Rousseau: Nature

Rousseau: Nature and the Child

Rousseau is the philosopher who put the child at the centre of education. Before him, most European schooling treated children as small adults who needed correction. After him, child-centred education had a serious philosophical foundation. This chapter opens with his life and his most famous book, Emile, and works through the three meanings of nature he packed into his account of how a child should be raised.

Who Rousseau Was

Born in Geneva in 1712, self-taught, tutor to noblemen, exiled by Paris over Emile, and the man who turned the spotlight onto the child

Nature, the Child, and the Educator

Rousseau’s claim that education should follow nature rather than harness it, and what that means for the relationship between teacher and child

Emile and the Threefold Meaning of Nature

The social, psychological, and physical meanings Rousseau gives to nature, and what each one demands of an educator

Rousseau on Women's Education

Rousseau’s chapter on Sophie, the relative education he proposed for women, and why a modern reader has to set the framing aside

The Purpose of Emile

The book’s stated aim, the civilisation-nature gap it tries to close, and the ultimate goal of preserving natural goodness