Emile of Jean Jacques Rousseau: Selections, no.10

(Book 966 from 1001 books) - Émile; or, On Education = Treatise on Education, Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Emile, or On Education or Émile, or Treatise on Education is a profound treatise on the nature of education and the nature of man, penned by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He regarded it as the "best and most important" of all his writings. Rousseau's masterpiece on the education and training of the young is a remarkable work that has endured for more than seventy years. It presents a highly readable and engrossing text that simultaneously offers a wholly new sense of the importance and relevance of Rousseau's thought to us.

In Iran, it has been published under various titles such as "Émile", "Émile: A Treatise on Education and Training", "Education and Training", etc. The author is Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and it was first read with the translation by Mr. Manouchehr Kia on the second day of March 1972 AD. There have been multiple editions and translations, with different publishers and page numbers.

Rousseau emphasizes that every individual may have a particular will, contrary or different from the general will that he has as a citizen. He also states that it is better to refrain from using the words that adults use about morality for the young. It is useless to teach the young words and symbols that have no meaning for them. He writes that if we have no ideas about things, how can words bring mental ideas into existence? Words are actually symbols that are related to things or ideas. For a young person, words can be used to present things in their absence. However, if these words only represent ideas, such as moral concepts, they will not be related to the real world but will embody a mental world that is not the world of the young.

The conclusion that Rousseau reaches is that in order not to change the nature of the mentalities that the young have about morality, it is ideal to limit their knowledge to sensory experiences. According to the principle that education must preserve the natural rhythm of the young, Rousseau suggests that the learning process of the young should not be rushed. After showing the dangers that exist in the education of the young when using moral words before they are able to understand them, he concludes that the mentalities of the young are limited to sensory data. Reason takes shape in two ways in the process of the individual's psychological development. First, there is "sensory reason", which is the most elementary and forms the core or "mental reason". Sensory reason precedes mental reason in terms of time. Appropriate education of sensory reason should make the expansion of mental reason possible.

Date of dissemination: 19/08/1399 Hijri Shamsi; 23/06/1400 Hijri Shamsi; A. Sharbiani

Harari refers to it as “the eighteenth-century bible of feeling,” while Wikipedia describes it as “an educational treatise on the place of the individual in society.”

I had come across Rousseau here and there, but it is truly fascinating to study him within the historical context, considering he was one of the first philosophers of the humanist revolution.

Regrettably, religious dogmas persist and continue to harm people both implicitly and explicitly worldwide. However, ironically, and I say this with a certain degree of pleasure, even religious zealots embrace Rousseau’s humanistic discourse when attempting to sway opinions.

This indicates that they will soon be relegated to the only value they possess in our era - a metaphorical one.

Perhaps then we will start to comprehend that even the humanist revolution is not definitive, that we are not unique, and that the world unfolds in accordance with its own laws.

Hopefully, in our endeavor to make sense of it or assign value, we won't prematurely obliterate ourselves.

Those who are restricted in childhood do not realize that humanity was free to perish if man had not begun as a child. We are born weak, in need of strength; we are born naked, in need of everything, in need of help; we are born foolish, in need of discrimination. And all that we lack when we are born and that we need in adulthood is given to us by education.

Education comes to us either from nature, from people, or from things. The development of our faculties and our inner impulses is the education of nature; what we learn from the usefulness of that development is the education of people; and what we acquire from our experience with the things that affect us is the education of things.

#Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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This educational book is more than wonderful and useful. I started reading it in November -2015 and finished it in 3-2016. It was the longest period of reading and mental digestion because it is an educational journey that requires patience. Although it is aimed at explaining the best educational methods for children, its good effect and usefulness apply to any reader at any age stage.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "Emile, or On Education" is a treatise on the education and upbringing of children. Given that Rousseau himself abandoned his own children, this book may seem comical to the reader. However, we must not forget that anyone can have solid and correct beliefs and theories but be unable to act on them. In my opinion, the author's personal life decisions, even regarding his children, cannot overshadow the rightness or wrongness of the book's content. But overall, although the theories presented in this book seem correct and effective, in my view, many of them have little application, at least in the eyes of today's reader.

Rousseau in this book aims to draw man out of the society that causes his unhappiness and lead him back to nature, believing that life in nature will bring peace, freedom, and goodness. Rousseau raises his fictional child Emile in nature, away from society and its laws, and believes that education based on the principles of society will never create a happy child. This theory is so far from expectations and abstraction that it makes the modern apartment-dwelling reader a little depressed. In my opinion, a book written for the purpose of educating children should be realistic because by escaping from reality, eliminating all the laws of society, and excluding all the unwanted people in society, perhaps a fictional and good child can be raised by a river and in a jungle, but that child must remain there for the rest of his life because there will be no ideal place for such a child in society. Undoubtedly, the combination of urban education with nature will result in nothing but the cultivation of the child's spirit and creativity, and this is one of the remarkable and beautiful points of this book. But Rousseau has dealt with the problem in a somewhat unrealistic way in some cases. The first chapter of the book emphasizes the role of nature in child-rearing and the very important role of parents in education. Rousseau points out that the task of education must be carried out by the father or mother, and in the absence of parents, by a suitable person, so that the child does not go astray.

In the following sections, Rousseau places a great deal of emphasis on the health of the child, stating that a child who is born strong will remain strong. Another notable point is Rousseau's emphasis on not presenting complex and general issues to the child. He argues that the child's mind should not be burdened and tired with things that he is unable to understand because it will prevent him from learning things that he can understand through practice, in nature, and in his own way. In other words, the child should be allowed to be a child, as all the evidence shows. Rousseau believes that children should not be taught but should be allowed to learn on their own. They should be given space and freedom to learn how to live from childhood itself, and we should not be afraid of wasting time for the child.

The fifth book, which is written on the subject of Emile's marriage, seems to me to be unrealistic, somewhat gender-biased, and impractical. Rousseau has pre-imagined Emile's ideal wife, Sophie, and has pre-acquainted Emile with the characteristics of such a fictional wife, and by good fortune, he has found her with the same angelic characteristics! This part of the book was somewhat indigestible for me, not only because of its abstract nature but also because of sentences such as: "It is obvious that all little girls learn to read and write reluctantly and without enthusiasm, but when they take up a needle, it is not so, and they learn it with a special will and enthusiasm." It is astonishing that Rousseau, with all his thoughtfulness and interesting theories, makes such generalizations about women. But by ignoring the impractical and gender-biased parts, overall, this book can be a good guide in the field of education and upbringing, but we must not forget other sources in this regard.

The beginning was quite promising, filled with many accepted or at least agreeable ideas regarding holistic education. However, as the first chapter began, I started to oppose some of the ideas. Especially, this email is just a fictional personality, and John Jack only applied this educational method in his mind. (He was capable of applying this method to one of his five children, but he chose to put them in an institution because he knew he was not fit to be a father, and this book is the best proof of that.)

The book has several contradictions regarding the education of the boy Emil and the girl Sophie. So, how could a girl with Sophie's qualities create a beast like Emil again? This method is truly the real meaning of wrong education. If we apply it, we will find ourselves creating Tarzans or Frankensteins of the century. But this version requires a mother like a cow, for example, because a wolf's milk makes the child suffer from stomach ulcers.

The book rambles on and on, except in some cases. But the scale of rambling outweighed, which made me follow a visual reading method to finish it. Generally, I do not recommend it because the field of educational science is full of useful and coherent books.

I am currently studying teaching, and together with my classmates, we jointly read this book.

Throughout the reading process and even after finishing reading it, it provided a basis for us to debate about education.

The exchange of thoughts and ideas made this process extremely enriching.

For these reasons, in my opinion, it deserves 4 stars.

This book not only contains valuable knowledge about education but also encourages us to think deeply and share our own perspectives.

The discussions we had helped us to better understand different educational concepts and approaches.

Moreover, it enhanced our ability to communicate and collaborate with each other.

Overall, I believe that this book is a great resource for anyone interested in education and would highly recommend it.

My favorite aspect of this is that once it was published, individuals began to rear their children in the Rousseau manner.

Surprisingly, a significant number of these children ended up becoming extremely uncontrollable brats.

As a result, some parents were so desperate that they even resorted to sending their kids off to sea.

This phenomenon showcases the interesting and perhaps somewhat unexpected consequences that can arise when a particular parenting ideology is widely adopted.

It also makes one wonder about the balance between following a specific approach and adapting it to the unique nature of each child.

Perhaps a more nuanced and individualized approach to parenting would be more beneficial in the long run.

Read for uni, don't @ me

Rousseau's "Emile" is a complex and influential work that has both strengths and weaknesses.

\n  If all the philosophers in the world should prove that I am wrong, and you feel that I am right, that is all I ask.\n

My reaction to Rousseau is similar to that of Thoreau. While I am impressed by their vision and rhetoric, I find their personalities grating. Both are self-involved, prickly, and vain. They praise wild isolation at the expense of society.

Rousseau's educational ideas are revolutionary. He emphasizes experiential learning and the importance of considering a child's development. However, his program is impractical and his view of nature as intrinsically good is incorrect.

The book also contains digressions, some of which are excellent and others pointless. Rousseau can be repetitive, making the book longer than necessary.

Despite its flaws, "Emile" is a significant work that touches on many aspects of society. Rousseau was a prophet who correctly sensed the artificiality of his society. His faults concealed the revolutionary reach of his vision.