Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a very significant man not only during his time, the time of the Enlightenment, but also in the formation of some of the modern principles and ideals seen today. He led an interesting yet controversial life and had opinions of the same sort. He made important contributions to philosophy, literature, and music with his presenting of his ideas, publishing of books, and composing of music. He is still regarded today as an important intellectual figure.

Rousseau was born June 28th, 1712, in Geneva, Switzerland and died July 2nd, 1778, in Ermenonville, France (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Jacques_Rousseau). His mother died only nine days after his birth due to complications and his father abandoned him when he was just ten years old in order to avoid being arrested for fighting a duel. He was then put in the care of a pastor by his uncle. As a child he read a great deal. He left Geneva at the age of sixteen on March 3rd, 1728. He met Francoise-Louise de Warens and converted to being a Catholic. He presented a new system of numbered musical notation to the Academie des Sciences but was rejected as impractical and unoriginal. He then went on to become secretary to a French ambassador in Venice for a year and then met Therese Levasseur. According to Rousseau, she bore him five children and each of them was put into a foundling home because Rousseau did not think he would make a good father. He became friends with Denis Diderot and published several articles which were out into Diderot's Encylopedie. He published several books, many of which were banned. He was forced to flee France. He returned years later under a fake name and continued writing. He died during a morning walk in France from a hemorrhage.

Rousseau published several books that illustrated his philosophical views. Perhaps his most important work was The Social Contract, which was published in 1762 (http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/96jun/rousseau.html). In it he described the relationship between man and society. He claimed that, "The state of nature is brutish condition without law and morality and that there are only good men as a result of society's presence." It also outlined the basis for a legitimate political order and developed some of the ideas he had presented in his article Economie Politique (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Jacques_Rousseau). In this book he also explained his idea that men are competitive with one another but at the same time, they are dependent

on one another and that this, so called, double pressure threatened both man's survival and freedom. He said in this book, "that by joining together through the social contract and abandoning their claims of natural right, individuals can both preserve themselves and remain free and this is because submission to authority of the general will of the people as a whole guarantees individuals against being subordinated to the wills of others and also ensures that they obey themselves because they are the authors of the law." This book outlined many of Rousseau's theories about politics.

He wrote a different book to outline his views on education and how children should be educated. He wrote Emile, which was also published in 1762 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Jacques_Rousseau). He wrote this book as semi-fictitious about a boy named Emile. In it he says that the goal of education is to learn how to live and this is accomplished by following a guardian, or role model, who can point you in the correct direction of how to live. He divided the growth of a child into three stages, the first being when the child is around the age of twelve and the child lives like an animal because calculating and complex thinking is not is not possible. The second stage takes place when the child is from the age of twelve to sixteen and this is when reason begins to develop. The final stage happens after the child reaches sixteen years old and this is where the child begins to develop into an adult. He considered using the ideas in this book to be living in a healthy state. He did not consider this way to educating to be gender-neutral and used the character of Sophie, the girl Emile is supposed to marry to illustrate the way a woman should be educated. Rousseau thought that men should be educated to govern themselves and their families while women should be educated to be governed by their husbands. The private sphere, or private life, as he imagined it depended on the subordination of women in order for both it and the public and political sphere to function in the way that Rousseau thought it should. His views in this book were seen as impractical to many and as a result of this, Emile was criticized. It was eventually banned from France and Geneva because of Rousseau's view that man is good by nature. This view conflicted with the theory of original sin and gave officials all the more reason to condemn this book.

Rousseau had very controversial views on religion and his views got him into some trouble. They gave reason to the condemnation of Emile as well as the condemnation of The Social Contract. Rousseau said in this book that he thought that true followers of Jesus would not make for good citizens (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Jacques_Rousseau). Though his controversial thoughts made it so some of his works were banned in both France and Geneva, the two places he spent more time, and he was no longer allowed to publish anymore work, he began to hold private readings of his work, especially his book, Confessions, in 1771 until the police ordered him to stop. His controversial views put him over the top and on the minds of people.

Rousseau's philosophical views boosted him to being seen as an intellectual figurehead. Hi wrote his Discourse on Arts and Sciences and in it, he argued that, "The arts and sciences had not been beneficial to humankind because they were not human needs, but rather a result of pride and vanity" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Jacques_Rousseau). He also said that both of these created opportunities for idleness and luxury and that this contributed to the corruption of man. He also proposed that the progress humans were making in knowledge had made the government more powerful and that this had made individual liberty almost obsolete.

His Discourse on the Origin of Inequality was what really put him into people's minds as an intellectual and someone to listen to (http://www.iep.utm.edu/r/rousseau.htm). He used this to really express his philosophy and how it was centered around the thought that society had a negative influence on humans (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Jacques_Rousseau). It showed that he saw a large divide between society and human nature as well as his idea that man was good by nature, and nature being, "The state of all other animals,