say, the parts that are really significant and, unfortunately, enduring.

This must have been abridged to give freshmen elementary education majors a bite size edition to discuss in class for a day or two; as for Rousseau's techniques applied to actual and not theoretical children, I know a two and a half year old who would chew him up and spit him out like creamed cauliflower, long before nap time.

10 people found this helpful

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