Rousseau and education

Jean-jacques rousseau accomplishments

Jean-Jacques Rousseau b. He is probably most famous for his social and political philosophy. His first love, he claimed, was not philosophy but music. He wrote a successful opera, and designed a new system of musical notation. He is often characterized as an Enlightenment thinker, and he does express some core Enlightenment ideals such as the rejection of certain established dogma.

However, his work is also counter-Enlightenment in important ways. In his first successful work, the Discourse on the Sciences and Arts , he argues that morality and virtue can actually be corrupted by progress. Additionally, Rousseau understands the creation of civil society itself as the source of the worst of human vices. The theme of nature, and specifically human nature, as inherently good is one of the most important in his writings.

Against the criticism that his works are inconsistent with one another, he claims that this is the central idea underlying the system of his thought.

Jean-jacques rousseau fun facts

Current society, however, is united under a specious social contract put in place by those in power to keep their advantage. It is nearly impossible to achieve virtue in such a society. The former focuses on the moral education of an individual in a corrupt society. There are many general overviews written on Rousseau. The sources listed here provide a sampling of some of the more influential of these works and provide sources aimed at various different audiences.