in the care of strangers. A difficult childhood grew into a difficult adult life, full of wanderings, ups, downs, needs and dramatic emotional experiences. But with his philosophy, Rousseau left an indelible mark on human history affirmation of the ideals of freedom and equality. Rousseau's position differs in many ways from the position of other educators: speaking against the overestimation of reason and civilization in human life, he reflected the interests of the common people. The pinnacle of his philosophy is considered to be the contractual concept of the emergence of the state, which provides justification for the republican type of government.
Ontology. Rousseau was a deist, he allowed the immortality of the soul and reward after death. He considered matter and spirit as two eternally existing principles.
Human nature and the influence of civilization on it
Rousseau believed that man by nature is not at all as evil as Hobbes believed, that “in the depths of the human soul lies pity,” which gives rise to compassion, generosity, humanity, justice, etc. But “our souls have become corrupted as how our sciences and arts progressed." People who are good by nature become evil under the influence of culture, especially science, art, and literature. All these institutions of civilization, which are so advocated by other educators, according to Rousseau, orient a person only on the opinions of others and the external ostentatious aspects of his life, as a result of which a person loses touch with the inner world.
Reason, compassion and conscience
Rousseau teaches that the role of reason in human life should not be exaggerated. Reasonable people will always find excuses that prevent natural empathy and compassion.
“Reason generates self-love, and reflection strengthens it; It is reflection that separates a person from everything that constrains and depresses him. Philosophy isolates man; It is because of her that he says quietly at the sight of someone suffering: “Perish if you want, but I’m safe.” Only dangers that threaten the entire society can disrupt restful sleep philosopher and get him out of bed. You can kill your neighbor with impunity under his window, and he only has to cover his ears with his hands and somewhat calm himself down with simple arguments in order to prevent the nature that rebels in him from identifying himself with the one who is being killed. Wild man completely deprived of this admirable talent; and, due to a lack of prudence and intelligence, he always gives in without reasoning to the first impulse of philanthropy. During riots, during street fights, the mob comes running, but a prudent person tries to stay away; rabble, market women separate the fighting and prevent respectable people from killing each other.”
Rousseau argues that compassion is the natural feeling of everyone, thanks to which the human race is preserved. It is compassion, and not the sublime injunction “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” that prevents a strong savage from taking food from a child or a weak old man. It is compassion that dictates “the prescription of natural kindness, which is much less perfect, but perhaps more useful than the previous one: take care of your own good, causing as little harm as possible to another person.”
Natural virtue is rooted in the divine nature of conscience.
“Conscience is a divine instinct, an immortal and heavenly voice: a reliable guide to a being ignorant and limited, but thinking and free; an infallible judge of good and evil, making man like God! You create the superiority of his nature and the morality of his actions; Without you, I don’t feel anything in myself that would elevate me above the beasts, except the sad privilege of moving from error to error with the help of reason devoid of rules and reason devoid of principle.”
Being an opponent of civilization, not believing in social progress, Rousseau proposed a “return to nature,” ᴛ.ᴇ. live in small villages and in small republics among knowledgeable friend friend and people connected by feelings.
About freedom.“Freedom... is in the heart free man“It,” notes Rousseau, “means behavior in accordance with the law that we accept for ourselves. “Man is born free, and yet everywhere he is in chains.” The philosopher noted that the mighty of the world this “they do not cease to be slaves.”
Political philosophy
Russo affirms the ideals of freedom, political equality and a republican-type state.
Social contract concept
Like Hobbes and Locke, Rousseau begins his concept of the contractual emergence of the state with an account of the natural state of society. In the natural, ᴛ.ᴇ. pre-state, people were physically unequal, but politically equal, ᴛ.ᴇ. there were no hierarchies or classes in it. The strong could take food from the weak, but could not force him to obey him, because the weak could run away from the strong at the first suitable opportunity. But then someone appears who, “having fenced off a piece of land, saying: “This is mine,” found people simple-minded enough to believe it.” This is how private property appears - a prerequisite for the emergence of political inequality. Over time, people began to realize that significant private property and wealth give power over people. In the pursuit of wealth, some arrogate to themselves the right to the property of another, and this is how seizures, robberies, unrest and wars begin. Private property drowns out “natural compassion and the still weak voice of justice,” divides people, makes them “stingy, ambitious and evil.” Wealth inequality is growing. To protect their private property, the rich agree to establish a state, courts and laws. This is how it appears political inequality, political unfreedom. Political inequality consists in the fact that a child rules an old man, a fool rules a wise man, a handful of people are drowning in excess, the hungry masses are deprived of the most important things, and the slave trade and slavery are completely legal phenomena.
Rousseau believes that the only basis of all legitimate power is agreements between people, since no one has natural power over others.
The state itself, according to Rousseau, arises as a result of a social contract between all members of society who want to “find such a form of association or social union that would protect with all the common force the personality and property of each member and thanks to which everyone, uniting with everyone, would obey only himself and remain as free as before.” The individual in such an association remains “as free as he was before” because, by submitting to the community, the individual does not subordinate himself to anyone individually. Free and equal parties to the contract are united into an inextricable whole (collective personality), the interests of which cannot contradict the interests of private individuals. The state should not have interests that are contrary to the interests of citizens (just as a body cannot harm its members). At the same time, the rulers, who initially recognized themselves as servants of the common organism, began to behave despotically, trampling both the people and the law.
Principles of republican government, according to Rousseau
1. The ideal goal of the state is the common good, and the ideal owner of the supreme power should be the people.
2. Everyone must obey the general will. The general will is the sum of the wills of all individuals, with the exception of extremes. The general will is “always right,” and if an individual has a will different from the general will, then he simply does not know what is best for him, or what he really wants. Rousseau is a democrat, but not a liberal democrat.
3. The people entrust power to the government, and the government is obliged to carry out this assignment in accordance with the will of the people.
4. The principles of freedom and equality must be proclaimed by law in the republic. “Freedom cannot exist without equality.”
5. Property should be equalized so that there are neither too rich nor too poor, so that with equal material opportunities everyone can show what they are capable of.
6. The people have the right to adopt laws and constantly monitor the activities of the authorities. This last measure is necessary because the personal interest of any rulers lies in the weakness of the people.
7. Under the condition of despotic government, the people can exercise their natural right to resist the tyrant and overthrow him from the throne.
However, Rousseau, unlike other enlighteners, expressed the interests of the masses, and not their leaders.
On Rousseau's relations with other educators
Rousseau's anti-civilization and populist philosophy could not but arouse comments and criticism from other educators. This is how Voltaire sneered at Rousseau: “When you read your book, you just want to get down on all fours and run into the forest!” Being in difficult relationships with many people, including other Enlighteners, Rousseau wrote in the spirit of the ancient Stoics: “No matter how people want to look at me, they will not be able to change my being, and, despite their power, despite their secret intrigues, “In spite of them, I will continue to be what I am” “By making me insensitive to the vicissitudes of fate, they (the enemies) did me more good than if they had saved me from its blows.” Contrary to what he wrote, Rousseau was admittedly possessed of morbid pride .
Philosophy of education
Rousseau's negative attitude towards science also affected his understanding of the purpose of education. The philosopher believed that children should be taught practical activities rather than science. “Let them learn what they must do when they become men, and not what they must forget.” One should focus on realizing the initial potential of the child’s personality and instill in him valor, prudence, humanity, justice, etc.
PERVUSHKIN BORIS NIKOLAEVICH
CHOU "St. Petersburg School "Tete-a-Tete"
Mathematics Teacher of the Highest Category
Basic pedagogical ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau
1) Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born in Geneva in 1712 in the family of a watchmaker, died in 1778.
2) His mother died during childbirth, so his uncle and a Calvinist priest were involved in raising the child, as a result of which the boy’s knowledge turned out to be disordered and chaotic.
3) Coming from the people, he knew the full humiliating severity of class inequality.
4) At the age of 16, in 1728, Rousseau, an engraver’s apprentice, left his native Geneva and for many years wanders around the cities and villages of Switzerland and France, without a specific profession and earning a living through various occupations: a valet in one family, a musician, a home secretary, a copyist of music.
5) In 1741, Rousseau moved to Paris, where he met and became close to Diderot and the encyclopedists
Raising children begins with their birth. According to Rousseau, the time of upbringing in accordance with the natural characteristics of children is divided into 4 periods:
infancy - from birth to 2 years;
childhood - from 2 to 12 years;
adolescence - from 12 to 15 years;
adolescence - from 15 to marriage.
At each age, natural inclinations manifest themselves differently, and the child’s needs change over the years. Using the example of Emil Zh.Zh. Rousseau describes in detail the goals and objectives of education at each age.
Basic pedagogical ideas:
- A person is from birth good and ready for happiness, he is endowed with natural inclinations, and the purpose of education is to preserve and develop the child’s natural abilities. The ideal is a person uncorrupted by society and education in his natural state.
- Natural education is carried out primarily by nature, nature is the best teacher, everything around the child serves as a textbook for him. Lessons are taught by nature, not people. The child’s sensory experience underlies the knowledge of the world; on its basis, the pupil himself creates science.
— Freedom is a condition of natural upbringing, the child does what he wants, and not what he is prescribed and ordered. But He wants what the teacher wants from him.
— The teacher, unnoticed by the child, arouses his interest in classes and the desire to learn.
— Nothing is imposed on the child: neither science, nor rules of behavior; but he, driven by interest, acquires experience from which conclusions are formulated.
- Sensory cognition and experience become sources scientific knowledge which leads to the development of thinking. To develop the child’s mind and the ability to acquire knowledge on his own, and not to drill it into them ready-made, this task should be guided in teaching.
- Education is a delicate, non-violent direction of the free activity of the person being educated, the development of his natural inclinations and capabilities.
Rousseau's pedagogical theory was never implemented in the form in which the author presented it, but he left ideas that were adopted by other enthusiasts, developed further and used in different ways in the practice of education and training.
“Rousso! Rousseau! Your memory is now dear to people: you died, but your spirit lives in “Emile,” but your heart lives in Heloise,” this is how the Russian historian and writer expressed his admiration for the great Frenchman
Karamzin.
Main works:
1750 - “Discourses on the Sciences and Arts” (treatise).
1761 - “The New Heloise” (novel).
1762 - “Emil, or On Education” (novel treatise).
1772 - “Confession”.
Jean Jacques participated in the creation of the Encyclopedia and wrote articles for it.
Rousseau’s first essay, “Discourse on the Sciences and Arts” (1750), says “...with what power could I tell about all the abuses of our social institutions, how simply could I prove that man is good by nature and only thanks to people have become evil because of these institutions!”
In “Emile or On Education,” Rousseau stated: “Work is an inevitable duty for public person. Every idle citizen - rich or poor, strong or weak - is a rogue.”
Rousseau believes that uncontrolled feelings without the discipline of reason lead to individualism, chaos and anarchy.
Rousseau outlines three types of education and three types of teacher: Nature, People and Objects. All of them participate in the upbringing of a person: nature internally develops our inclinations and organs, people help to use this development, objects act on us and give us experience. Natural education does not depend on us, but acts independently. Subject education partly depends on us.
“The education of a person begins with his birth. He doesn’t speak yet, doesn’t listen yet, but he’s already learning. Experience precedes learning."
He fights for the triumph of reason. Evil originated with society, and with the help of a renewed society it can be expelled and defeated.
Man in a "state of nature". A natural person in his understanding is holistic, kind, biologically healthy, morally honest and fair.
Upbringing - is a great thing, and it can create a free and happy person. The natural man - Rousseau's ideal - is harmonious and whole, he has highly developed qualities of a human citizen, a patriot of his Motherland. He is absolutely free from egoism.
The role of the educator for Rousseau is to educate children and give them one single craft - life. As Emil’s teacher declares, neither a judicial official, nor a military man, nor a priest will come out of his hands - first of all, it will be a person who can be both.
Roman treatise "Emil or about Education" is Rousseau's main pedagogical work, entirely devoted to the problems of human upbringing. To express his pedagogical ideas, Rousseau created a situation where the teacher begins to raise a child who has been left an orphan since childhood and takes on the rights and responsibilities of the parents. And Emil is entirely the fruit of his many efforts as an educator.
BOOK 1
(First year of life. Nature, society, light and their relationship to education.)
“Plants are given their appearance through cultivation, and people through education.” “We are born deprived of everything - we need help; we are born senseless - we need reason. Everything that we do not have at birth and which we cannot do without when we become adults is given to us by education.”
“Give your body the opportunity to develop freely, do not interfere with nature”
BOOK 2
(Childhood. Growth of strength. The concept of ability. Stubbornness and lies. The stupidity of book learning. Body education. Correct development of feelings. Ages from 2 to 12 years.)
“Raising Emil on the principle of natural consequences, he punishes Emil by depriving him of freedom, i.e. broke a window - sit in the cold, broke a chair - sit on the floor, broke a spoon - eat with your hands. At this age, the educational role of example is great, so it is necessary to rely on it in raising a child.”
“The idea of property goes back naturally to the nature of the first acquisition through labor.”
BOOK 3
(Adolescence period of life. The use of strength in accumulating knowledge and experience needed in later life. Knowledge of the environment outside world. Knowing the people around you. Craft. 12-15th year of life.)
“By the age of 12, Emil is strong, independent, able to quickly navigate and grasp the most important things, then the world around him through his senses. He is fully prepared to master mental and labor education.” "Emil's head is the head of a philosopher, and Emil's hands are the hands of a craftsman"
BOOK 4
(Period up to 25 years. “period of storms and passions” - period moral education.) three tasks of moral education - the cultivation of good feelings, good judgments and good will, seeing in front of oneself the “ideal” person all the time. Until the age of 17-18, a young man should not talk about religion; Rousseau is convinced that Emil thinks about the root cause and independently comes to the knowledge of the divine principle.
BOOK 5
(Dedicates himself to raising girls, in particular Emil’s fiancée, Sophie.)
“A woman should be raised in accordance with the desires of a man. Adaptation to the opinions of others, lack of independent judgments, even of one’s own religion, resigned submission to someone else’s will is the lot of a woman.”
A woman’s “natural state” is dependence; “Girls feel created for obedience. They don’t need any serious mental training.”
Rousseau, as a conductor of new social and political ideals, especially in three main his works: in “New Heloise”, “Emile” and “The Social Contract”.
Sovereign general meeting citizens (le Grand Conseil) established the state, established a government for it and even gave it a religion by proclaiming the teachings of Calvin state religion. This democratic spirit, full of Old Testament theocratic traditions, came to life in Rousseau, a descendant of the Huguenots. True, since the 16th century. this spirit weakened in Geneva: the government (le Petit Conseil) actually became the decisive force. But it was with this city government that Rousseau was at odds; to its predominance he attributed everything that he did not like about contemporary Geneva - its falling away from the original ideal, as he imagined it. And this ideal was in front of him when he began to write his “Social Contract”. Ten years after Rousseau's death, France entered a crisis similar to that experienced in Russia in 1998 and the world in 2009-2010.
In a letter to Grimm, he even exclaims: “It is not so much those nations whose laws are bad as those who despise them that are truly corrupt.” For the same reasons, Rousseau, when he had to deal with purely theoretical considerations about political reforms in France, treated them with extreme caution. Analyzing the project of the Abbé de Saint-Pierre, who proposed that the king surround himself with elected advisers, Rousseau wrote: “for this it would be necessary to start with the destruction of everything that exists, and who does not know how dangerous in a large state is the moment of anarchy and crisis that must precede the establishment of a new system. The very introduction of an elective principle into the matter should entail a terrible shock and would rather produce a convulsive and continuous vibration of each particle than give strength to the whole body... Even if all the advantages of the new plan were indisputable, then what sane person would dare to destroy ancient customs, eliminate old principles and change the form of the state that was gradually created over a long series of thirteen centuries?...” And this most timid man and suspicious citizen became Archimedes, who knocked France out of its centuries-old rut. The lever was the “Social Contract” and the principle of inalienable, indivisible and infallible democracy derived from it. The outcome of the fatal dilemma that arose for France in the spring of 1789 - “reform or revolution” - was determined by the decision of the question of whether the constituent power of the government would remain or would unconditionally pass to the national assembly. This question was predetermined by Rousseau's treatise - by the deep conviction in the sanctity of the dogma of democracy that he instilled in everyone. The conviction was all the more profound because it was rooted in another principle pursued by Rousseau - the principle of abstract equality.
The “social contract” is known to the people in power only in the form of a homogeneous mass, shunning all differences. And Rousseau not only formulated the principles of 1789, he also gave the very formula for the transition from the “old order” to the new, from the states general to the “national assembly.” The famous pamphlet of Sieis, which prepared this coup, is all about the following words Rousseau: “What in a certain country they dare to call the third estate (tiersétat), this is the people. This nickname reveals that the private interest of the first two classes is placed in the first and second place, while the public interest is placed in third place.” Among the principles of 1789 is freedom, which the National Assembly has long and sincerely tried to establish; but it became incompatible with the further unstoppable progress of the revolution. Rousseau gave the slogan for the transition to the second phase of the revolution - the Jacobin one - by recognizing coercion as legitimate, that is, violence for the purposes of freedom. This fatal sophistry is all Jacobinism. It would be in vain for anyone to note the sayings with which Rousseau condemned in advance certain features of Jacobin politics and terror. “There is no,” says, for example, Rousseau, “a general will, where a single party is so great that it prevails over others.” From this point of view, the Jacobin dictatorship proclaimed in 1793 is contrary to the principle of democracy. Rousseau contemptuously turns away from that part of the people that was later an instrument of Jacobin rule - from “the stupid, stupid rabble, incited by troublemakers, capable only of selling themselves, preferring bread to freedom.” He indignantly rejects the very principle of terror, exclaiming that to sacrifice the innocent to save the crowd is one of the most disgusting principles of tyranny. Such anti-Jacobin antics of Rousseau gave one of the most ardent supporters of the policy of “public salvation” a good reason to proclaim Rousseau an “aristocrat” worthy of the guillotine. Despite this, Rousseau was the main forerunner of the revolution that at the end of the 18th century. happened in France. It has rightly been said that Rousseau's revolutionary character is manifested mainly in his feelings. He created the mood that ensured the success of the theory of the social contract. The stream of revolutionary feelings coming from Rousseau is found in two directions - in the denunciation of “society” and in the idealization of the “people”. Contrasting nature with the brilliance of poetry and idyllic feeling to the society of his time, Rousseau confuses society with his reproaches of artificiality and instills in it self-doubt. His philosophy of history, denouncing the origin of society from deceit and violence, becomes for him a living reproach of conscience, depriving him of the desire to stand up for himself. Finally, the malicious feeling that Rousseau has for the noble and rich and which he skillfully puts into the mouth of the aristocratic hero (“New Heloise”) prompts him to attribute vices to them and deny their ability to virtue. The “people” is opposed to the corrupted upper layer of society. Thanks to the idealization of the masses, living by instinct and uncorrupted by culture, the pale rationalistic idea of the people-ruler receives flesh and blood, arouses feelings and passions. Rousseau’s concept of the people becomes comprehensive: he identifies it with humanity (c’est le peuple qui fait le genre humain) or declares: “what is not part of the people is so insignificant that it is not worth the trouble to count it.” Sometimes the people mean that part of the nation that lives in communion with nature, in a state close to it: “the village people (le peuple de la campagne) make up the nation.” Even more often, Rousseau narrows the concept of the people to the proletariat: by the people he then means the “pathetic” or “unhappy” part of the people. He considers himself one of them, sometimes moved by the poetry of poverty, sometimes grieving over it and acting as a “sorrower” for the people. He claims that real state law has not yet been developed, because none of the publicists took into account the interests of the people. Rousseau, with sharp irony, reproaches his famous predecessors for such disdain for the people: “the people do not distribute departments, pensions, or academic positions, and that is why the scribes (faiseurs de livres) do not care about them.” The sad lot of the people endows them with a new sympathetic feature in the eyes of Rousseau: in poverty he sees the source of virtue. The constant thought of his own poverty, that he was a victim of public tyranny, merged in Rousseau with the consciousness of his moral superiority over others. He transferred this idea of a kind, sensitive and oppressed person to the people - and created the ideal type of the virtuous poor man (le pauvre vertueux), who is in fact the legitimate son of nature and the true lord of all the treasures of the earth. From this point of view, there can be no alms: charity is only the repayment of a debt. Emil’s governor, who gave alms, explains to his student: “my friend, I do this because when the poor deigned to have rich people in the world, the latter promised to feed those who could not support themselves either with their property or with the help of work.” It was this combination of political rationalism and social sensitivity that Rousseau became the spiritual leader of the revolution of 1789-94.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
French philosopher, writer, thinker of the Enlightenment. Also a musicologist, composer and botanist. The most prominent representative of sentimentalism. He is called the forerunner of the Great French Revolution.
Interesting facts related to the name Rousseau.
The democratic direction in the Enlightenment was called “ Rousseauism" named after one of the most radical educators - Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778). He was one of those who spiritually prepared the French Revolution.
Franco-Swiss by origin, later known as the “Citizen of Geneva”, “defender of liberties and rights” for his idealization of the republican order of his homeland.
Some interesting facts from the biography of Jean-Jacques Rousseau are contradictory, but we wrote everything about them exactly.
Rousseau was a native of Protestant Geneva, which remained until the 18th century. its strictly Calvinistic and municipal spirit. Mother, Suzanne Bernard, granddaughter of a Genevan pastor, died in childbirth. Father - Isaac Rousseau (1672-1747), a watchmaker and dance teacher, was acutely worried about the loss of his wife. Jean-Jacques was the favorite child in the family, from the age of seven he read “Astraea” and the lives of Plutarch with his father until the morning dawn; Imagining himself to be the ancient hero Scaevola, he burned his hand over a brazier.
Rousseau saw the reason social inequality privately owned (“ Discussion about the beginning and foundations of inequality“). He defended the republican democratic order and substantiated the right of the people to overthrow the monarchy. His socio-political treatises formed the basis for the activities of the Jacobins.
In their literary works- poems, poems, novels, comedies - Rousseau idealized the “natural state” of humanity, glorified the cult of nature. Rousseau acted as a seer of the costs of the emerging bourgeois culture. He was the first to talk about the high cost of civilization progress that has now become a reality. Rousseau contrasted the depravity and depravity of civilized nations with the life of society at the patriarchal stage of development, erroneously assuming in it the ideal purity of the morals of natural man. His slogan “Back to Nature” was later used by naturalism, which underestimates the importance of social connections between people. The dream of the natural existence of a natural man in a natural environment well expresses the general mood of the Enlightenment.
Rousseau believed that everything that hinders the natural development of man should be eliminated through education. Pedagogical views, imbued with humanism and democracy, are expressed in his famous novel-treatise “ Emil, or about education". Rousseau's works contributed to the development of psychologism in European literature. His novel in letters “ Julia, or New Heloise" And " Confession”became reference books for many generations of educated people throughout Europe.
“Julie, or New Heloise” (French: Julie ou la Nouvelle Heloise) is a novel of letters in the direction of sentimentalism, written by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in 1757-1760. The first edition was published in Amsterdam by Rey's printing house in February 1761. The second part of the title refers the reader to the medieval love story of Heloise and Abelard, which is similar to the fate of the main characters of the novel, Julia d’Etange and Saint-Preux. The novel enjoyed enormous success among its contemporaries. In the first 40 years, “The New Heloise” was officially reprinted 70 times, a success that no other work of French literature of the 18th century had.
Rousseau had a huge influence on the spiritual history of modern Europe from the point of view of public law, education and cultural criticism. He is multifaceted in his creativity, like most educators, whose knowledge is truly encyclopedic. The encyclopedia became the code of the French Enlightenment.
His father was a watchmaker. Rousseau's mother died during childbirth and he grew up practically an orphan, since his father devoted little time to him. Due to an armed attack on a fellow citizen, his father, Isaac, was forced to flee to the neighboring canton and there entered into a second marriage, and Jean, who was 10 years old, was generally given to be raised by his uncle.
He spent 1723-1724 in the Protestant boarding house Lambercier, then was apprenticed to a notary, and in 1725 to an engraver. During this time, he read a lot, even while working, for which he was subjected to harsh treatment.
As he writes in his book “Confession,” because of this, he became accustomed to lying, pretending, and stealing. Leaving the city on Sundays, he returned more than once when the gates were already locked, and he had to spend the night under open air. At the age of 16, on March 14, 1728, he decided to leave the city.
Outside the gates of Geneva, Catholic Savoy began - the priest of a neighboring village invited him to convert to Catholicism and gave him a letter in Vevey, to Madame Françoise Louise de Varan (March 31, 1699 - July 29, 1762). It was a young woman from a wealthy family in the canton of Vaud who was upset by her fortune industrial enterprises, who left her husband and moved to Savoy. For accepting Catholicism, she received an allowance from the king.
Madame de Varan sent Rousseau to Turin to a monastery where proselytes were trained. After four months, the appeal was completed and Rousseau was released onto the street.
He reappeared in Annecy with Madame de Varan, who kept him with her and became his “mother.” She taught him to write correctly, speak in the language of educated people and, as far as he was receptive to this, to behave in a secular manner. But “mama” was only 30 years old; she was completely deprived moral principles and in this respect had the most harmful influence on Rousseau. Concerned about his future, she placed Rousseau in the seminary, and then sent him to apprentice with an organist, whom he soon abandoned and returned to Annecy, from where Madame de Varan left, meanwhile, for Paris.
When Rousseau turned 13 years old, he was sent to learn a craft. He was a clerk's apprentice, then an engraver's apprentice, but he did not like these occupations and at the age of 16, Rousseau went to wander around Switzerland, France, and Italy. All the time he was engaged in self-education and self-improvement: natural and social sciences, art and literature.
Rousseau entered an aristocratic house as a footman, where he was treated with sympathy: the count's son, the abbot, began to teach him Italian and read Virgil with him. Having met a rogue from Geneva, Rousseau left Turin with him, without thanking his benefactor.
After unsuccessful attempt return to Charmette, Rousseau went to Paris to present to the academy the system he had invented to designate notes with numbers; it was not accepted, despite the “Discourse on modern music", written by Rousseau in her defense.
Rousseau receives the position of home secretary to Count Montagu, the French envoy to Venice. The envoy looked at him as a servant, but Rousseau imagined himself as a diplomat and began to put on airs. Subsequently he wrote that he saved the Kingdom of Naples at that time. However, the envoy kicked him out of the house without paying his salary.
Rousseau returned to Paris and filed a complaint against Montague, which was successful.
Having no means of subsistence, Rousseau entered into a relationship with the maid of the Parisian hotel in which he lived, Therese Levasseur, a young peasant woman, ugly, illiterate, narrow-minded - she could not learn to know what time it was - and very vulgar. He admitted that he never had the slightest love for her, but he married her twenty years later.
Having received a position as secretary to the tax farmer Frankel and his mother-in-law, Rousseau became a household member in the circle to which the famous Madame d'Epinay, her friend Grimm and Diderot belonged. Rousseau often visited them, staged comedies, and charmed them with his naive, albeit imaginatively decorated stories from his life.
In the summer of 1749, Rousseau went to visit Diderot, who was imprisoned in the Chateau de Vincennes. On the way, having opened the newspaper, I read an announcement from the Dijon Academy about a prize on the topic “Has the revival of the sciences and arts contributed to the purification of morals?” A sudden thought struck Rousseau; the impression was so strong that, according to his description, he lay in some kind of intoxication for half an hour under a tree; when he came to his senses, his vest was wet with tears. The thought that dawned on Rousseau embodies the whole essence of his worldview: “enlightenment is harmful and culture itself is a lie and a crime.”
Rousseau's answer was awarded a prize; the entire enlightened and sophisticated society applauded its accuser. A decade of most fruitful activity and continuous triumph had begun for him. Two years later, his operetta “The Village Sorcerer (French)” was staged on the court stage. Louis XV hummed his arias; they wanted to present him to the king, but Rousseau avoided the honor, which could have created a secure position for him.
Rousseau has always enjoyed wild success with the ladies. They even helped him get a prestigious position in Venice at the French embassy. However, he did not stay in this post for long, since he was obstinate since childhood and therefore did not get along with his superiors. Biographers note that Rousseau did not at all relate to people who built a career, and he not only did not need fame, but also burdened him. In addition, his father left him an inheritance, so he didn’t really need money.
Rousseau was given no rest; from all sides they brought him notes for correspondence, so as to have a reason to look at him; society ladies visited him and showered him with invitations to lunches and dinners. Teresa and her greedy mother took advantage of the opportunity to accept all kinds of gifts from visitors.
Leaving the Hermitage, he found a new shelter with the Duke of Luxembourg, the owner of the Montmorency Castle, who provided him with a pavilion in his park. Here Rousseau spent 4 years and wrote “New Heloise” and “Emile”, reading them to his kind hosts, whom he at the same time insulted with suspicions that they were not sincerely disposed towards him, and with statements that he hated their title and high social status. position.
In 1761, “The New Heloise” appeared in print, in the spring of the following year - “Emile”, and a few weeks later - “The Social Contract” (“Contrat social”). During the printing of Emile, Rousseau was in great fear: he had strong patrons, but suspected that the bookseller would sell the manuscript to the Jesuits and that his enemies would distort its text. "Emil", however, was published; the thunderstorm broke out a little later.
The Paris Parliament, preparing to pronounce judgment on the Jesuits, considered it necessary to condemn the philosophers as well, and sentenced “Emile,” for religious freethinking and indecency, to be burned by the hand of an executioner, and its author to imprisonment. Rousseau left immediately. Rousseau was not detained anywhere: neither in Paris, nor along the way. He, however, imagined torture and a fire; Everywhere he sensed pursuit.
Rousseau found refuge in the Principality of Neuchâtel, which belonged to the Prussian king, and settled in the town of Motiers. He made new friends here, wandered through the mountains, chatted with the villagers, and sang romances to the village girls.
Rousseau's misadventures were joined by a quarrel with Voltaire and with the government party in Geneva. Rousseau once called Voltaire “touching,” but in fact there could not be a greater contrast than between these two writers. The antagonism between them appeared in 1755, when Voltaire, on the occasion of the terrible Lisbon earthquake, renounced optimism, and Rousseau stood up for Providence. Sated with glory and living in luxury, Voltaire, according to Rousseau, sees only grief on earth; he, unknown and poor, finds that everything is fine.
IN recent years Rousseau's life did not bear large creative plans. He was mainly engaged in self-analysis and self-justification of his past actions. Very characteristic in this regard, along with the “Confession,” is the essay “Rousseau judges Jean Jacques,” the dialogues and his last piece- “Walking of a Lonely Dreamer.”
On July 2, 1778, returning home after a long walk, Rousseau felt a sharp pain in his heart and lay down to rest, but soon groaned heavily and fell to the floor. Teresa came running and helped him get up, but he fell again and died without regaining consciousness. The sudden death and the discovery of a bleeding wound on his forehead gave rise to rumors that Jean Jacques Rousseau committed suicide.
In 1614, by decree of Louis XIII, the island of Saint-Louis began to be built up and improved. TO mid-17th century centuries, bridges were built, they were built up with residential buildings, as was customary then. Initially, merchants settled on Saint-Louis; a little later, rich townspeople began to live here. Hotels have appeared. For example, Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau lived at the Lambert Hotel. Today, respectable Parisians live in Saint-Louis.
Sixteen years later, on October 11, 1794, Rousseau’s ashes were solemnly transferred to the Pantheon and laid next to Voltaire’s.”
One of the greatest French Enlightenment philosophers of the 18th century, Voltaire, lived at the Hôtel Lambert in Paris. Jean Jacques Rousseau also lived here for some time.
In the Masonic archives of the Grand Orient of France, Rousseau, like the Count of Saint-Germain, is listed as a member of the Masonic lodge of the “Social Concord of St. John of Ecos” from August 18, 1775 until his death.
He wrote music and operettas that were performed on the royal stage. He was fashionable in high society. And since his main idea was the rejection of his contemporary culture, he abandoned the principles of a rich and prosperous life.
Rousseau's fate, which largely depended on his personal qualities, in turn throws light on his personality, temperament and tastes, reflected in his writings. The biographer has, first of all, to note the complete absence of correct teaching, which was late and somehow compensated for by reading.
French writer and philosopher. Representative of sentimentalism. From the position of deism, he condemned the official church and religious intolerance. He put forward the slogan “Back to Nature!” Rousseau had a huge influence on the modern spiritual history of Europe from the point of view of public law, education and cultural criticism. Main works: “Julia, or the New Heloise” (1761), “Emile, or On Education” (1762), “On the Social Contract” (1762), “Confession” (1781-1788).
Illustration for "Confession"
Maurice Leloir
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born on June 28, 1712 in Geneva, into the family of a watchmaker. His mother, Suzanne Bernard, came from a wealthy bourgeois family and was a gifted and cheerful woman. She died nine days after the birth of her son. His father, Isaac Rousseau, who barely managed to get by with his craft, was distinguished by his fickle, irritable character. One day he started a quarrel with the French captain Gautier and wounded him with a sword. The court sentenced Isaac Russo to three months in prison, a fine and church repentance. Unwilling to obey the court's decision, he fled to Nyon, the town closest to Geneva, leaving his 10-year-old son in the care of his late wife's brother. Isaac Rousseau died on March 9, 1747.
Isaac Russo
From a very early age, Jean-Jacques was surrounded by his kind and loving aunts, Goserue and Lambersier, who cared for and raised the boy with extraordinary zeal. Remembering early years life, Rousseau wrote in the Confessions that “the king’s children could not have been looked after with greater zeal than they looked after me in the first years of my life.” Impressive, gentle and kind by nature, Jean-Jacques read a lot as a child. Often, together with his father, he sat for a long time at French novels, reading the works of Plutarch, Ovid, Bossuet and many others.
Jean-Jacques started early independent life full of hardships and hardships. He tried a variety of professions: he was a scribe for a notary, studied with an engraver, and served as a footman. Then, unable to find a use for his strengths and abilities, he set off to wander. Sixteen-year-old Rousseau, wandering around eastern France, Switzerland, Savoy, which was then part of the Kingdom of Sardinia, met with the Catholic priest Pontverre and, under his influence, abandoned Calvinism - the religion of his grandfathers and fathers. On the recommendation of Ponverre, Jean-Jacques met in Annecy, the main city of Haute-Savoie, with the 28-year-old Swiss noblewoman Louise de Varane, who “lived on the favors of the Sardinian king” and was, among other things, involved in recruiting young people into Catholicism. Stately, naturally gifted, Jean-Jacques made a favorable impression on Madame de Varane and was soon sent to Turin, to a shelter for converts, where he was instructed and accepted into the fold of the Catholic Church (at a more mature age, Rousseau returned to Calvinism).
Angelique Briceau
Four months later, Rousseau left Turin. Soon he spent the money and was forced to become a footman for an old, sick aristocrat. Three months later she died, and Rousseau was again out of work. This time the job search was short-lived. He found a position as a footman in an aristocratic house. Later he worked as a home secretary in the same house. Here he was given Latin lessons and taught to speak impeccable Italian. And yet Rousseau did not stay long with his benevolent masters. He was still drawn to wander, and besides, he dreamed of seeing Madame de Varanes again. And this meeting soon took place. Madame de Varane forgave Rousseau for his reckless youthful wanderings and accepted him into her home, which became his refuge for a long time. Here a close, cordial relationship was established between Rousseau and Madame de Varane. But Rousseau’s affection and love for his patroness, apparently, did not bring him peace and quiet for a long time. Madame de Varane also had another lover - the Swiss Claude Anet. Rousseau, with disappointment, more than once left his refuge and, after new ordeals, again returned to de Varana. Only after the death of Claude Anet was a complete idyll of love and happiness established between Jean-Jacques and Louise de Varane.
De Varane rented a house in a mountain valley, among wonderful greenery, vineyards, and flowers. “In this magical corner,” recalled Rousseau in his Confessions, “I spent the best two or three months of the summer, trying to determine my mental interests. I enjoyed the joys of life, the value of which I knew so well, a society as relaxed as it was pleasant - if our close union can be called society - and the wonderful knowledge that I strove to acquire ... "
Rousseau continued to read a lot, thoroughly studied philosophical and scientific works Descartes, Locke, Leibniz, Malebranche, Newton, Montaigne, studied physics, chemistry, astronomy, Latin, and took music lessons. And it must be said that over the years that elapsed in de Varane’s house, he achieved serious results in philosophy, natural science, pedagogy and other sciences. In one of his letters to his father, he expressed the essence of his scientific studies in this way: “I strive not only to enlighten the mind, but also to educate the heart to virtue and wisdom.”
Jean-Baptiste Farochon
In 1740, the relationship between Rousseau and de Varane deteriorated, and he was forced to leave his long-term refuge. Having moved to Lyon, Rousseau found a place here as a teacher of children in the house of Mr. Mably, the chief judge of the city. But the work of a home teacher did not bring him either moral satisfaction or material benefits. A year later, Rousseau returned to de Varana again, but no longer found the same favor. According to him, he felt superfluous “near the one for whom he was once everything.” Having separated from de Varane, in the fall of 1741 Rousseau moved to Paris. At first, he seriously counted on the success of his invention - a new musical system. But reality dashed his hopes. The notation in numbers he invented, submitted to the Paris Academy of Sciences, did not meet with approval, and he again had to rely on odd jobs. For two years, Rousseau supported himself by copying notes, taking music lessons, and doing minor literary work. His stay in Paris expanded his connections and acquaintances in literary world, opened up opportunities for spiritual communication with advanced people France. Rousseau met Diderot, Marivaux, Fontenelle, Grimm, Holbach, D'Alembert and others.
Jean Leron d'Alembert
He established the warmest friendly relations with Diderot. A brilliant philosopher, like Rousseau, was fond of music, literature, and passionately strived for freedom. But their worldview was different. Diderot was a materialist philosopher, an atheist, primarily engaged in the development of a natural-scientific worldview. Rousseau was in the grip of idealistic views, transferring all his attention to socio-political issues. But at the end of the 1760s, due to ideological and personal differences, a conflict arose between Rousseau and Diderot, which led to their breakup. In his “Letter to D'Alembert on Spectacles,” referring to that conflict, Rousseau wrote: “I had a strict and fair Aristarchus; I no longer have him, and I don’t want another; but I will never stop regretting him, and my heart misses him even more than my writings.”
Denis Diderot
Being in extremely cramped material conditions, Rousseau tried to find a way to a more prosperous life. He was advised to meet the ladies high society and use their influence. From a Jesuit priest acquaintance, Rousseau received several recommendations: to Madame de Besenval and her daughter Marquise de Broglie, to Madame Dupont, the wife of a wealthy tax farmer, and other ladies.
Louise Dupont
Jean-Marc Nattier
In 1743, through Madame de Broglie, he received the post of secretary to the French envoy in Venice. For about a year, Rousseau faithfully fulfilled his duties. In his free time, he became acquainted with Italian music and collected material for a book on public administration. The arrogant and rude treatment of the envoy Comte de Montagu forced Rousseau to leave the diplomatic service and return to Paris. In Paris, Rousseau met a young seamstress, Therese Levasseur, who, according to him, had a simple and kind disposition. Rousseau lived with her for 34 years, until the end of his days. He tried to develop her, teach her to read and write, but all his efforts in this direction remained fruitless.
Teresa Levasseur
E. Charriere
Rousseau had five children. Unfavorable family and living conditions forced the children to be placed in an orphanage. “I shuddered at the necessity of entrusting them to this ill-bred family,” he wrote about the family of Therese Levasseur, “after all, they would have been brought up even worse by her. Staying in an orphanage was much less dangerous for them. This is the basis for my decision..."
Thomas-Charles Naudet
Many biographers and historians of philosophy considered the connection with Teresa to be a great misfortune for Rousseau. However, Rousseau's own evidence contradicts this. In his Confessions, he claimed that Teresa was his only real consolation. In her “I found the replenishment I needed. I lived with my Teresa as well as with the greatest genius peace"
By the way, this long-term relationship did not prevent Rousseau from dating other women, which, of course, upset Teresa. Jean Jacques' love for Sophie D'Houdetot might have seemed especially absurd and offensive to her. Rousseau and his friends could not forgive this passionate love and relocation to the Hermitage, closer to the subject of his deep passion.
Sophie d'Houdetot
From Rousseau's biography one can hardly conclude that he was balanced or ascetic. On the contrary, he was obviously a very emotional, restless, unbalanced person. But at the same time, Rousseau was an unusually gifted person, ready to sacrifice absolutely everything in the name of goodness and truth.
Jean-Antoine Houdon
In the years 1752-1762, Rousseau brought a fresh spirit to the ideological innovation and literary and artistic creativity of his time.
Rousseau wrote his first essay in connection with a competition announced by the Dijon Academy. In this work, which was called “Has the revival of the sciences and arts contributed to the improvement of morals” (1750), Rousseau, for the first time in the history of social thought, speaks quite definitely about the discrepancy between what is today called scientific and technological progress and the state of human morality. Rousseau notes a number of contradictions historical process, and also that culture is opposed to nature. Subsequently, these ideas will be at the center of disputes about the contradictions of the social process.
Another important idea of Rousseau, which he developed in his work “Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality among Men” (1755) and in his main work “On the Social Contract, or Principles of Political Law” (1762), is associated with the concept of alienation. The basis of the alienation of man from man, according to Rousseau, is private property. Rousseau could not imagine justice without the equality of all people.
But, in his opinion, freedom is just as important for justice. Freedom is closely related to property. Property corrupts society, Rousseau argued, it gives rise to inequality, violence and leads to the enslavement of man by man. “The first who attacked the idea, fenced a piece of land, said “this is mine” and found people simple-minded enough to believe it, was the true founder of civil society,” writes Rousseau in “The Social Contract” - From how many crimes, wars and murders , from how many disasters and horrors would the human race be saved by the one who, having pulled out the stakes and filled up the ditch, would have shouted to his neighbors: “Better not listen to this deceiver, you are lost if you are able to forget that the fruits of the earth belong to everyone, and the earth belongs to no one!” "
And the same Rousseau, who is capable of such revolutionary anger, argues that property can guarantee a person independence and freedom, only it can bring peace and self-confidence into his life. Rousseau sees a way out of this contradiction in equalizing property. In a society of equal owners, he sees the ideal of a fair structure of social life. In his “Social Contract,” Rousseau develops the idea that people agreed among themselves to establish a state to ensure public security and protect the freedom of citizens, understanding that the state from an institution that ensures the freedom and security of citizens, over time turns into an organ of suppression and oppression of people.
Most openly this transition “to its otherness” occurs in a monarchical absolutist state. Before the state and, accordingly, the civil state, people lived, according to Rousseau, in a “state of nature.” Using the idea of “natural law,” he substantiated the inalienability of such human rights as the right to life, liberty and property. Talk about the “state of nature” becomes a commonplace throughout the Enlightenment. As for Rousseau, unlike other enlighteners, he, firstly, does not consider the right of property to be a “natural” human right, but sees it as a product historical development, and, secondly, Rousseau does not connect the social ideal with private property and the civil condition of a person.
Maurice Quentin de Latour
Rousseau idealizes the “savage” as a creature who does not yet know private property and other cultural achievements. “The savage,” according to Rousseau, is a good-natured, trusting and friendly creature, and all corruption comes from culture and historical development. Only the state, according to Rousseau, can realize the ideals of the “state of nature,” which he considers to be the ideals of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. But for Rousseau, only a republic can be a state capable of realizing these ideals.
