The heightened focus on reason, individualism, and the pursuit of self-interest prioritized in works by Hobbes and Locke, for example, seemed to drain from humanity a natural inclination toward compassion, feelings, and interdependence. He appears to have looked upon these changes as impersonal, detached, and alienating. Perhaps because of his turbulent childhood, Rousseau criticized the Enlightenment’s sole focus on reason and science.

Rousseau’s thinking represents a pessimistic reaction toward the Enlightenment. He returned years later, and he died ten years before the French Revolution, to which his writings helped inspire. Rousseau was threatened with arrest, and he fled the country. Notwithstanding his differentiated models of learning, Emile was viewed as an attack on the Catholic Church in France. Furthermore, it should be noted at the outset that Rousseau developed different forms of education for males and females, attempting to accommodate what he believed to be natural, innate differences between the sexes. The latter work served as an exposition of Rousseau’s educational philosophy understood through the education of a young male by the name of Emile, which will be discussed in more detail below. A few of his most important works include Discourse on the Origins of Inequality, the Discourse on Political Economy, The Social Contract, and Emile. Rousseau viewed individuals as interdependent and the Enlightenment’s focus on individuality undermined the natural equality of human beings. Said differently, Rousseau appears to reject the atomistic individualism and the self-interest that it underscored by both Hobbes and Locke. To Rousseau, the Enlightenment simply created new forms of tyranny and diminished Man’s natural instinct toward compassion. Unlike Hobbes and Locke, Rousseau was a romantic who reacted negatively to the Enlightenment for its exclusive focus on reason and science. After experiencing a troubling childhood, he left Geneva at age sixteen and travelled to various European states including France, Prussia, and Switzerland. Rousseau was born in a poor section of Geneva, Switzerland.

This chapter introduces students to the political and educational philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778). 5 Chapter 5: Enlightenment Philosophy: Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Perilous Enlightenment by G.S. Rousseau