Emile
1762
What if everything we think we know about education is wrong? Rousseau's radical treatise argues that children are not miniature adults to be molded by society, but beings whose natural development must be respected and nurtured. Written in 1762 and immediately banned and burned in Paris and Geneva for its dangerous ideas, Emile imagines a fictional pupil raised according to nature rather than convention, from infancy through adulthood. Through Emile's education, Rousseau explodes centuries of pedagogical orthodoxy: memorize less, experience more; don't force adult knowledge onto developing minds; let curiosity lead the way. The result is neither a dry philosophical treatise nor a simple how-to guide, but something stranger and more alive: a vision of what human beings might become if freed from the corruptions of civilization. Though some of Rousseau's specific recommendations have aged poorly, his central insight remains electric: that how we raise children reveals what we believe human beings can be. For anyone who has ever wondered what education is actually for, Emile remains essential reading.
Editions
X-Ray
“I would rather be a man of paradoxes than a man of prejudices.””
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“To live is not to breathe but to act. It is to make use of our organs, our senses, our faculties, of all the parts of ourselves which give us the sentiment of our existence. The man who has lived the most is not he who has counted the most years but he who has most felt life.””
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“Once you teach people to say what they do not understand, it is easy enough to get them to say anything you like.””
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“The only moral lesson which is suited for a child--the most important lesson for every time of life--is this: 'Never hurt anybody.””
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“All wickedness comes from weakness. The child is wicked only because he is weak. Make him strong; he will be good. He who could do everything would never do harm.””
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“Nature made me happy and good, and if I am otherwise, it is society's fault.””
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“إن ضعف الإنسان هو الذي يجعله إجتماعياً.وعناصر الشقاء المشتركة بيننا هي التي تدفع قلوبنا الى الإنسانية. فما كنا لنحس أننا مدينون للإنسانية بشيء لو لم نكن بشراً””
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“The real world has its limits; the imaginary world is infinite. Unable to enlarge the one, let us restrict the other, for it is from the difference between the two alone that are born all the pains which make us truly unhappy.””
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“A child who passes through many hands in turn, can never be well brought up. At every change he makes a secret comparison, which continually tends to lessen his respect for those who control him, and with it their authority over him. If once he thinks there are grown-up people with no more sense than children the authority of age is destroyed and his education is ruined.””
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau
