Jean Jacques Rousseau example essay topic

Jean Jacques Rousseau was born on June 28, 1712 in Geneva, Switzerland, into a Protestant family of French refugees. His mother died shortly after his birth, and his father was a watchmaker who fled from Geneva after being involved in a "brawl". This left Jean-Jacques to be cared for by an aunt and uncle. He was sent to school in the country, where he lived with a pastor until he was twelve years old. Eventually, he was an apprenticed engraver. At the age of sixteen, Jean-Jacques left Geneva and spent the next twenty years of his life traveling, studying, and adventuring.

Although Rousseau had been brought up as a Calvinist, the influence of his mistress Vaudois Madame de Warens, made him convert to Roman Catholic. From 1731 until 1740, Rousseau lived with Madame de Warens in Les Charmettes, near Chamber in Savoy. This is where Jean-Jacques began his first serious reading and study. Rousseau then moved to Paris, France and earned his living with secretarial work and musical copying. It is here where Rousseau met Therese Le Vass eur, a hotel servant, with whom he spent the rest of his life.

Although the couple never did get married, they had five children who were allegedly sent to Enfants-Trouver, a foundling hospital. In 1743-1744 Jean-Jacques was a secretary for the French Ambassador Comte de Montaigne, and first got a taste of political life and institutions. While in Paris, Rousseau was introduced to Encyclopedias by the famous philosopher Denis Diderot. Jean- Jacques had his own contributions to the Encyclopedia mainly on musical subjects, and a section on political economy. Rousseau even wrote his own opera called Les Muses Galante's, but it was a failure. He did not write anything but his own libretto for his own music until the age of 37.

One day on the road to Vincennes, Rousseau noticed an announcement in which the Dijon Academy was offering a prize for the best essay on " Has the progress of the arts and sciences contributed to the purification or the corruption of morals?" After seeing this Rousseau wrote", All at once, I felt myself dazzled by a thousand sparkling lights; crowds of vivid ideas thronged into my head with a force and confusion that threw me into unspeakable agitation; I felt my head whirling in a giddiness like that of intoxication". By winning this contest, Rousseau won the prize for his essay entitled: "Discours sur les sciences et les arts", (which translates to Discourse on Arts and Sciences), but more importantly gained fame. In his essay, Rousseau stated", If the sciences really better'd manners, if they taught man to spill his blood for his country, if they heighten'd his courage; the inhabitants of China ought to be wise, free, and invincible. But if they are tainted with every vice, familiar with every crime; if neither the skill of their magistrates, nor the pretended wisdom of their laws, nor the vast multitude of people inhabiting that great extent of empire, could protect or defend then from the yoke of an ignorant Barbarian Tartar, of what use was all their art, all their skill, all their learning?" Around the year 1750 Rousseau began to proclaim the conception of the noble or innocent, savage. This theme was elaborated on in his second essay entitled: " Discours sur l'origine et les fondements de l'inegualite parmi les homes", which he wrote in the year 1755. The most famous adaption of this idea is Edgar Rice Burroughs's hero of the jungle, Tarzan.

Rousseau felt that the cultivation of the earth and the invention of metallurgy led to the birth of work and property. He believed this caused people to be divided into the rich and the poor, and that laws solidified this state permanently. Jean-Jacques wrote", Despotism is the ultimate end of historical development- we are all equal because we are slaves of one ruler". Rousseau had a feeling of " discomfort with culture" which became a target of serious study for the first time. Jean-Jacques felt " the cultured man is degenerate, and the whole history of civilization is a betrayal".

Jean-Jacques decided to take his thesis seriously and decided to "reform" and live a simple life. He then moved back to Geneva in 1754, reverted to Protestantism, and regained citizenship. Rousseau then moved to a cottage in 1756 near the forest of Montmorency. For the next 6 years of his life, Rousseau wrote " The New Heloise", in 1761, "Emile" in 1762, a treatise on education, and " The Social Contract" also in 1762. In the opening lines of " The Social Contract", Rousseau writes", Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains.

One thinks himself the master of others, and still remains a greater slave than they". Its catchphrase " Liberty, Ega lite, Fraternity", inspired the French Revolution. Rousseau believed that only by surrendering to the general will, can a person find his fullest freedom. Jean-Jacques felt that the general will, essentially directed toward common good, is always right. In this theory political society is seen as involving the total voluntary power of every citizen to collective general will; this being both the "sole source of legitimate sovereignty" and something that can only be directed towards common good.

Jean-Jacques' " Julie; Ou, La Nouvelle Heloise", which he wrote in 1761, was and eighteenth century best-seller. This writing is about finding a perfect love with a kindred soul. The story depicts the love of the tutor Saint Pre ux and his student Julie, their separation, and Julie's marriage to the Baron Wol Mar. The theme of sexual passion is transformed in the end of the book into reckoning of a social utopia on the Baron's country estate. "Emile" influenced liberal modern education experiments. It stated that experience should not come from books, but from life experiences.

Jean- Jacques theory of education is made on the following assumptions: "man is born by good nature and society and civilization corrupt native goodness". Rousseau believed the only way to bring out the "natural man", was to properly educate youth. He believed children should not be allowed to read books until the age of twelve, and that they should only be taught "natural religion". Rousseau also believed that girls should only be trained to be wives and mothers. After "Emile" was published, both the French and Swiss governments banned it.

The French ordered the book to be burned, and in 1762 Rousseau was condemned for religious unorthodoxy. For this reason, in 1762 Jean-Jacques fled to Neuchatel, Switzerland until 1765, then to Bienne, Switzerland in 1765. Rousseau was then ordered out of Bienne, so he went to England. Rousseau was now a hated and persecuted man, and for this reason began to have many arguments with his new English friends, one of them the philosopher David Hume. This made Jean-Jacques return to France where he lived in disguise for a few years. In 1768 he married Therese, and in 1770 he was officially permitted to return to Paris, but on the condition that he did not write against the government.

Rousseau stated", I have entered on an enterprise which is without precedent, and will have no imitator. I purpose to hose my fellows a man as nature made him, and this man shall be myself". Rousseau's other works include "The Confessions", which was his first "romantic" autobiography, which he wrote in 1765 and 1770. The book's opening lines are", I am not made like any of those I have seen; I venture to believe that I am not made like any of those who are in existence.

If I am not better, at lease I am different". Rousseau moved to Ermenonville in 1778, where he died of apoplexy on July second of the same year. Rousseau's remains were placed with Voltaire's in the Pantheon in Paris in 1794. Rousseau was one of the first modern writers to attack the institution of private property, and therefore is considered an ancestor of modern socialism and Communism. Rousseau also questioned the assumption that the will of the majority is always correct. He argued that the goal of government should be to secure freedom, equality, and justice for all within the state, regardless of the will of the majority.

Rousseau's political philosophy is that politics and morality should not be separated. "When a state fails to act in a moral fashion, it ceases to function in the proper manner and ceases to exert genuine authority over the individual". The second important principle is freedom, which the state is created to protect. Rousseau's ideas about education have influenced modern educational theory in a big way. He believes the importance of book learning should be minimized, and recommends that a child's emotions should be educated before his reason. He placed a special emphasis on learning by experience.

In conclusion Jean-Jacques Rousseau has influence the way a state is governed, and possible ways to bring out the true goodness in every human being. If everyone followed Rousseau's theories to a certain extent, there would be happiness in the entire world, putting an end to war, and making the human race live the peaceful, happy life it was meant to live.