Rousseau’s Philosophy Ideas on Education

Abstract：Rousseau is a famous man in the history of the education and philosophy over the whole world. His theory of education all based on his philosophy ideas. This paper mainly discusses Rousseau''s two philosophy ideas on education.

Key words：Rousseau Philosophy nature

I Introduction

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born in an ordinary family but became a famous philosopher and educationalist in the world. His book \" mile， or On Education\" is a treatise on education and became a masterpiece on both education and philosophy， also in the field of psychology. In this book， Rousseau divides child''s development into five stages from birth to the age 12. Each stage has a different educational contents. For example， education in the first two stages seeks to the senses，children are guided by their emotions and impulses，and gradually to the satge of development about his mind. Later， reason starts to develop. Rousseau disagree that child should learn more about literate knowledge， on contray， he believes that the specific skill such as carpentry， has more creativity and thought， can make a people more suitable for the life， and free from trouble. This may sounds very different from the theory of other educators， but Rousseau''s thoughts of education did shocked people in his time and forward. We can''t deny that there is also some problems in it， but basically speaking， he show us a new thinking about the education. And above all， we knew， all his educational ideas are showed in his book mile， and we can also conclude his philosophy ideas through this book. Here is the basic two philosophy ideas from the book. They are the goodness of nature and the sensation.

II Rousseau''s Philosophy Ideas

1 The goodness of nature

In the book， Rousseau argued that we are inherently good， this is the same like the old saying we said in \"three character primer\"， that is， when we were born， we have inherently good characters .. And according to Rousseau， we would become corrupted by the evils of society if we continue live in it. So we must move and live in a environment without those evil things. He recommend that child should live in the countryside to keep their natural state as before. He advocate natural education， and believe only in the countryside or the natural environment can children close to nature， under this way， child can be brought up with their goodness of nature.

In the meantime， Rousseau believed that the innate goodness of the people， consisting of two parts in it: one is self-love and the other is compassion. Self-love is a kind of primary natural desires which comes from the original， inner feelings， for whom in order to survive; compassion is a strong feeling of sympathy for someone who is suffering， and a desire to help them， the two plays an very important role in human being''s life， they influent all the activities we people do. Rousseau''s proposal about self-love and compassion was reasonable and it has enlighted people who were anti-asceticism. Also， it served as the theoretical basis of which education should submit to nature. In addition， Rousseau put emphasis on \"conscience\"， and he believe \"conscience\" can make people becoming a good people. He believes that \"conscience\" is also derived from the natural， and it can not only guide people judge good and evil， but also to guide the evil become good， because the conscience has always been not to comply with man-made rules and obey the natural order， it can make coherent between self-love and compassion， and promote their development.

2 The sensation

Rousseau not only believed that people are basically good， and convinced that the human beings have tremendous energy for knowing the world. We can grow up by sense all kinds of things and learn from it， because we have the ability of sensation. We were affected in various ways from birth， those were all practices for our sensation. So when we become an adult， we can reason， and we have consciousness. We can make our own judge although sometimes we may make mistakes， which are unavoidable in the process of our growing up. All of the learnings are all start from the sensation. We should be responseble for the consequenses of our own judge. This is also a kind of learning. We people are kind of intelligent animals， we can do many things like to compare， analyze， judge， that means we are rational. We have the ability of sensation. We are capable of reason.

In Rousseau''s book \" mile， or On Education\"， on the one hand， he argues that the education should respect the natural flow of children and train the children from their own sense， on the other hand， he think the noblest work in education is to make a reasoning man， he expect that the final goal of the education is to make a man resaon. He also said， if a people grow up with ability of judgement， there were no need for education.

As mentioned， those two basic philosophy ideas had served as an important role in forming Rousseau''s educational ideas. And we should say Rousseau''s gift to later generations is rich - and problematic. But his ideas did enlightened us in many ways， like a ray of sunshine.

References：

\\[1\\]Ding Min.A Brief Comment on Rousseau''s natural education thinking. Beijing：Huaibei Coal Teachers College，1996.

\\[2\\]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Jacques_Rousseau.

\\[3\\]Yan-Fen Zhang， Rousseau''s Educational Thought of Naturalism. Hebei Software.