Jean Jacques Rousseau[1712-1778]
1.1
Human nature
The original state of nature is portrayed as idyllic…the “noble savage” is governed by free impulse, displaying pity and sympathy for his fellows [contrasts with Hobbes’ view of the state of nature: war of all against all]…Rousseau’s state of nature: a social and political fiction to help understand one aspect of human nature which is operative at all times…the primitivism embodied in the injunction “return to nature” is not a demand to return to nature in its naiveté and simplicity: rather, it is an injunction to man, within the framework of civilized society, to remake himself by cultivating those feelings which promote equality and social justice, to remold social institutions to realize a just and democratic government.
1.2
Political
philosophy
Rousseau prefers representative to
direct government…takes Locke’s democratic ideal seriously…if all men are
created free and equal they should have equal political rights [Rousseau’s
ideas found their way into The Declaration of the Rights of Man of 1789
and 1793]
1.3
Educational
philosophy
Rousseau makes a plea for natural
education, for the free development of the child’s natural and unspoiled
impulses – [although Kant admired Rousseau through whom he was “learning to
respect mankind”…Bertrand Russell despised him as the source of much confusion
of “sentiment” and reason and as the source of the reign of Robespierre and the
dictatorships in
.jpg)
