Emile on Education (Full Two Volumes) (Full Two Volumes)

Author: Rousseau
Publisher:
Publication Date: 1999-10-01
Features: Emile, or On Education, an important work by the French bourgeois democrat and outstanding Enlightenment thinker Rousseau (1712—1778). Written in 1757, it was first published in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in 1762. When it was published, it caused a sensation throughout France and some bourgeois countries in Western Europe, with a profound impact. This book is not only Rousseau's monograph on bourgeois education but also his famous work on expounding bourgeois social and political thought. After the bourgeois revolutions in the Netherlands and England in the 16th and 17th centuries, 18th-century Western Europe was in a period of increasingly developed and expanding capitalist economy, with feudal society on the brink of collapse and even deeper bourgeois revolutions about to occur. This situation was particularly evident in France. At that time, France was a backward feudal autocracy, and Louis XIV's arrogant maxim, "L'état, c'est moi" (The state is me), reflected this autocratic state of affairs. Feudal nobles and clergy, relying on feudal monarchy and the divine right of kings, imposed heavy oppression on the third estate, placing the entire third estate, including the bourgeoisie, in a politically powerless position. Economically, feudal nobles and clergy owned vast amounts of land and controlled the power of fiscal taxation, brutally exploiting and plundering the third estate, especially the vast working masses of peasants and laborers. However, with the development of capitalist production, the economic power of the bourgeoisie was expanding, making it impossible for them to tolerate such a powerless situation anymore. Opposing feudal oppression, overthrowing the monarchical autocracy, and removing obstacles to capitalist development became the common demand of the third estate. The works of Rousseau and other bourgeois Enlightenment thinkers reflected this demand. Emile, in particular, was Rousseau's effort to oppose the feudal education system and expound his bourgeois educational ideas through the education of his hypothetical student, Emile. Rousseau's educational thought stemmed from his natural philosophy. According to this view, he believed that humans are born free and equal; in a natural state, everyone enjoys these innate rights, but after humans enter the civilized state, inequality, privileges, and servitude arise among them, causing people to lose their natural essence. To change this unreasonable situation, he advocated "natural education" for children, adapting to the natural development process, with the goal of cultivating "new people" for the bourgeois rational kingdom. In Emile, Rousseau poured into the ideal of cultivating such "new people." Rousseau's so-called natural education means submitting to the eternal laws of nature and allowing the free development of the body and mind. Therefore, he believed that the means of this education were life and practice, allowing children to gain the knowledge they needed through direct experience and sensory perception. He advocated the use of concrete teaching and visual teaching methods, opposing the rote memorization of abstract books. The natural education Rousseau promoted should be considered revolutionary and progressive at the time when schools were subordinate to the church and religious doctrines constrained the development of children's personalities. His yearning for bourgeois "individual liberation" was objectively in line with the demands of social progress under the historical conditions of his time. The teaching methods he advocated, such as concrete teaching and visual teaching, though simple, still had some reference value. However, Rousseau was an idealist "deist," and his advocacy of "child-centered education" based on children's personal interests and curiosity, as well as his one-sided emphasis on allowing children to acquire knowledge through personal activities while neglecting systematic scientific and cultural education for children, paved the way for the later spread of utilitarian educational thought in capitalist countries. Closely linked to natural education, Rousseau also advocated labor education for children, as well as education in freedom, equality, and brotherly love, to teach them how to earn a living, to avoid a parasitic life dependent on high-ranking officials and wealth, to be free from the servitude of the powerful, and to enjoy the rights bestowed by nature, with all people being equal and helping each other. Rousseau believed that only through such education could children's minds be spared from the oppression of feudal religious prejudices, enabling them to develop early the ability to govern themselves and maintain their natural habits. When they grew up, they would be skilled at choosing a good system, managing a small plot of land or a workshop without servitude, and pursuing their own happiness. Rousseau's educational ideas were undoubtedly a powerful critique of the feudal autocratic education and religious doctrines of his time, and they played a significant role in inspiring the third estate, especially the bourgeoisie, to rise against feudal autocracy. However, these educational methods were at most capable of cultivating a spontaneous small bourgeoisie. As Engels pointed out, "The great thinkers of the 18th century, like all their predecessors, could not go beyond the limitations imposed by their own time." Rousseau was no exception. Although his educational thought represented the interests and demands of the bourgeoisie and played a progressive role in opposing feudalism at the time, due to the limitations of his era and his own class, he did not understand the science of class and class struggle. Therefore, he did not understand that education had always been class-bound since the division of humanity into classes and that it served the interests of a certain class. For this reason, his theory of natural education was later used by many educators of the monopolistic bourgeoisie, who promoted bourgeois education as "classless" and "apolitical," serving the imperialists in deceiving the working people. This book is divided into five volumes. Based on the age of children, Rousseau proposed principles, content, and methods of education for different age groups. In the first volume, he focuses on how to conduct physical education for infants under two years old to allow them to develop naturally. In the second volume, he believed that children between two and twelve years old were still in a state of mental dormancy, lacking the ability to think, and therefore advocated sensory education for this age group. In the third volume, he believed that adolescents between twelve and fifteen had acquired some experience through sensory perception and therefore mainly discussed intellectual education for them. In the fourth volume, he believed that young people between fifteen and twenty were beginning to enter society and therefore mainly discussed moral education for them. In the fifth volume, he believed that young men and women, due to the needs of natural development, mainly discussed the education of women and the education of love between young men and women. Rousseau's idea of dividing education into stages based on age characteristics was undoubtedly a major progress in the history of education. It provided invaluable insights for the later development of bourgeois pedagogy, especially for the development of educational psychology. However, it should be noted that this division and the method of teaching physical, intellectual, and moral education separately were unscientific. Emile also had a certain influence on the educational circles of China. As early as 1923, it was translated into Chinese from an English abridged version by Wei Zhaoji and published by the Commercial Press. This edition is a complete translation from the original French and is published in two volumes. To balance the length of the two volumes, the part of the fourth volume, "Freedom of Conscience," and beyond has been divided into the second volume. An appendix includes a chronology of Rousseau's life and a glossary of names and place names for reference.