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Rousseau on Education

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Rousseau's ideas on how to educate children so they retain their natural selves and are not corrupted by society.

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) on the education of children, as set out in his novel or treatise Emile, published in 1762. He held that children are born with natural goodness, which he sought to protect as they developed, allowing each to form their own conclusions from experience, avoiding the domineering influence of others. In particular, he was keen to stop infants forming the view that human relations were based on domination and subordination. Rousseau viewed Emile as his most imporant work, and it became very influential. It was also banned and burned, and Rousseau was attacked for not following these principles with his own children, who he abandoned, and for proposing a subordinate role for women in this scheme.

The image above is of Emile playing with a mask on his mother's lap, from a Milanese edition published in 1805.

With

Richard Whatmore
Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews and Co-Director of the St Andrews Institute of Intellectual History

Caroline Warman
Professor of French Literature and Thought at Jesus College, Oxford

and

Denis McManus
Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southampton

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Available now

52 minutes

Last on

Thu 10 Oct 2019 21:30
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4

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LINKS AND FURTHER READING

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READING LIST:

Isabelle de Charrière (trans. Joan Stewart Hinde), Letters from Mistress Henley Published by Her Friend (first published 1784; Modern Language Association of America, 1993)

Isabelle de Charrière (trans. Caroline Warman), Letters from Mistress Henley Published by Her Friend in Caroline Warman, The Nobleman and Other Romances (Penguin, 2012)

Maurice Cranston, Jean-Jacques: The Early Life and Work (Norton, 1982)

Maurice Cranston, The Noble Savage (University of Chicago Press, 1991)

Maurice Cranston, The Solitary Self (University of Chicago Press, 1997)

Leo Damrosch, Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2005)

Nicholas Dent, Rousseau (Routledge, 2005)

Peter Jimack, Rousseau: Emile (Grant and Cutler, 1983)

Patrick Riley, The Cambridge Companion to Rousseau (Cambridge University Press, 2001)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (trans. Allan Bloom), Emile, or On Education (Penguin, 1991)ΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύΜύ

Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (trans. Helen Maria Williams), Paul et Virginie (first published 1788; CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2012)

CΓ©line Spector, Rousseau (Polity, 2019)

Robert Wokler, Rousseau: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2001)

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Broadcasts

  • Thu 10 Oct 2019 09:00
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
  • Thu 10 Oct 2019 21:30
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4

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