Rousseau: Stages

Rousseau: Original Sin and the Stages of Childhood

Once Rousseau has put the child at the centre, three further questions follow. Where does goodness come from in a person? What forces shape that goodness as a child grows? And what does education look like across the stages of childhood? This chapter walks through his answers: the rejection of original sin, the three sources of education, the principle of negative education, and the four developmental stages with detailed advice for infancy and early childhood.

The Denial of Original Sin

Why Rousseau argued the child is born good, the church and state response to Emile, and the naturalistic alternative he proposed

The Three Sources of Education

Education from nature, from men, and from things, and why Rousseau ranked nature’s source above the other two

The Principle of Negative Education

The argument for guarding the heart against vice before teaching virtue, and why the order matters when the child is born good

The Four Stages of Education

Infancy, childhood, boyhood, and youth as the four periods of development, each with its own dominant faculty and its own rules

Infancy: The First Five Years

The body, the senses, individuality, free movement, physical hardship, and Rousseau’s claim that education springs from within

Childhood: Five to Twelve

Prevent rather than forbid, natural consequences, liberty of action, and Rousseau’s sharp criticism of rote learning and books