The main ideas of the teachings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Philosophical views of Rousseau

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Philosophy report

on the topic “Basic ideas of the social philosophy of J. J. Rousseau”

Performed:

Student of group 104 FEF

Tsaplina Ekaterina

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (French Jean-Jacques Rousseau; June 28, 1712, Geneva - July 2, 1778, Ermenonville, near Paris) - French philosopher, writer, thinker. I studied the direct form of government by the people - direct democracy, which is still used today, for example in Switzerland. Also a musicologist, composer and botanist.

Biography

Jean-Jacques Rousseau - French thinker, a bright figure of French sentimentalism, educator, writer, musicologist, composer - was born on June 28, 1712 in Geneva, Switzerland, although he was French by birth. In 1723-1724. the boy was a pupil of the Protestant boarding house Lambercier near the French border. For some time he was a student of a notary, and a little later of an engraver.

During this period, Madame de Varan, a young wealthy aristocratic widow, appeared in his life, through whose efforts Rousseau was sent to the Turin monastery, where he became a Catholic and because of this lost his Genevan citizenship. In 1730, Rousseau continued to wander around the country, but in 1732 he returned to his patroness.

In 1740, through the efforts of his patroness, he became the tutor of a famous judge from Lyon, and this acquaintance served him well when leaving for the capital. In 1743-1744. Rousseau worked as a secretary at the French embassy in Venice, but returned to Paris, where in 1745 he met Therese Levasseur, who became his life partner, the mother of their five children. They all grew up in an orphanage, because... Rousseau the father believed that he could not raise them himself. His acquaintance with D. Diderot dates back to the same period in his biography. In 1749 J.-J. Rousseau accidentally came across a newspaper advertisement: the Dijon Academy announced a competition for on the topic “Did the revival of the sciences and arts contribute to the purification of morals.” It was Russo who became the winner of the prize, and this event marked the beginning of the most fruitful decade in his activity. In the same year, Rousseau was involved in joint work on the Encyclopedia. In total, he wrote 390 articles for her, most of them musicological.

In 1750, a treatise entitled “Discourse on the Sciences and Arts” was published. The ideas voiced in it of contrasting a civilized society with the natural state were developed in the treatise “Discourses on the beginning and basis of inequality between people” (1755). In the 50s. Rousseau moved more and more away from the capital's literary salons, which kindly received him. In 1754, having traveled to Geneva, he again converted to the Calvinist faith and regained his rights as a citizen.

Returning to France, during 1756-1762. Rousseau led a secluded life, settling in the suburbs of Paris. The novel “Emile” written in 1762 and the political treatise “On the Social Contract” forced their author to leave France to avoid arrest. His works were burned not only in Paris, but also in Geneva. He found refuge in the Principality of Neuchâtel, which belonged to the Prussian king.

In 1770 he returned to France, settled in the capital and was engaged in copying notes. No one was pursuing him, but the writer experienced constant worry, connected with the conspiracies he imagines. In the summer of 1777, Rousseau's friends became seriously concerned about his health. In the spring of the following year, the writer was settled on the estate of the Marquis Girardin Ermenoville, where on July 2 Jean-Jacques Rousseau died suddenly. In 1794, his remains were transferred to the Pantheon.

Rousseau's system of views, his critical attitude towards civilization, urban culture, exaltation of naturalness and nature, the priority of the heart over the mind largely influenced literature and philosophical thought different countries. He was one of the first to point out the downside of civilization. His radical views towards social development became the breeding ground for the Great French Revolution and served as its ideological basis. Rousseau's creative heritage is presented big amount prose works, poems, comedies, poems. He also authored the first national comic opera - “The Rural Sorcerer”.

Philosophy of J. J. Rousseau.

Jean Jacques Rousseau was a supporter of Diezme's philosophical theory.

Deism is a direction in philosophy, whose supporters allowed the existence of God only as the first cause, the Creator of all things, but rejected His any subsequent influence on the surrounding world, man, the course of history, and opposed both the personification of God (endowing Him with personal traits) and against identifying God with nature (pantheism). Prominent French deist philosophers included Voltaire, Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Condillac.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 -- 1778) focused on socio-political philosophy and spoke from the position of revolutionary democracy.

In general, the following main provisions of Rousseau's philosophy can be distinguished. critical inequality philosophical deism

* saw in God the world will and the world mind;

* believed that matter is uncreated and objectively always exists;

* believed that a person consists of a mortal body and an immortal soul;

* was convinced that man is not able to fully understand the world (in particular, the essences of things and phenomena);

* opposed religion as such, against Christianity, however, due to the fear that if religion was eliminated, morals would decline and moral restrictions would disappear, he proposed creating a substitute for religion - “civil religion”, “the cult of a great being (God)”, “ cult of world will" etc.;

* was a supporter of empirical (experienced) knowledge;

* thought main reason contradictions in society: private property;

* sharply criticized feudal-class relations and despotic political regime; He rebelled against his contemporary civilization as a civilization of inequality.

* in fairness, ideal society everyone should have equal rights, and private property should be evenly distributed among all citizens in the amounts necessary for life (but not for enrichment);

* power should be exercised not through parliament, but by citizens - directly through meetings, gatherings,

* in the future state should be applied in principle new system raising children: children should be isolated from the outside world in special educational institutions, where they will be educated into people of a new society - on the ideas of personal freedom, mutual respect, intolerance towards religion and despotism, who master the profession and understand the leading sciences.

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Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born in Geneva on June 28, 1712. This French philosopher and writer of the Enlightenment is known for his pedagogical works and theories. Rousseau is called the founder of romanticism in philosophical science. Some researchers believe that Jean-Jacques Rousseau provoked the French Revolution to some extent.

Childhood and youth

The childhood of the French-Swiss Jean-Jacques Rousseau cannot be called carefree. His mother, Suzanne Bernard, died during childbirth, leaving her son in the care of his father Isaac Rousseau, who worked as a watchmaker and moonlighted as a dance teacher. The man took the death of his wife hard, but tried to direct his love towards raising Jean-Jacques. This became a significant contribution to the development of the younger Rousseau.

The child studied the works from a young age and read “Astraea” with his father. Jean-Jacques imagined himself in the place of the ancient hero Scaevola and deliberately burned his hand. Soon the elder Rousseau had to leave Geneva due to an armed attack, but the boy remained in his home with his uncle. The parent had no idea that his son would become a significant philosopher for this era.

Later, relatives sent Jean-Jacques to the Protestant boarding house Lambercier. A year later, Rousseau was transferred to a notary for training, and later transferred to an engraver. Despite his serious workload, the young man found time to read. Education taught Jean-Jacques to lie, pretend and steal.

At the age of 16, Rousseau escapes from Geneva and ends up in a monastery located in Turin. The future philosopher spent almost four months here, after which he entered the service of the aristocrats. Jean-Jacques worked as a footman. The count's son helped the guy learn the basics Italian language. But Rousseau received his writing skills from his “mother” - Madame de Varan.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in some works written with his own hand, presents interesting facts from his biography. Thanks to this, we learn that the young man worked as a secretary and home tutor before he came to philosophy and literature.

Philosophy and literature

Jean-Jacques Rousseau is, first of all, a philosopher. The books “The Social Contract”, “The New Heloise” and “Emile” are still studied by representatives of science. In his works, the author tried to explain why social inequality exists in society. Rousseau was the first to try to determine whether there was a contractual method of creating statehood.


Jean-Jacques considered law to be an expression of the general will. He was supposed to protect members of the public from a government that is incapable of breaking the law. Property equality is possible, but only if the general will is expressed. Rousseau suggested that people make their own laws, thereby controlling the behavior of the authorities. Thanks to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, they created a referendum, shortened the terms of parliamentary powers, and introduced a people's legislative initiative and a mandatory mandate.

"The New Heloise" is Rousseau's iconic work. The novel clearly shows the notes of Richardson's Clarissa Garlo. Jean-Jacques considered this book the best work written in the epistolary genre. "The New Heloise" presents 163 letters. This work delighted French society, since in those years this method of writing novels was considered popular.


“The New Eloise” tells the story of the tragedy in the fate of the main character. Chastity puts pressure on her, preventing the girl from enjoying love and submitting to the enticing temptation. The book won the love of people and made Rousseau the father of romanticism in philosophy. But the writer’s literary life began somewhat earlier. Back in the middle of the 18th century, Rousseau was in the service of the embassy in Venice. Soon the man finds a calling in creativity.

An acquaintance took place in Paris that played a significant role in the fate of the philosopher. Jean-Jacques met with Paul Holbach, Etienne de Condillac, Jean d'Alembert and Grimm. The early tragedies and comedies did not become popular, but in 1749, while imprisoned, he read about a competition in the newspaper. The topic turned out to be close to Rousseau:

“Did the development of sciences and arts contribute to the corruption of morals, or did it contribute to their improvement?”

This inspired the author. Jean-Jacques gained popularity among citizens after staging the opera “The Village Sorcerer.” This event happened in 1753. The soulfulness and naturalness of the melody testified to village morals. I even hummed Coletta’s aria from the work.


But “The Village Sorcerer” and “Discourses” added problems to Rousseau’s life. Grimm and Holbach perceived the work of Jean-Jacques negatively. Voltaire sided with the enlighteners. The main problem, according to philosophers, was the plebeian democracy present in Rousseau's work.

Historians have enthusiastically studied Jean-Jacques’ autobiographical work entitled “Confession.” Truthfulness and sincerity are present in every line of the work. Rousseau showed readers the strengths and weak sides, bared his soul. Quotes from the book are still used to create a biography of the philosopher and writer, and to evaluate the creativity and character of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Pedagogy

In the sphere of interests of the enlightener Jean-Jacques Rousseau was natural man, which is not influenced by social conditions. The philosopher believed that upbringing influences the development of a child. Rousseau used this idea when developing a pedagogical concept. Basic pedagogical ideas Jean-Jacques presented in the work “Emile, or On Education.” This treatise, according to the author, is the best and most important. Through artistic images, Rousseau tried to convey thoughts regarding pedagogy.

The educational system did not suit the philosopher. Jean-Jacques's ideas were contradicted by the fact that these traditions were based on churchliness, and not democracy, which was widely spread in those years in Europe. Rousseau insisted on the need to develop natural talents in children. The natural development of the individual is the main task of education.

According to Jean-Jacques, views on raising children must change radically. This is due to the fact that from the moment of birth to death, a person constantly discovers new qualities in himself and the world around him. Based on this, it is necessary to build educational programs. A good Christian and a respectable person are not what a person needs. Rousseau sincerely believed that there are oppressed and oppressors, and not the fatherland or citizens.


The pedagogical ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau consisted of advice to parents about the need to develop little man the desire to work, self-respect, a sense of freedom and independence. Under no circumstances should you indulge or give in to demands, even the whims of children. At the same time, one must refuse to subordinate the child. But most of all, the philosopher was worried about shifting the responsibility for upbringing to a teenager.

Labor plays an important role in the upbringing of a person, which will instill in the child a sense of duty and responsibility for his own actions. Naturally, this will help the baby earn food in the future. By labor education, Rousseau meant the mental, moral and physical improvement of a person. The development of the child's needs and interests should be of paramount importance to parents.


According to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, at each stage of growing up, it is necessary to cultivate something specific in a child. Up to two years - physical development. From 2 to 12 - sensual, from 12 to 15 - mental, from 15 to 18 years - moral. The main task before the father and mother is to be patient and persistent, but in no case should they “break” the child by instilling in him false values modern society. Physical exercises and hardening will develop stamina, endurance and improve health in the baby.

During the period of growing up, a teenager needs to learn to use his senses, not books, to understand the world. Literature is good, but it puts someone’s vision of the world into fragile minds.

Thus, the child will not develop his own reason, but will begin to take the words of others on faith. The main ideas of mental education were communication: parents and educators create an atmosphere where the child wants to ask questions and get answers. Rousseau considered geography, biology, chemistry and physics to be important subjects for development.

Growing up at 15 years old means constant emotions, outbursts of feelings that overwhelm teenagers. During this period, it is important not to overdo it with moralizing, but to try to instill moral values ​​in the child. Society is quite immoral, so shifting this responsibility to strangers no need. At this stage, it is important to develop kindness of feelings, judgment and will. It will be easier to do this away from big cities with their temptations.


As soon as a boy or girl turns 20, it is necessary to move on to becoming familiar with public responsibilities. Interestingly, female representatives were allowed to skip this stage. Civic responsibilities are an exclusively male activity. The works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau reveal an ideal of the individual that was at odds with 18th-century society.

Rousseau's works revolutionized the pedagogical world, but the authorities considered it dangerous, threatening the foundations of the public worldview. The treatise “Emile, or On Education” was burned, and a decree of arrest was issued against Jean-Jacques. But Rousseau managed to hide in Switzerland. The philosopher's thoughts, despite being unacceptable by the French government, influenced the pedagogy of that time.

Personal life

Due to lack of money, Jean-Jacques did not have the opportunity to marry a noble lady, so the philosopher chose Therese Levasseur as his wife. The woman worked as a maid in a hotel located in Paris. Teresa was no different in intelligence and intelligence. The girl came from a peasant family. I didn’t receive an education - I didn’t know what time it was. In society, Levasseur appeared vulgar.


Nevertheless, Rousseau lived in marriage until the end of his days. After 20 years of married life, the man and Teresa went to church, where they were married. The couple had five children, but the kids were immediately sent to an orphanage. Jean-Jacques explained this action by the absence Money. And besides, according to the philosopher, children prevented Rousseau from doing what he loved.

Death

Death overtook Jean-Jacques Rousseau on July 2, 1778, at the country residence of Chateau d'Hermenonville. A friend brought the philosopher here in 1777, who noticed a deterioration in Rousseau’s health. To entertain the guest, a friend organized a concert on an island located in the park. Jean-Jacques, having fallen in love with this place, asked to make a grave for him here.

The friend decided to fulfill Rousseau's last request. Official burial place public figure Iv Island is considered. Hundreds of fans visited the park every year to meet the martyr, whom Schiller so vividly described in poems. During the French Revolution, the remains of Jean-Jacques Rousseau were transferred to the Pantheon. But 20 years later, a bad event happened - two criminals stole the philosopher’s ashes at night and threw them into a pit filled with lime.

  • Rousseau studied at a music school and wrote musical works.
  • After several years of wandering, he returned to France in 1767, but under a different name.
  • In Switzerland there is an island on the Rhone River named after Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
  • The philosopher was popular with the ladies.
  • Rousseau was not a careerist due to his obstinate character.

Bibliography

  • 1755 – “Discourses on the origin of inequality between people”
  • 1761 – “Julia, or New Heloise”
  • 1762 – “On the Social Contract”
  • 1762 – “Emil, or On Education”
  • 1782 – “Walking of a Lonely Dreamer”
  • 1782 – “Reflections on the Government of Poland”
  • 1789 – “Confession”

French philosopher

Rousseau Jean Jacques (1712 - 1778) - French philosopher, one of the most influential thinkers of the 18th century, the ideological predecessor of the French Revolution.

In his first works, Rousseau expressed all the main tenets of his worldview. Enlightenment is harmful and culture itself is a lie and a crime. All the foundations of civil life, division of labor, property, state and laws are only a source of inequality, unhappiness and depravity of people. Only primitive people are happy and blameless, living a simple natural life and obeying only their immediate feelings.

The following works represent a further development of Rousseau's protest against social tyranny weighing on the human person. In the novel “The New Heloise”, the heroine of which, a woman with a tender and beautiful soul, lives the life of the heart and finds happiness only in communication with nature. "Emile" is a treatise on education, imbued with the same ideas of freedom and closeness to nature. Based on the idea that man is naturally endowed with an inclination towards goodness, Rousseau believed that the main task of pedagogy is the development of the good inclinations endowed in man by nature. From this point of view, Rousseau rebelled against any violent methods in education, and especially against cluttering the child's mind with unnecessary knowledge.

In The Social Contract, Rousseau paints the ideal of a free human union, in which power belongs to the whole people and complete equality of citizens reigns.

Jean Jacques Rousseau

 Sages who want to speak to the common people in their own language, and not in their language, will never be able to become understandable to them. However, there are many different kinds of concepts that cannot be translated into the language of the people. ( WISDOM)

Jean Jacques Rousseau - French writer and philosopher, representative of sentimentalism. From the standpoint of deism, he condemned the official church and religious intolerance in his essays “Discourse on the Beginning and Foundations of Inequality...” (1755), “On the Social Contract” (1762).

J. J. Rousseau spoke out against social inequality and the despotism of royal power. He idealized the natural state of universal equality and freedom of people, destroyed by the introduction of private property. The state, according to Rousseau, can only arise as a result of a contract free people. Rousseau's aesthetic and pedagogical views are expressed in the novel-treatise “Emile, or On Education” (1762). The novel in letters “Julia, or the New Heloise” (1761), as well as “Confession” (published 1782-1789), placing “private” spiritual life at the center of the story, contributed to the formation of psychologism in European literature. Pygmalion (published 1771) is an early example of melodrama.

Rousseau's ideas (the cult of nature and naturalness, criticism of urban culture and civilization that distort the originally immaculate person, preference for the heart over the mind) influenced the social thought and literature of many countries.

Childhood

Jean Rousseau's mother, née Suzanne Bernard, the granddaughter of a Genevan pastor, died a few days after the birth of Jean-Jacques, and her father, watchmaker Izac Rousseau, was forced to leave Geneva in 1722. Rousseau spent 1723-24 at the Protestant boarding house Lambercier in the town of Beausset near the French border. Upon returning to Geneva, he spent some time preparing to become a court clerk, and from 1725 he studied the craft of an engraver. Unable to endure the tyranny of his master, young Rousseau left his hometown in 1728.

Madame de Warens

In Savoy, Jean-Jacques Rousseau met Louise-Eleanor de Warens, who had a significant influence on his entire subsequent life. An attractive 28-year-old widow from an old noble family, a converted Catholic, she enjoyed the patronage of the church and Duke Victor Amedee of Savoy, who became king of Sardinia in 1720. Succumbing to the influence of this lady, Rousseau went to Turin to the monastery of the Holy Spirit. Here he converted to Catholicism, thereby losing his Genevan citizenship.

In 1729, Rousseau settled in Annecy with Madame de Warens, who decided to continue his education. She encouraged him to enter the seminary and then the choir school. In 1730, Jean-Jacques Rousseau resumed his wanderings, but in 1732 he returned to Madame de Warens, this time in Chambery, and became one of her lovers. Their relationship, which lasted until 1739, opened the way for Rousseau to a new, previously inaccessible world. Relations with Madame de Warens and the people who visited her house improved his manners and instilled a taste for intellectual communication. Thanks to his patroness, in 1740 he received the position of tutor in the house of the Lyon judge Jean Bonnot de Mably, the elder brother of the famous enlightenment philosophers Mably and Condillac. Although Rousseau did not become the teacher of Mably's children, the connections he acquired helped him upon his arrival in Paris.

Rousseau in Paris

In 1742 Jean Jacques Rousseau moved to the capital of France. Here he intended to succeed thanks to his proposed reform of musical notation, which consisted in the abolition of transposition and clefs. Rousseau made a presentation at a meeting of the Royal Academy of Sciences, and then appealed to the public by publishing his “Dissertation on Modern Music” (1743). His meeting with Denis Diderot dates back to this time, in whom he immediately recognized a bright mind, alien to pettiness, prone to serious and independent philosophical reflection.

In 1743, Rousseau was appointed to the post of secretary of the French ambassador in Venice, Comte de Montagu, however, not getting along with him, he soon returned to Paris (1744). In 1745 he met Therese Levasseur, a simple and long-suffering woman who became his life partner. Considering that he was unable to raise his children (there were five of them), Rousseau sent them to an orphanage.

"Encyclopedia"

At the end of 1749, Denis Diderot recruited Rousseau to work on the Encyclopedia, for which he wrote 390 articles, primarily on music theory. Jean-Jacques Rousseau's reputation as a musician increased after his comic opera The Rural Sorcerer, staged at court in 1752 and at the Paris Opera in 1753.

In 1749, Rousseau took part in a competition on the topic “Has the revival of the sciences and arts contributed to the purification of morals?”, organized by the Dijon Academy. In “Discourses on the Sciences and Arts” (1750), Rousseau first formulated main topic his social philosophy - the conflict between modern society and human nature. He argued that good manners do not exclude calculating egoism, and sciences and arts satisfy not the basic needs of people, but their pride and vanity.

Jean Jacques Rousseau raised the question of the heavy price of progress, believing that the latter leads to dehumanization human relations. The work brought him victory at the competition, as well as wide fame. In 1754, at the second competition of the Dijon Academy, Rousseau presented “Discourse on the origin and foundations of inequality between people” (1755). In it, he contrasted the so-called original natural equality with artificial (social) inequality.

Conflict with encyclopedists

In the 1750s. J. J. Rousseau increasingly moved away from the Parisian literary salons. In 1754 he visited Geneva, where he again became a Calvinist and regained his civil rights. Upon returning to France, Rousseau chose a secluded lifestyle. He spent the years 1756-62 in rural areas near Montmorency (near Paris), first in the pavilion assigned to him by Madame d'Epinay (friend of Friedrich Melchior Grimm, author of the famous “Literary Correspondence”, with whom Rousseau became close friends back in 1749), then in country house Marshal de Luxembourg.

However, Rousseau's relations with Diderot and Grimm gradually cooled. In the play The Side Son (1757), Diderot ridiculed hermits, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau took it as a personal insult. Then Rousseau became inflamed with passion for Madame d'Epinay's daughter-in-law, Countess Sophie d'Houdetot, who was the mistress of Jean-François de Saint-Lambert, an encyclopedist, close friend Diderot and Grimm. Friends considered Rousseau's behavior unworthy, and he himself did not consider himself guilty.

His admiration for Madame d'Houdetot inspired him to write "New Héloise" (1761), a masterpiece of sentimentalism, a novel about tragic love, glorifying sincerity in human relationships and simple happiness rural life. The growing divergence between Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the encyclopedists was explained not only by the circumstances of his personal life, but also by differences in their philosophical views. In his “Letter to D'Alembert on Performances” (1758), Rousseau argued that atheism and virtue are incompatible. Provoking the indignation of many, including Diderot and Voltaire, he supported critics of the article “Geneva” published by D'Alembert the year before in Volume 7 of the Encyclopedia.

Theory of moral sentiments

In the pedagogical novel “Emile or on Education” (1762), Jean-Jacques Rousseau attacked the modern education system, reproaching it for its lack of attention to inner world of a person, neglect of his natural needs. In the form of a philosophical novel, Rousseau outlined the theory of innate moral feelings, the main of which he considered the inner consciousness of good. He declared the task of education to be the protection of moral feelings from the corrupting influence of society.

"Social Contract"

Meanwhile, it was society that found itself in the center of attention of the most famous work Rousseau - “On the Social Contract, or Principles of Political Law” (1762). By concluding a social contract, people give up part of their sovereign natural rights in favor of state power, which protects their freedom, equality, social justice and thereby expresses their general will. The latter is not identical to the will of the majority, which may contradict the true interests of society. If a state ceases to follow the general will and fulfill its moral obligations, it loses the moral basis of its existence. Jean-Jacques Rousseau entrusted the provision of this moral support to power to the so-called. a civil religion designed to unite citizens on the basis of faith in God, in the immortality of the soul, in the inevitability of the punishment of vice and the triumph of virtue. Thus, Rousseau's philosophy was quite far from the deism and materialism of many of his former friends.

Last years

Rousseau's preaching was met with equal hostility in a variety of circles. "Emile" was condemned by the Paris Parliament (1762), the author was forced to flee France. Both Emile and The Social Contract were burned in Geneva, and Rousseau was outlawed.

In 1762-67, Jean-Jacques Rousseau first wandered around Switzerland, then ended up in England. In 1770, having achieved European fame, Rousseau returned to Paris, where nothing threatened him. There he completed work on the Confessions (1782-1789). Overwhelmed by persecution mania, Rousseau retired to Ermenonville near Senlis, where he spent recent months his life in the care of the Marquis de Girardin, who buried him on the island in his own park.

In 1794, during the Jacobin dictatorship, the remains of Jean Jacques Rousseau were transferred to the Pantheon. With the help of his ideas, the Jacobins substantiated not only the cult of the Supreme Being, but also terror. (S. Ya. Karp)

Jean Jacques Rousseau is an outstanding representative of the French enlightenment of the 18th century.

Biography facts and works

Rousseau was born into a simple family of a Genevan watchmaker. From a young age he was forced to earn his own livelihood various activities, wandering around France and Switzerland. He was a copyist of papers, a musician, a home secretary, and a servant in manor houses. Finding himself in the position of foster child in a rich aristocratic estate, Rousseau for the first time had the opportunity to engage in self-education and through hard work achieved extensive and versatile knowledge. He becomes a writer, but his life is still spent in constant unrest and wandering.

In 1749, the Dijon Academy announced a competition on the topic: “Has progress in the sciences and arts contributed to the improvement of morals?” By taking part in the competition, Rousseau created a talented work that aroused deep public interest. He argued that in ancient times, when people did not know civilization, they were more moral and happier. Then equality reigned, and differences between people were determined by natural reasons: abilities and work. Now people are artificially divided on the basis of their origin and wealth. Distrust, deception and enmity have taken over in human relations.

Soon Rousseau wrote two more sharp political treatises on pressing social issues. They raised his name to the heights of world fame.

Rousseau passionately called for the fight against outdated orders in the name of happiness and freedom ordinary people. But how to eliminate the existing contradiction between the natural needs of man and the social conditions for their satisfaction? What should the future free society be like? Rousseau gave a vivid answer to these questions in his work “The Social Contract.” This work had a huge influence on the views of prominent figures of the French bourgeois revolution of 1789.

The Social Contract develops the idea of ​​democracy. In the new state, created by the revolutionary energy of the people, all government institutions will be subordinated to the people's assembly, and the will of each citizen will be subordinated to state laws expressing the interests of all. People's power, according to Rousseau, is created through a general agreement, hence the title of the book. As for private property, although it was the cause of social inequality, Rousseau does not abolish it. He only demands that its size be limited, believing that everyone can be the owner of what they have acquired through personal labor.

Jean Jacques Rousseau on education

One of the most effective means of reviving society Rousseau thought upbringing. Pedagogical statements constitute an important part of his ideological heritage. In his famous novel "Emil, or About Education" and in other works (in particular, in the novel “The New Heloise,” which was read by the writer’s contemporaries), Rousseau argued that people from birth have good instincts, but become corrupted in the conditions of a deceitful civilization. Education should develop natural inclinations in a person and eliminate from his path everything that can distort them.

Rousseau's deep belief in the ideal nature of man made him a defender of children's right to happy life. He made a strong protest against feudal education based on violence against the child, when “the age of joys and happiness is spent in tears, punishments, slavery and under constant threats.” In contrast to this, he demanded love for children, providing them with conditions for free development, raising them in a natural environment, closer to nature.

Pedagogy J. J. Rousseau. Thoughts and ideas of Rousseau as a teacher

Great credit Rousseau before pedagogy- discovery of “natural stages” in the development of a child:

Rousseau was one of the few teachers who paid serious attention sex education. “For every training,” he emphasized, “there is a time that must be known and its dangers that must be avoided.”. For younger children, he advised following the following rule: “When their curiosity about something is premature or unnecessary, you can calmly put silence on their lips.” Another thing is the legitimate interest in gender issues on the part of the young man. “When he reaches the age of 16, do not hesitate to initiate him into all these dangerous secrets that you have so carefully hidden from him for so long.” Educating a young man on this matter must be accurate and serious; it is necessary to reveal the true essence of human relations in this area.

“Of course, the strict truth must be told, but at the same time you must make it clear that this is one of the most serious and sacred relationships between people.”

But no matter how natural the interest young man to this side of life, it must not be allowed to absorb all his thoughts and fire his imagination. We must strive to fill his days with serious studies, great and useful hobbies, practical activities and physical work. Most of all, one should avoid idle spending of time, indiscriminate reading, a sedentary and pampered life, and the company of young idlers.”

In adolescence, sincere and intimate relationships between teacher and student are more important than ever. They ease the student’s feelings when he wants to tell his older and experienced friend about the feeling of his first youthful love. Rousseau advises taking such recognition very seriously. “You must,” he turns to the teacher, “draw in his mind the ideal of girlhood and femininity and help him fall in love so that the very purity and poetry of his feelings becomes his best educator as a man.”

Contribution to pedagogy

Despite the inconsistency and fallacy of a number of provisions, pedagogical teaching Rousseau played an outstanding progressive role in the development of the theory and practice of education, contributed significantly contribution to pedagogy. His works are full of ardent love for ordinary workers and imbued with deep faith in their ability to create a new, free society. They glorify a humane attitude towards children and put forward creative methods for their upbringing and education. Rousseau hated parasitism and was an ardent advocate of labor education. His pedagogical ideas, like all socio-political teachings, enjoyed enormous popularity in France during the era of the revolution, and then received worldwide recognition. They were widely known in Russia and aroused warm sympathy from its prominent representatives.

N.K. Krupskaya, who highly valued the democratic teachings of Rousseau, noted that during the heyday of the capitalist system, bourgeois ideologists extolled Rousseau, but the modern bourgeoisie treats him with hostility and condescension, treats his ideas, calling them unrealizable. To the Soviet people Rousseau was dear to his ardent democracy, his optimistic faith in the ability of working people to create a new society in which true freedom, equality and fraternity would flourish.

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Rousseau's works, like the works of his contemporaries, the enlighteners, were written for the sole purpose of promoting liberation ideas. They contain the flammable material of revolution. His political treatises rise to the level of high artistic journalism. Philosophical novels, where artistic fiction is called upon to help scientific syllogisms, cannot be strictly distinguished from political treatises and, like them, are journalistic. More than any other educator, Rousseau is characterized by passion in defending and promoting his ideas. “Philosophical indifference is like the calm of a despotic state; this calm of death is more devastating than war itself,” he wrote in “Emil.”

Rousseau did not consider himself to belong to any of the philosophical camps. “All the debates between idealists and materialists are devoid of any meaning to me.” According to his views, he rather belongs to the dualists, i.e. recognizes the existence of two substances - material and spiritual. He correctly asserts that the world is material and exists independently of man, that man knows the world through sensations. “Everything that I am conscious of outside myself and that acts on my senses, I call matter.” Rousseau expresses correct judgments about sensations that confirm the materiality of the world. “My sensations occur within me... but their cause is something foreign to me.” He quite correctly reveals the process of human thinking. “Through sensation, objects are presented to me in isolation, isolated, as they are in nature; through comparison, I move them, transfer them, so to speak, superimpose one on top of the other, in order to speak about their differences or their similarities and about everything in general.” their relationship."

In these statements, Rousseau still goes with the materialists. But then his hesitations, doubts and idealistic conclusions begin. Like Voltaire, he comes to deism. He does not understand the law of motion of matter. The idea that movement is a form of existence of matter seems absurd to him. "Her natural state is to remain calm," he states.

Materialists of the 18th century. By movement they understood only physical changes, movement in space. Rousseau noted the insufficiency of such understanding. However, he could not oppose anything else to this look. “Experience and observation have led us to the knowledge of the laws of motion; these laws determine actions without specifying reasons; they are insufficient to explain the system of the world and the course of the universe.” Speaking about the laws of universal gravitation discovered by Newton, he declares: “Let Newton show us the hand that threw the planets tangentially to their orbits.” And like Voltaire, he comes to the conclusion that there is a higher being, a certain universal mind that gave the first impetus to the life of the universe and determined the laws of existence.

This is where his theory of natural religion comes from. True, as if answering the churchmen who insisted on the divine origin of the world, he declared in embarrassment: “Whether he created matter, bodies, spirits, the world, I don’t know. The idea of ​​creation confuses me and surpasses my understanding.” Rejecting the ability of highly organized matter to think and feel, Rousseau comes to recognize the existence of a soul in man. “I think the soul survives the body.” Despite these clearly idealistic conclusions of Rousseau, the church declared him a heretic, more terrible than all atheists.

The furious attacks of priests and monks against the great writer are explained by his eloquent criticism Christian religion. Rousseau refuted the tales of “miracles.” He debunked the activities of church dignitaries. He refuted the Christian god, whose cult served the purposes of violence and enslavement of people, “the god of an angry, vengeful, partial, hating people, the god of war and battles, always ready to destroy and smash, always talking about torment, about executions and boasting even of the punishment of the innocent.” Rousseau branded clergymen as obscurantists, terrorizing the human mind, as preachers of violence and instigators of national strife. “Your god is not ours!” - Rousseau exclaimed angrily, addressing the “vicars of Christ.” He contrasted this “god of war” with the “god of peace.” “There is one book open to all eyes, and that is the book of nature. From this great and sublime book I learn to serve and worship its divine author.”

Rousseau's theory of “natural religion” at the time of the struggle against feudal ideology and the stronghold of feudalism - the Christian Church - contained a significant revolutionary element. While noting the idealism of this theory, we must not forget about the historical situation in which the writer lived, about the real forces with which he had to fight in the name of liberation ideas that were deeply national in their essence. Glorifying nature and the amazing order that prevails in it, with revolutionary pathos he castigates the disorder and injustice reigning in the social world: “The picture of nature showed me only harmony and proportions, the picture of the human race shows only confusion and disorder! Harmony reigns between the elements, but people find themselves in a state of chaos!”

The Church subjugated the consciousness of the masses and their will with tales of terrible torment in the afterlife. The indignant Rousseau responded to this: “What is the need to look for hell in future life? It already exists here.” Who is the culprit of that state when “the wicked prosper, but the just remains “oppressed”? The people themselves, Rousseau answers: “Man, stop looking for the culprit of evil; this culprit is you yourself.”

Does this mean that the cause of all social ills is rooted in the moral depravity of man? Not at all. Rousseau has the highest opinion of the merits of people. Man is the king of nature. He is endowed with thought and feeling. It carries within itself the original idea of ​​goodness and justice.

Rousseau's thoughts about man are idealistic. They contain a lot of noble romance, but little common sense. For a person to exist means to feel. The strength of man is not in the mind; as Voltaire argued, but in his feelings. In the depths of the soul of every person lives an innate principle of justice and virtue, whose name is “conscience.” "Conscience! Conscience! Divine instinct, immortal and heavenly voice, infallible, judge of good and evil, making man like a god! - passionately" exclaimed Rousseau.

The man is contradictory. Two substances are constantly fighting in him - bodily and spiritual, two voices are arguing: “conscience - the voice of the soul - and passion - the voice of the body.” But the voice of conscience still wins if a person is not completely corrupted. Rousseau's theory about the absoluteness and eternity of human morality sounds idealistic. The writer enters into an argument with Montaigne, who affirmed the relativity and historical conditionality of moral categories. “Take a look at all the nations of the world, run through all the histories; among so many inhuman and bizarre cults, among the monstrous diversity of morals and characters, you will find everywhere the same ideas of justice and honesty “Everywhere the same principles of morality, everywhere the same concepts of good and evil.”

Man, according to Rousseau, is active. This is one of the best sides personality. The writer sharply objects to the church idea of ​​predestination, divine arbitrariness or divine grace in human actions. “Man is free in his actions,” declares Rousseau, and in this activity and activity of people he sees the guarantee of their future renewal, the ability to correct and transform the social world.

Rousseau's Treatise on the Social Contract (1762) is his political program. If in the first two works he exposed and castigated the vices of modern society, here he tries to outline possible ways to eliminate social vices and establish better forms of human coexistence.

“Man is born free, and yet he is in chains everywhere,” Rousseau notes the main contradiction of the social world.

“As long as the people, forced to obey, obey, they do well; but as soon as, having the opportunity to throw off the yoke, the people throw it off, they act even better, since the people, having regained their freedom by the same right by which it was taken from them, had the right to regain it - or there was no reason to take her away from him.” In other words, if freedom is taken away from the people by force, then the people can regain it by force.

Rousseau foresees that he will be blasphemed for calling for “anarchy,” “turmoil,” “unrest,” and for attempting to disturb “civil tranquility.” “They live peacefully even in prisons,” he declares. The culture of a corrupt society, divided into workers and parasites, is a vicious, harmful culture. The culture of a society built on new principles will be beneficial for people. “Although in a social state a person is deprived of many advantages that he possesses in a natural state, he acquires much greater advantages: his abilities are exercised and developed, his thoughts are expanded, his feelings are ennobled, and his whole soul is elevated to such a degree that , if the abuses of new conditions of life did not often reduce him to a state lower than that from which he emerged, he would have to constantly bless the happy moment that tore him out of his previous state and transformed him from a stupid and limited animal into a thinking and thinking being. into a person."

Rousseau asserts in his book the sovereignty of the people. Only the people can be given the right to make laws. Only the people should hold actual power. The government, whatever it may be (monarchical, aristocratic, democratic), should only be the executor of the will of the people, controlled by the people and perform the functions of the government only as long as the people need it.

There is no need to go into the details of the analysis political system Rousseau, to analyze the correctness or incorrectness of all his thoughts about the state, state forms, institutions, etc. Some thoughts expressed in the book (about monarchy, aristocracy, democracy, separation of powers) were expressed earlier by Montesquieu, whom Rousseau calls “a brilliant writer.” True, Rousseau's political program is more democratic than Montesquieu's; it gives voice to the poorest people in France.

The book “On the Social Contract” played a big role in the history of the French Revolution (Robespierre was a passionate admirer of Rousseau and tried to implement his political program).



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