Emile, or On Education (1762)

The work tackles fundamental political and philosophical questions about the relationship between the individual and society. It discusses how, in particular, the individual might retain what Rousseau saw as innate human goodness while remaining part of a corrupting collectivity. Its opening sentence: “Everything is good as it leaves the hands of the Author of things; everything degenerates in the hands of man.”
Rousseau seeks to describe a system of education that would enable the natural man he identifies in The Social Contract to survive corrupt society. He employs the story of Emile and his tutor to illustrate how such an ideal citizen might be educated. Emile is scarcely a detailed parenting guide but it does contain some specific advice on raising children. It is regarded by some as the first philosophy of education in Western culture to have a serious claim to completeness, as well as being one of the first examples of a Bildungsroman, having preceded Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship by more than thirty years.
This educational romance by Rousseau describes the up-bringing of the boy, Emile, according to what Rousseau calls the principles of nature. These principles are so extreme as to denigrate the value of civilization, to the detriment of Emile and all who follow Rousseau's principles. This approach does not seem appropriate for modern education. ( )

I am still fascinated by this book concerning the negative attitude, Rousseau adopts against his pupil in the question, how to deal with sexuality. The philosopher seems to be an early apologist of a repression which later on was generalised in the Victorianism.

"[A] wounded spirit, who can bare? This book is full of symptons of such a spirit." (Inscribed on verso of title page, Vol. 2).

ur inner conflicts are caused by these contradictions. Drawn this way by nature and that way by man, compelled to yield to both forces, we make a compromise and reach neither goal. We go through life, struggling and hesitating, and die before we have found peace, useless alike to ourselves and to others.

Great book covering Rousseau's educational views. I don't know if I can support everything he suggests. Following his advice could conceivably either result in a genius or someone incapable of the simplest tasks. Some of what he suggests is extreme, some seems like common sense now, it can be hard to realize how radical some of his advice was given the time the book was written in. ( )